ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of The Patriot Act

741 Words3 Pages

Today, terrorism has become the most newsworthy headline.Terrorism has been happening all over the world and people are not sure how to stop it. People want terrorism to stop however, they do not want their rights violated. Through social media, many have mentioned that “the government is always watching us.” The USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) signed in 2001, allows the government to have access to anything, anytime, anywhere. The government uses this act to keep track of terrorists. Just because they have access to something, like someone’s cell phone, does not mean they use that to their advantage. Unless someone is putting people in danger the government is not going to pay any attention to them. The government has had access to personal data for over 40 years. The Patriot Act is a combination of laws that were present in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Law enforcement has been able to use electronic surveillance long before the Patriot Act was signed. However, the Patriot Act allows law enforcement to use more surveillance against crimes of terror. Whether it is the use of cameras, cellular devices or wiretaps, surveillance simply means to watch over someone or …show more content…

Not only is The Patriot Act about giving the government an easier way to access information it is also giving criminals proper punishments. It has enhanced the maximum penalties for those who commit terrorist crimes such as arson ,destruction of national defence materials, attacks on mass transit systems. Conspiring to do something illegal now carries a maximum of 5 years imprisonment.. After signing The Patriot Act we have also been able to punish bioterrorists who are terrorists that release biological agents. Now that we have this act terrorists will have harsher penalties than

Show More
Related
165 Words | 1 Pages

The United States of America’s Patriot Act is a law or bill in place that is meant for our government to spy on terrorists. This Act is a very nice tool that the FBI, CIA, Army, and many other branches can use to track people. It came into effect after the September 11, 2001 attack on the twin towers. The USA Patriot Act includes information sharing, roving wiretaps, access to records, foreign intelligence, wiretaps and searches, “Sneak and Peek” warrants, and material support. Although there is plenty of people that do not support the Act it is very beneficial and goes through a couple of reforms every once and awhile.

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction Signed into law on 26 October 2001, the US Patriot Act was meant to strengthen security controls and provide Americans with an opportunity to act in the defense of their freedom. Caused by the September 11 terrorist attacks, this rule was intended to help Americans protect themselves from future similar strikes. However, since its enactment 16 years ago, this legislation has provided a veil with which impunity and civil rights violators can hide behind as they perpetrate crime in the name of national security. The act augmented safety and intelligence agencies' powers to acquire confidential information.

Read More
260 Words | 2 Pages

The Patriot Act will be one of the most controversial pieces of legislation ever to be passed by the United States’ government. People in our society nowadays give the ultimatum “pro security, or anti-freedom?” That is not the Patriot Acct in a nutshell; it is far from that statement. There are more cons than there are pros, but the pros that have come out of the passage of the Patriot Act may have saved millions of American and international lives from the destruction of terrorist. That being said the lives that were saved did come at a price of the American citizens’ privacy and broke numerous amendments from the Bill of Rights.

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

One group that argues this is the American Civil Liberties Union, which strongly disagrees with the Patriot Act. They have stated that investigations into the Patriot Act, “reveal thousands of violations of law,” (ACLU), while this is simply not true. One controversial piece of the Patriot Act are roving wiretaps. These allow government investigators to follow and put surveillance on certain people, rather than certain devices, so that they may save time and effort. According to Nathan Sales, a law professor at George Mason University, “Federal courts agree that Title III’s roving wiretaps authority is constitutional and… provides strong support for constitutionality,” (Sales).

Read More
636 Words | 3 Pages

The USA Patriot Act signed into law by both congress and George W. Bush on October 26, 2001, exactly a month and fifteen days after the terrorist attack. Solemnly, the Patriot Act was altered to strengthen U.S.measure to deter and punish terrorist acts against the United States. The Patriot Act was intended to "enhance the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them," the words of George W. Bush. I believe the intents of

Read More
146 Words | 1 Pages

In conclusion, the USA Patriot Act has long enabled law enforcement to remain above the rules and regulations of the United States legislature. It has resulted in distrust of the American people towards their enforcing bureaucracy. The citizens of the United States have lost their civil rights and have been treated as criminals in penalty of an unknown crime. For too long, police have been able to abuse their power. The Patriot Act has destroyed the public opinion of law enforcement due to technological advances and information collection.

