RoomForDebate: PatriotAct- Activity1

     The Patriot act is something that when used correctly can please everyone. The act allows the government to monitor potential terrorists by monitoring their personal records; such as Phone records, Computer records, Credit history and Banking History. It also allows the government to perform "sneak and peeks" which allows them to secretly search a potential terrorists home. To stop terrorists we do still need the patriot act.

      One reason we need the Patriot act is for the fact that since it was enforced there have been no major terrorism attacks such as 9/11. This is a great thing because I do not believe that this country can handle another attack like that. Now while I do believe that we still do need the patriot act I do feel that in the Past the government has been abusing the law.

      Between the years 2003 and 2006 the FBI issued 192,499 NSL's (allows them to access personal records) that led to only one terrorist attack. This is just showing how the government can abuse power. So for this act to be continued their needs to be restrictions on when the government does this.

      Another example on why the government needs restrictions is because in the year 2010 there were 3,970 sneak and peaks 76% of which were drug related 24% other and less than 1% were terrorist related. This shows that the government can bend the act to satisfy what they need to arrest other criminals. So in order for the act to continue there also needs to be a way for other parts of the government to monitor why exactly the FBI or CSI are performing a Sneak and Peak.

      In the end I feel that we do need this act but there needs to be restrictions. Without the restrictions it is invasion of privacy for all the wrong reasons. Which is why people complain about the Patriot Act.