Patriot Act Pros And Cons

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On the day of September 11th, 2001, in the heart of New York City, America panicked as a plane crashed into the Twin Towers. In that moment, every American paused, stricken with fear, as the Twin Towers came crashing down. It was as if someone took a remote and just paused time in America; thousands of people stood frozen. Then came the chaos as the people and the government broke into a panic. President George W. Bush knew things needed to change after 9/11 as the attack on New York showed (how about this, the ineffectiveness of the measures taken to provide safety and security to the citizens of America) how insecure our American Homeland Security was. People identifying with the terrorist group of Al-Qaeda snuck through US airport security …show more content…

First and foremost, the intended consequences of the Patriot Act were to help “...make it easier for U.S. law enforcement and national security agencies,...to conduct surveillance and access data for the purpose of preventing, detecting, and investigating crimes and terrorist acts”(Gilbert). Before the act, legal barriers prevented the American National Security Agency (ANSA) from investigating in depth on certain issues. Under this new law, communication between United States Government Agencies improved since it allowed those agencies to communicate more in-depth with each other on certain issues vital to national security. Therefore, the Patriot Act completely changed the American political system by making the American Security System more advanced and better equipped for any future terrorist attacks. As stated, “Politicians and pundits were quick to label the Act as … good for America and necessary for national security” (Sievert). Since the American government now had the appropriate tool at their disposal, the United States Agency became better equipped at handling domestic and international issues. However, the Patriot Act also caused significant political problems regarding the citizens and their political rights. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution …show more content…

With this new law, the Patriot Act allowed the Central Intelligence Agency more freedom when conducting investigations by passing laws to help speed up the process of their investigations. In doing so, this affected the American people's constitutional rights. The aspect of the American citizen and their view of government officials watching them never changes, due to the fact it only revealed more of people’s attitude toward the government. To have the ability to always have an eye on every single person in America life is seen as bad in the eyes of many Americans because they view the right to privacy as very important, which demonstrated the aspect of society that was not altered by this new law. When the Patriot Act of 2001 became a law, it did alter some of the American political system and affect its people. For what this piece of legislation has done to American society, it makes sense to consider the Patriot Act as one of the most defining pieces of legislation that the United States has passed. This law caused tension due to the conflict of, “future terrorist attacks … (or) to preserve the fundamental civil liberties and personal freedoms embodied in the Bill of Rights”(Gerdes). Which just comes to show how many problems a law can cause

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