Read More
403 Words | 2 Pages

The Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act or better known as the Patriot Act was sign by President Bush on October 26, 2001 because of the terroristic attack on September 11. Congress felt that the Patriot Act was a way to strengthen security. The Patriot Act was created and passed so quickly, no one really wondered what are the pros and cons of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act was meant to increase security for the United States.

Read More
1131 Words | 5 Pages

The USA Patriot Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. The USA Patriot Act was passed by Congress as a reaction to the fear based oppressor assaults of September 11, 2001. The Act permits government authorities more prominent expert in following and blocking interchanges, both for motivations behind law authorization and remote insight gathering. It gives the Secretary of the Treasury administrative forces to battle debasement of US budgetary foundations for outside tax evasion purposes; it all the more effectively attempts to close our outskirts to remote fear mongers and to confine and evacuate those inside our fringes; it builds up new violations,

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

  The Patriot Act gave a new sense of protection to the American people because they felt that the government had terrorists under surveillance and they were stopping terrorism for good.   On the other hand, the War On Terrorism had been declared by President Bush.  

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

Just 45 days after 9/11 the Patriot Act was hastily passed. The act is in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment that protects against unlawful search and seizure; it allows our government to spy on American citizen’s technology use without a warrant. The act was intended to protect against terrorism, but between 2003 and 2005 there were 143,074 National Security Letters that allowed the FBI to search through personal information without a warrant resulting in 53 criminal referrals, of which zero were terrorist threats (ACLU). I do believe in monitoring for terrorist threats , but we can’t let fear control our decisions. Our right to privacy is fundamental, and without reasonable cause no one should be monitored by the

Read More
651 Words | 3 Pages

On September 11th, 2001, tragedy struck America. A terrorist attack was carried out resulting in 2,753 Americans killed. America became locked in a war, and it needed more security on its own soil. So, congress passed a law known as the Patriot Act. This allowed the N.S.A (national security agency) to gain information of individual citizens or groups of individuals by using library records, phone calls and other surveillance.

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

Many Americans have no problem questioning their government and it laws everyday but what would you think if you knew that the government can see everything you do? In the short story by Mike Kubic, he states that many Americans are questioning the Patriot Act and what it is used for. Most people want their privacy and the Act can be invasive at times but only if the government suspects suspicious behavior. In the short article, “The PATRIOT Act: Protection over Privacy”, by Mike Kubic correctly argues why the PATRIOT Act should not be repealed by explaining everything the FBI has to go through to get the information, what information the government actually can access, and how many citizens feel about the Act.

Read More
1271 Words | 6 Pages

The USA PATRIOT Act violated many American civil rights and carried out many unnecessary searches of innocent Americans. It sacrifices civil liberties for government power. The USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) was passed shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. On September 11, 2001, a group of nineteen terrorists hijacked four passenger flights, under their control, they targeted a variety of US monuments.

Read More
821 Words | 4 Pages

The police used the act to access internet evidence to locate the criminal. Ridge said in the article “The Patriot Act Enhances National Security”, that “By protecting our freedom, civil liberties are enhanced, not diminished”(Ridge). Using the tools to find the criminals is helping to keep the citizens’ liberties safe. Although to do this, the government needed more communication between each branch to complete each

Read More
644 Words | 3 Pages

September 11, 2001, was a day in which the United States of America would change forever, and our recovery from the attacks would determine our nation's future. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on that cataclysmic day, the President of the United States quickly searched for an outlet to limit these particular issues. In return, the outlet that President Bush would later resort to, became known in American history as the Patriot Act. To inform readers, "The Patriot Act is a 10-letter acronym that stands for the Uniting and Strengthening of America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001" (Source 1). Any law enforcement officials can and will bypass a U.S. citizen's fourth amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizures.

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of The Patriot Act

Related Topics

Open Document