Patriot Act Pros And Cons

September 11, 2001 was an extremely sad and memorable day in the United States history. A terrorist group attacked major United States cities in a joint effort to destroy our way of life. On that day, 3,000 innocent Americans lost their lives as a result of terrorism. This attack was the first catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil in many years. The Unites States decided to act and went after terrorist organizations abroad and implemented laws in America to defend our freedoms. Following these acts of terrorism, The United States government implemented an act designed to enable law enforcement and government agencies to investigate, interrogate and prosecute anyone fitting their profile for the terrorist attacks. President Bush authorized the Patriot Act in October of 2001 with the hope that it would prevent further terrorist attacks. The Patriot Act began with good intentions but does it really protect us from outside attacks or does it take away our freedom? My goal in this paper is to investigate how the Patriot Act defends Americans and what limits it brings to American freedom. The Patriot Act allows for the rights of any terrorist to be taken away without probable cause. The act allows …show more content…
One of the questions asked, “Should the government take all steps necessary to prevent additional acts of terrorism in the U.S. even if it means your basic civil liberties would be violated?” 29% of the people polled wanted the government to take steps even if it meant their civil rights would be violated. 67% wanted protection without their civil liberties being taken away. The same question was asked in 2015 to a panel and 30 % of the people were willing to give up their civil liberties to protect against terrorism. This was surprising given the amount of time that has passed since 2001 and the fact that people usually forget about political issues soon