Usa Patriot Act

USA PATRIOT Act

The USA PATRIOT Act was designed to give our government and law enforcement officials the tools needed to combat terrorism. The act also gives law enforcement more clearance to combat domestic crimes, such as drug trafficking, smuggling, identity theft, and etc. (Department of Justice) There are several advantages to this act along with the many disadvantages. The USA PATRIOT Act has been very controversial to Americans, simply for the fact that many believe this act invades many individual rights that we hold as American citizens.

Section 102, Sense of condemning discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans, is included in the USA PATRIOT Act and recognizes the many hardships Arab and Muslim Americans have endured, especially after the September 11th attacks. (The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001) This section of the PATRIOT act aims to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of all ethnic groups in America. I believe this section of the PATRIOT act derived from the disappearance of Mohamad Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New Yorker of Pakistani decent, who entered the World Trade Center to offer assistance. Section 102 of this act recognizes the role of the many ethnicities in America and will not discriminate against one's ethnicity, racial, and religious backgrounds. (Podesta, J)

Authority to share criminal investigative information, which is Section 203 of the USA PATRIOT Act, allows domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence to work together. (The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001) This section of the act enables foreign intelligence information that was gathered by domestic law enforcement to be shared with foreign intelligence investigators. There is a clear advantage to this section of the act because domestic law enforcers have the opportunity to observe the behaviors of people in the community where they are stationed. There are many more domestic law enforcement branches in the United States than there are foreign intelligence branches, therefore; the more watchful eyes over the communities are the domestic law enforcement. It is up to the domestic law enforcement to report any type of foreign intelligence information to foreign intelligence investigators. Before September 11th domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence worked on opposite ends of the spectrum and had virtually no communication with one another; subsequently several terrorists involved in the September 11th bombings were living undetected in the United States for some time. (Department of Justice)

Another advantage of the USA PATRIOT Act is that the act allows victims of hacking to request law enforcement assistance in monitoring trespassers on their computers. These computer trespassers can now be combated just as burglars and other trespassers would be combated. In order for law enforcement to monitor trespassers, the computer owner must grant permission. This is an advantage because we as citizens now have the ability to have law enforcement monitor individuals hacking into our computer and can help prevent citizens from becoming victims of identity theft and hacking. (Podesta, J)

Although there is quite an advantage to Section 203 of the USA PATRIOT Act (The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001), there is also a clear disadvantage. It seems intrusive to one's individual right, the First Amendment and seems to contradict Section 102, Sense of condemning discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans, in the USA PATRIOT Act. Section 102 of the act violates one's free exercise of religion and establishment of religion and may be more closely looked at as a terrorist organization, when in actuality they are just everyday civilians practicing their religion. (Podesta, J)

Section 215 0f the USA PATRIOT Act gives the government the right to access personal information such as medical, library, cable, phone, and etc. without one's knowledge, the showing of probable cause of a crime, or relevance to an ongoing terrorism investigation.