The boston tea party Would be considered an act of terrorism by today’s standards under the patriot act. The boston tea party was an event in which colonists, angered by the high tax on tea, hijacked a british ship and dumped nearly 600,000 pounds of tea overboard into the boston harbor (Wikipedia.com). The patriot act states that the definition of terrorism can be classified by 3 things :threatening, conspiring, or attempting to commit any crime using a dangerous device or weapon for something greater than “mere personal gain”, hijack any vehicle,or hurting or killing any protected persons. On these conditions, the boston tea party could be considered an act of terrorism due to the patriot laws. These offenses were hijacking a vehicle, hurt …show more content…
George Hewes, a colonists who participated in the boston tea party,stated that “We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks (Hewes,George)”. Since the patriot act states That terrorism can be classified as terrorism if the crime is being committed with a dangerous weapon with the goal of anything greater than “mere personal gain”. since the colonists used tomahawks to break open the tea boxes and the boston tea party was not for anyone's personal gain, the boston tea party would be classified as an act of terrorism under the patriot …show more content…
George Hewes was noted as saying “One Captain O'Connor, whom I well knew, came on board for that purpose, and when he supposed he was not noticed, filled his pockets, and also the lining of his coat. … I seized him by the skirt of his coat, and in attempting to pull him back, I tore it off... to run a gauntlet through the crowd upon the wharf nine each one, as he passed, giving him a kick or a stroke. The patriot act states that hurting or killing any protected persons is considered terrorism. When they tried to seize Captain O’Connor, who is a protected person due to him being a captain of a british trading ship , this would be considered harming a protected because in the process of trying to seize Captain O’connor he ripped the jacket off of him which may have injured him.
The boston tea party can be considered an act of terrorism because it broke all of the definitions of terrorism under the patriot law. The patriot law says that any crime committed by: using a dangerous weapon, hijacking a vehicle, or assaulting a protected person. Since the boston tea party met all definitions of terrorism by the patriot act there is no doubt in my mind that the boston tea party was an act of