Wk. 8: Law Enforcement Challenges-USA Patriot Act

Wk. 8: Law Enforcement Challenges-USA Patriot Act
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Wk. 8: Law Enforcement Challenges-USA Patriot Act
Question One
The Congress enacted the USA Patriot Act after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The primary purpose of the Act was to prevent such attacks on U.S. soil in the future. Furthermore, the Act contains several operations that protect innocent U.S citizens from deadly plans associated with terrorism, which aim to destroy the peaceful life in the U.S. The Act also allows the Department of Justice to investigate organized crimes and drug trafficking (Gleason, 2017). The Patriot Act also allows federal agents to monitor sophisticated terrorists who are trained to avoid being detected. The Act has facilitated the cooperation of various government agencies to fight these forms of crimes effectively. Furthermore, this Act updated the existing law to apply new technology in detecting new terrorism threats. The Department of Justice was empowered to increase penalties for terrorism criminals (Gleason, 2017). The Act also allows victims of computer hacking to request federal and state agencies to monitor hackers.
Sometimes the Patriot Act infringes the rights of citizens in a certain country. This is because this Act grants the government more and more power. As a result the rights of the citizens are ignored in the cases when the government might suspect that a citizen is involved in a certain crime. Sometimes the patriots also poses a lot of risks to the civil liberties of citizens of a given country. Additionally, there are some sections of the Patriot Act which go against the constitution. This Act gives the government the authority to intercept electronic and oral communications relating to criminal activities. Sometimes this Act interferes with the communication of the citizens. According to the Constitution of the United States, it is not legal to monitor the communication patterns of the citizens because everyone has the right to privacy (Gleason, 2017). The Patriot Act also gives the government the authority to obtain information of suspects from the libraries, medical records and schools without consulting the individual. As long as the government is trying to protect the citizens, this Act deprives the right to privacy of the citizens.
The Patriot Act also allows the government to search private properties without issuing the owner of the property a notice. As a result, the common law of the citizens is violated as well as the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Through this Act police officers can also conduct investigations and perform a search without a search warrant from the court of law. As a result, the main purpose of the patriot Act is violated which is preventing the occurrence of terrorist attacks in the country (Gleason, 2017). Lastly, the patriot Act gives the attorney general the power to disclose education information of a suspect. Getting personal information and records from a person requires the consent of the owner. If the owner does not permit it, then the right to privacy is violated.
Question 2
Hate crimes affect the security of individuals and communit...