Since September 11, 2001, the National Security Agency started a program called National Security to help the government collect and monitor information and data from overseas. There are two-hundred million text messages and three million phone calls collected per day to detect terrorist attacks before it happens (King 1). Some attacks are stopped before it happens but there are some that aren’t.
Let’s take 9/11 for example, nineteen hijackers attacked the United States by flying four commercial airlines into the North and South Twin Tower (piloted by Mohamad Atta and Marwan al Shehhi), the Pentagon Building in Washington (piloted by Hani Hanjour), and a Field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania (piloted by Ziad Jarrah) (September 1). This attack killed 3,000 people and could have been stopped if the government used a surveillance program to detect the attacks before it happens.
Six weeks after the attack, President Bush signed a Patriot Act that lowered protection against the government’s collection of American’s communications and personal records. Government Surveillance is legal and non-harmful because it helps the Supreme Court when cases using surveillance occurs, it helps the government stop attacks like 9/11 and the Boston Marathon Bombing from happening and it also help local police officers collect evidence for their investigations. The government use a surveillance program called the National Security Agency (NSA).
The purpose of this program is to protect the national communication system’s integrity and to get information on foreign adversaries’ secret communications. It was created by President Truman and the National Security Council on 11/4/1952. The NSA’s mission is to seek out foreign attacks or contacts. The program engages in anti-terrorist computer network operations. The NSA hacks into the everyday technology we use to see who is contacting foreign enemies. The NSA program isn’t the only surveillance there is.
The cameras in stores, banks, schools, and gas stations are all part of government surveillance. Police officers and FBI agents use those cameras to help them out on important cases to put the convict in jail. Government Surveillance helps the Supreme Court in cases in which the attorneys need to collect and use information from the suspect’s phone or computer to help their argument. In the Olmstead v. United States the Supreme Court decided that the evidence collected from the wiretapping used is permissible (Timeline 1).
According to the Bill of Rights, wiretapping and other types of surveillance prohibited in the Fourth Amendment, which is ” the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures… shall not be violated, and no warrants shall be issued….. ” In that case the suspect argued and said that the police was violating his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights (Olmstead 1).
At that time it was illegal to trespass in someone’s privacy but it was later decided that using surveillance and wiretapping wasn’t going against the Fourth Amendment because the police wasn’t applying physical search and seizure (Olmstead 1). Using surveillance and wiretapping wasn’t always legal but it help prosecute criminals. Over the years, the United States had many terrorist attacks that have affected the country in a destructive matter. Attacks like the Boston Marathon, 9/11, Orlando Shooting, and many more could have been stopped if the government surveillance was legal.
The government could have been using this program to tap into the two men cell phone or any other electronic device that was used to communicate their tactics for the Marathon bombing but instead 3 innocent bystanders were killed and 264 people were badly wounded (Levs 1). Terrorists come up with plans to destroy the United States everyday. Some of them seceded but some don’t. The NSA program stop majority of the terrorist before they can do something stupid, like shoot up schools or other in important places, or bomb important events that’s taking place in the U. S. Surveillance cameras that the police use also help stop terrorists too.
NSA chief General Keith Alexander said that the surveillance had stopped potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11 (NSA 1). FBI agents were able to detect and stop the plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange by monitoring a extremist in Yemen (NSA1). President Obama said that he will provide the intelligence agencies the tools they need to stop terrorist in action. He specifically said, “That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens.
No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime… o more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient (Breslow 1). ” Police officers also use surveillance for their investigations. Now you may think that using surveillance in court cases and in police investigations are the same thing but they are not. Police officers use surveillance when it comes to dealing with people who do illegal crimes, like robbing stores or banks, human trafficking or doing other illegal crimes using the internet. Store robbers think that they can get away with crimes but get caught because of the surveillance cameras.
Most of the time the store’s surveillance cameras are down, so police officers or FBI agents use the surveillance from other buildings and ATM’s around the store. Most of the crimes that happen in the world are because of Darknet websites. People who use websites like AlphaBay, Dream Market, Valhalla, Outlaw Market, and Hansa Market are looking to buy or sell illegal things like weapons and drugs. Police officers, sometimes government agents, hack into theirs suspect’s accounts for these websites to catch them without a warrant which is legal because there was no physical earch and seizure done.
Government surveillance is still also still illegal. Just because the government and the police tap into citizens’ computers, phones, cameras and other electronic devices, peoples’ privacy isn’t being protected. Also it’s still going against the rights of the people. The rights of the people should be protected and not invaded. The government and the police have failed to keep that protected and also our privacy respected too. Government and police surveillance may be legal in some cases but it’s still illegal.
Surveillance like that is endangering the Fourth Amendment which is “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not e violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ” This amendment is basically saying that the police and the government agents can’t search people’s homes, workplaces, computers and etc. without a warrant.
Most government agents go against that right to help their cases but it’s still wrong. After 9/11, people that was coming from other countries and to get searched without a warrant, which is going against the 4th amendment. It was called the “border search” (Buren 1). People come into this country to be free from the lack of protection from their leaders and for them to get searched when the get of the plane is unnecessary. They have the same rights as us when they stepped foot on U. S. grounds. The Department of Justice use Subpoena to tap into people’s Facebook and Google records (Buren 1).
They believe they have authority to do that because when using the Subpoena you don’t have to interact with the court. Even though everything that was stated above is wrong, it is still ways to protect the United States from outsiders. For example, when other people get off the plane from a different country it is important to search them for and bombing devices or any other things that suggest a threat to the United States. If this wasn’t a responsibility of the guards to search them, the United States could be in danger (not trying to be stereotactic).
We all have different social media accounts on our phone. Those accounts are being watched by the government to detect suspicious behavior, like suicide threats, bomb threats, plans to use gunfire and etc. Your Google account is the main account that is being watched. But it may see like it is wrong but it is one of the ways the government can protect us. If the government and the police can tap into your social media accounts and your emails and text messages, what makes you think they can’t invade your medical records that was supposed to be private?
An act call the ” Health Information Portability and Accountability Act” which assured that the people’s health information is private and protected under the law (Buren 1). Because of the National” Security” individual records are being invaded. Government analysts go through people’s health records almost everyday and that doesn’t have anything to do with protecting the United States. We can imagine police officers using our medical records for their investigations but not government agents. There is one question that need to be asked. Is our privacy more important than our safety?
That is a question that need to be answered need because if we focus more on our privacy than our safety then there wouldn’t be a country for us to live on. We have to think about our safety, our kids safety and everybody else’s. Everything is not all about you. It’s about everybody and life period. So now instead of complaining about your privacy being invaded, start complaining about how the government and the police can’t protect you more because of your right of privacy. Government surveillance and police surveillance should be legal because we need all the protection we need. Our privacy is not that important.
