Patriot Act
Dec 29th 2004MichaelPro America
Driving home from work tonight I was listening to Gunny Bob on 850 KOA. The topic was the Patriot Act and if it should be allowed to expire. First I was to say that I would hate bob’s job where he has to suffer ignorance. And there are a lot of people out there that are ignorant. That does not mean that they are stupid but they do not know what they are talking about. One such former service men agreed with giving up all of his rights for security.
This is just plain stupid. The Patriot Act does not remove any rights form people. What is does do is grant rights to law enforcement when there is reasonable cause. While this law is far from perfect it has enabled enforcement personnel to link people together better when they are under suspicion.
For the most part the law is very good in breaking down some of the restraints in law enforcement gathering the facts that make the case and remove dangerous people from society. The law is a little weak in its checks and balances in a effort for speed that the law enforcement needs. This check and balance should be reviewed and improved in order to protect some of the privacy that Americas retain.
Information
US Constitution
Forth Amendment
Patriot Act
Total Information Awareness
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The real issues I have heard that the Patriot Act changed is in the 1978 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) the Patriot Act created an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s “probable cause requirement”. If you have been deemed associated with terror then the government can get a court to determine that you have lost your 4th amendment rights. This is pretty scary and needs to be improved. Maybe just improve the checks and balances.
The other main issues is the “gag order” on all warrants issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This I do not have a problem with as long as there is a check and balance process so that we do not get any rouge agents that to the Sneak and Peek and then gag information and use it for personal purposes.
So I think that the Patriot Act is a good thing with some issues and areas of concern. These can be addresses to come to some point of balance between safety and privacy.
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