Patriot Act still very problematic

Talia Shifron
To You Editor, Fused

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the US constitution guarantees citizens the right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The Patriot Act is violating this right and still causing many problems in the U.S. today.

The Patriot Act created a new category called domestic terrorism which gave the government far reaching powers to stop domestic terrorism. Through this act, the government is allowed to detain people without giving them the right to a proper trial. If the government even claims that someone is a terrorist, they can immediately put them in jail without any proof.

After September 11, people were so terrified of terrorism that they were willing to compromise their basic liberties even if it could lead them to detention or being accused of being terrorists. Now, people even need to be careful about what they say in public because it could lead to persecution. It is ridiculous that any person should have to live in fear or feel that they need to compromise their freedom of speech. It is more important to protect our individual freedom than to randomly decide that a person might be a terrorist.

The Patriot Act is slowly taking away individual freedoms. If the government is able to capitalize on people's fears like they did with the Patriot Act, then it will only be a first step to the many freedoms that a citizen can lose in the future.

The Patriot Act has already been challenged by the ACLU and it needs to be revoked because of the flaws associated with it. More than 400 communities across the United States are trying to reform the Patriot Act. However, it needs to be done much more quickly. If the Patriot Act doesn't get changed immediately, then our liberties will be slowly chipped away, one after the next.