The PATRIOT Act: When Good Government Goes Bad
Originally written and posted 2004Martin Luther King, Jr. describes an unjust law as "a code that a numerical power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself." While this definition is absolutely true, and was very relevant in King's time, the relevancy has decreased significantly due to desegregation and civil rights changes. These days, however, we have a different kind of law that takes away from our freedoms and liberties. This law is a type that no one can avoid and very few people can change. This law was pushed into the books by both public fear, and governmental propaganda. It's a law that unbalances the government powers established by our founders, the checks and balances, and allows the government to take civil rights away from the people. This is the most hated type of law, which I lovingly call a "dictatorship act"; or as the Bush Administration calls it, the PATRIOT act.
The USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) act of 2001 was pushed through Congress by the Bush administration shortly after September 11. The terrorist attacks that occurred on this day, as Jon Alexander put it, made "everyone a New Yorker for that day". With this mentality in mind, Congress eagerly signed legislation they espoused would allow the US to monitor suspected terrorists and stop them before another attack. However, it does not define what a "suspected terrorist" is, or how the government may go about suspecting someone of terrorism. This allows the government a huge loophole: they can use these laws on any American.
The US Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as: "...the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85) However, this definition is rarely adhered to in practice. Title 2, section 201, entitled "Authority to Intercept Wire, Oral, and Electronic Communications Relating to Terrorism" amends Section 2516(1) of title 18, US Code. It allows any criminal violation relating to chemical weapons or terrorism (as defined by the PATRIOT act) to authorize eavesdropping on the perpetrator. Section 215 also gives the United States government the right to gain "access to records and other items under the foreign intelligence surveillance act." This includes everything from dental records to fingerprints and criminal history. Perhaps the most menacing part of the PATRIOT act, however, is Title V. This section is entitled "Removing Obstacles to Investigating Terrorism" and features sections which allows DNA identification of terrorists and other violent offenders, forces local law enforcement to relinquish control and all data over to federal law enforcement, allows disclosure of educational records, and allows disclosure of information from NCES surveys.
The PATRIOT act is an unjust law. Martin Luther King believed that an unjust law should be changed through non-violent protests and sit-ins. While they were good tactics for his time, with a law like the PATRIOT act in force, these protests could be labeled as terrorism themselves. The Activists Handbook describes the way to beat unjust laws. It says, "The three strategies are: expose, oppose, and superimpose. We must continue to do what we have been doing, and that is to expose the agenda, the methods, and the effects of the Radical Religious Right." While the current administration may not be specifically the "Radical Religious Right" it is extremely conservative and it seems the best way to have the PATRIOT act taken off the record is to get the word out about it to the people. Once the majority of America truly understands what the PATRIOT act represents, they will stand up and fight as a group to have the unjust laws repealed.
I believe strongly the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 should be immediately and completely repealed. It allows arrests and detention without due process for anyone or any group designated by the President. It allows the concealment of Presidential records. It allows the surveillance of private citizens. It destroys all e-mail and Internet privacy. As a founding father, Ben Franklin, once said, "Those who would give up essential liberties for a measure of security deserve neither liberty nor security."