Should we sacrifice some of our civil liberties in exchange for national security?
By Ryan Burns
We should not sacrifice our civil liberties. That in itself is the entire reason the United States of America is such a popular destination for immigrants, both illegal and legal. Our civil liberties are part of what makes us who we are. Sure some may be sacrificed for the greater good but there is a very thick line, between a country under martional law and a democratic republic.
In Vegas in the winter of 2003 the department of homeland security suspected that terrorists would bomb Las Vegas. They installed many facial regignition cameras and took the records of all of the casinos. The DHS explained their actions saying it was necessary for national security. What if they had deemed tracking every single tourist in Vegas necessary for national security? This and other instances are the entire reason civil liberties should not be sacrificed.
In the book Little Brother the bay bridge in San Francisco is blown up. The Department of Homeland security deems it necessary to track every single person living the city on the suspicion they might be a terrorist. As a result the DHS becomes corrupt and they began to take young people off the streets and “interrogate” them. One teen decides to fight back and as a result he is arrested and waterboerded to find out about his terrorist plots. He has none. This is an example of how we as the people have to ever be wary about how are civil liberties are being used.
In the wake of the bombing of the world trade center congress almost immediately passed the patriot act that gave the government significantly more liberty to trample on our rights. The government consolidated most of their security on the home front in to the Department of Home Land security. The government now had the right to tap phone calls. The difference between this and the tapping that the government already could do was that this time they did not...