The Importance Of Personal Privacy And Civil Liberties

September eleventh changed the way the world views terrorism, the wars in in Iraq and Afghanistan claimed the lives of thousands and we the United States have taken massive counterterrorism measures home with us. The United States Patriot Act of 2001 made significant changes in the structure of federal law enforcement, it was revised in 2006 and in 2004 when the 9/11 commission called for a complete overhaul of the U.S. intelligence system the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan or NCISP set standards for a new system of domestic intelligence gathering and analysis. These changes were made in regards to personal privacy and civil liberties. Civil liberties are the rights given to all Americans under the United States Constitution. The bill of right are the first ten amendments in the constitution and further limit the power of government from revoking rights Americans have come to love dearly. Do to the rights people have as well as basic human rights, which are rights most people believe all people should have, the government must gather intelligence in various ways. The idea of Defense in Depth is that all levels of society must be involved in homeland security. This means filtering and supervising social media, as well as all public forums online. The Patriot Act conflicts with the bill of rights still and the fourteenth amendment as well but supporters of the act believe it gives an upper hand in anti-terrorism while critics still believe it threatens civil liberties. The Patriot Act affects the doctrine of the separation of powers by increasing the power of the executive branch of government. It impacts the Constitution and the doctrine by allowing governmental law enforcement greater power to monitor communications, detain suspects, and allowing search and seizing of evidence. It affects the fourteenth amendment by offering the government more legal methods for denying or removing citizen’s civil rights. Lewis Katz states “it was not unreasonable to interview Middle Eastern immigrants, nor was it unreasonable to increase electronic surveillance powers.” (White 400) Although Kaltz being a longtime opponent of a national identification system, Katz now states “that such a system would not be unconstitutional, provided citizens were not ordered to produce identification without reasonable suspicion.” Katz continues to state “actions taken to prevent a repeat of another September Eleventh do not violate the Fourth Amendment when they are reasonable.” After 9/11 the Bush Administration acted swiftly on the matter. “Wanting to do everything possible to catch terrorist, the Department of Justice (DOJ) scrapped the restrictions it had placed on agents in earlier times. Issuing new guidelines, it freed the FBI from the requirement to rely on reasonable suspicion before launching an inquiry. Unless the courts ruled otherwise or legislative bodies intervened, agents were free to search for indicators of illegal activity in open-source information, including the internet.”(White 400) This allowed FBI agents to monitor chat rooms and engage in data mining. “Agents could go undercover in political or religious organizations to search for …show more content…
Despite the recent executive power, the courts still have the right to review national security laws. Criminal justice agencies not only acknowledge but protect individual civil rights. The key to successful performance is to continue preventing terrorism by completing law enforcement functions and building powerful community partnerships. Law enforcement maintains a civilian entity, the police are more effective in a democracy when they are embedded in a community equipped to solve problems and enforce the laws as well. When police work becomes militarized work, it is not only dangerous but harmful because it separates officers from the communities they …show more content…
The SPI targets specific problems, the NSI is attempting to implement the SAR program, CAT gathers information specific to certain types of businesses and, the TVCI identifies violent crime data that may impact terrorism prevention. Sounds like a lot but it’s not, the future of terrorism will rely on technology. Radicalization is increasing along with the gap between the rich nations and the poor nations. The internet will continue to be one of the most important vehicles in recruiting terrorists and operation planning. The right-wing domestic extremism is on the rise and unfortunately homegrown jihadists have created virtual bases in the United States of