The Patriot Act has Been Alive for 10 Years, When are we Gunna Kill This Thing?
October 26th, 2011It’s hard to believe that kind of time has passed since George W. signed into law something that would forever change this country from the land of the free, to the land of the “secure”. The ability of the left and right and center and off the chart’ers to continuously come together in an effort to stop this unconstitutional law on behalf of human rights, has kept this issue very popular in the news…but it still haunts us. If some of you are still on the fence of whether this law has been necessary in the age of “terrorism”, here’s a statistic they may affirm the disgust I, and most of us here at Silver Circle, have:
I won’t berate you today on why the Drug War is inherently wrong and unconstitutional, however the Patriot Act was drafted in a time where US citizens felt vulnerable to Al Qaeda pressures after the devastating attack on the Trade Towers. I’m less comforted by knowing the time and resources of law enforcement officials has toiled in drug offenses, not terrorist threats.
Here is a brief overview of what the Patriot Act permits, that wasn’t permitted before: Law enforcement can legally with little to no notice enter into a person’s home, apartment, property to investigate while also being able to confiscate media devices or other materials (including PEOPLE!) without the property owner’s permission or even knowledge, at times. All in all, it is the antithesis of the 4th amendment stating that every person in this country is protected against any illegal search and seizure, requiring warrants and probable cause for investigation or confiscation.
So instead of providing protection to US citizens under the 4th amendment, the past two administrations have skipped past the document that they swore to uphold, and continued to wrongfully spy on US citizens. Let’s not forget the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Safety Administration has been expanded and as you’ve seen through recent news, grown in intrusiveness. When will this Orwellian behavior curb itself? Not until the people demand their rights to privacy back, which can be an uphill battle because terrorist “threats” are presented to us everyday with threatening rhetoric from the main stream media. However on this 10th anniversary I’m happy to report that as I write this post, activists in downtown Boston (including occupiers, ACLU members, liberty activists) are coming together to march against the Patriot Act and call for its end. MA director of the ACLU, Nancy Murray will be teaching a course on the law, calling for more activists to join her in vocal dissent. Murray states that the Patriot Act may have never passed so quickly had it “a name that reflects what it really does: something like “The Expand Surveillance, Search, Seizure and Indefinite Detention Act.”
Let us use this anniversary as a form of motivation to continue speaking out about our civil liberties and our demand for them to stay intact. Good luck protestors, we’re behind you!
