RE: <<<Justice dept abuses Patriot Act powers>>>
The real problem with this slant on the Patriot Act is it makes it look like a good deal to the average person. I doubt many people are going to shed many tears over seeing drug dealers, money launders, etc. getting caught as a result of the Patriot Act. It's a safe bet the Patriot Act was intentionally "abused" in this manner, and well publicized as to the results, for no other reason than to gain public support for the Act.
There tends to be clues hidden in how these sort of things are named. The sole purpose of the "Patriot Act" is to give those who have usurped power the ability to arrest patriots. Everything else is window dressing.
You start with a self inflicted "terrorist" incident to convince the people they need to be "protected". The people agree to it because they're frightened. When they've calmed down, you tell them it's a good law because they've used it to catch a bunch of bad guys. The ACLU doesn't do much these days beyond defending rich criminals, so the Constitutional issues look like a lame duck to anyone with an aversion to defending rich criminals.
The end result is the authority to monitor every person in the country, "arrest" them, and cause them to vanish without a trace, without bail, without trial, and without access to an attorney, slides through without any real opposition. The average person just plain doesn't have the moral or intellectual ability to comprehend that if you don't treat your enemies with honor, you abandon your own right to be treated with honor.
The problem with the Patriot Act isn't that it can and has been used to apprehend criminals other than "terrorists". The problem is it gives whoever is in power carte blanche authority to eliminate any threat to their power base, real or imagined, without any recourse to the individual being eliminated.
Were you thinking about organizing a peaceful protest denouncing a current abuse of authority? Probably not a good idea under the Patriot Act. The first few emails you send out gets you branded a "terrorist", and poof, you're history. If anyone asks; it's a matter of national security and you have no right to publicly defend your innocence. If anyone asks a lot; they'll be buried right beside you.
The Patriot Act itself is probably less scary than the fact that there are currently persons in our government of such low moral character they could even think of asking for this kind of power in the first place. |
