Rich said:
Isn't the Patriot act aimed at Americans?
Yes it broadens the surveillance powers of the federal government to allow better tracking of potential terrorist.
Most Americans freedoms in some ways are acually enhanced by the act.
As the powers to investigate are expanded the amount of information collects at an unmanageable rate. This makes it counter productive to continue to investigate leads that are obviously benign. The danger here is that investigators have more freedom to initiate personal witch hunts. So the system needs to have some powerful and credible oversight to eliminate this possibility.
But logic would dictate that this act has other merit as well. For the most part of human history, villages provided their own policing. The local “law” pretty much knew who the bad guys were, and acted accordingly. As the populations have expanded beyond this capability, new methods had to be designed. But the propensity for abuse, by an individual law enforcement agent has always existed. At any time in the past if a policeman wanted someone dead, it pretty much would happen. At least now we are actually watching them as much or more than they are watching us.
There’s always a balance between liberty and protection. We will see the pendulum swing back in the near future.
It’s my understanding that Great Britain has many more video surveillance cameras than does the US. Doesn’t this pose a threat to British freedom?