I give you the fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, This is probably the most used civil liberty and in modern society the most abused. This is what President Obama is trying to curtail in the name of security. The meaning of this civil liberty has been and is being challenged daily and probably will always be in question as the idea of language changes in time but as you can read for yourself, it is a simply written and precise in its direction. The government without cause cannot violate a person’s privacy.
Now we all know there have been some legal exceptions placed on this liberty, such exigent circumstances (a person believed to be in danger or frisking for personal safety), Consent, Plain View and open fields of vision. In other words if a criminal has broken the law in front of the Policemen they may react. None of these incidences are unreasonable and are, to be honest, expected by both the public and the criminal. Yet we have in our collective wisdom allowed things like the Patriot Act to obscure this simple right and create situations that are untenable for the American public and for law enforcement agencies.
The Patriot Act allows for warrantless searches in case of suspected terrorist activity, well who decides what terrorist activity is and in reading the above amendment I do not see an exception that allows the government to curtail civil liberties when the government believes someone has committed a crime. One might argue this is the same as exigent circumstance but it is not, exigent circumstance implies an immediate need and the Patriot Act implies someone has committed and therefore will continue to commit acts the government believes are to propagate terror all of which is without proof and based on future actions. One might imply it is just reasonable but we hold our civil liberties for all citizens as sacrosanct and that includes the suspected criminal, we must through proper channels prove people have committed a crime and that includes suspected terrorist.
The Amendment reads The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, not all people except for those we suspect of criminal activity, the rights of the people must be protected and this means all people, no matter the skin color, no matter the suspected crime, it is on the Police and the government to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt someone is guilty of a crime, being a suspect in a crime is not a crime itself and we allow imprisonment without trial and a complete loss of privacy when the government calls the crime terror.
The ultimate point here is this, we are either a free people or we are not, Obama would have you believe that sacrificing your freedom is OK in the name of Security just like George W. Bush did in a knee jerk reaction to a horrible attack on this nation but the reality is this, in the cold light of day when we sacrifice even a little freedom to be secure we undermine the idea of freedom altogether and we become slaves to a system out of fear and that is exactly what a terrorist wants. So in creating the Patriot Act or any act that circumvents the Constitution we are no longer free and we have given those that try and terrorize this nation exactly what they want. For this reason the Patriot Act must be dissolved and the Police must go back to solving actual crimes through legal means, that include ideas such as proof and legal searches or we can say goodbye to our freedom.