Patriot Act

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of the grievances. This, the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, is clearly violated by the patriot act. By the government having the right to tap into people's phone calls and computer records, freedom of speech is not being protected. This is a direct violation of the constitution, a set of laws that was supposed to be, under no circumstances broken. Also, freedom to privately assemble is being taken away, because it is okay for government officials to sit in on things like religious ceremonies, and any other assembly that they think needs to be watched. Also, if people who are not American citizens can be taken and imprisoned, because of mere suspicion, wouldn't it be entirely too possible that most of these people would be Muslim? (stats) This patriot act was put into place after the terrorist attack on September eleventh. After this attack, there have been many crimes against Muslims because this was the religion of the terrorists on September eleventh. If Muslim's are being imprisoned because they look suspicious to police officers, who just happened to be racist against Muslims, that could clearly be violating freedom of religion.

When I first started thinking about the patriot act, my initial opinion about it was that it was an okay idea that was just keeping a close eye on people to prevent future terrorist attacks. However, over the weekend, I spoke with a family member about the act, and they changed my opinion. This family member gave me a scenario. They said to think about if I was in a car, driving to Florida with my entire family, five Catholic Irish people in a small car. All of a sudden, we are stopped by a police officer of a different race, and religion. Upon getting out of the car, my family and I are asked our names and religion. The police are allowed to go through our bags, on mere suspicion with no warrant. Then, they call for backup, and drive us to a police station, where we are kept in the prison. The policeman explains that five Catholics in a car with a lot of luggage looked extremely suspicious.