9/11 Scans

One September 11, 2001 Islamic Terrorists hijacked several flights and struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The US was shaken by 9/11. In response to the attacks the US passed laws to protect its people. The Patriot Act was one of the laws or acts that was passed in response to the 9/11 attacks. The goals of the Patriot Act were to strengthen domestic security and increase the powers of law-enforcement agencies to stop terrorism. In addition, the US Department of Homeland security created the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to protect the nation’s Airways. Finally we have organizations such as the NSA that collect domestic and foreign information in order to protect the US. However, we end up sacrificing our privacy without …show more content…
The TSA protects airports by implementing frisking and full body scanners. These scanners are implemented to find guns, chemicals, bombs and other illicit substances. The full body scanners are able to view our full body under our clothes. These full body scanners are also able to detect nonmetal objects such as medicine. The Washington Post mentions how these scanners are too invasive because the data of these scans are stored not discarded as the scanners in the Netherlands as mentioned by the same article. According to the EPIC as reported by the Boston Globe, the full body scans are a direct violation of the 4th amendment because they search citizens digitally without any evidence of the citizen doing something wrong. The 4th amendment states that “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 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” A majority of these searches are unreasonable and there is no warrant to make these laws constitutional. Although there are some criticisms of the searching, according to a Gallup poll conducted in 2010, a majority of Americans are fine with a full body scans thinking it is more …show more content…
The Patriot Act gave more power to security agencies and allowed them to share information from criminal probes with intelligence agencies and other parts of the government which critics state that unrestricted sharing could lead to the development of massive databases about citizens who are not criminals. In addition the patriot act allows one wiretap authorization to cover multiple devices, eliminating the need for separate court authorizations for separate electronic devices many officials stat that the language of the act could lead to privacy violations of anyone who comes into casual contact with a suspect. Finally the patriot act allows "Sneak and peek" search warrants, which let authorities search a home or business without immediately notifying the target. This could potentially allow officials to use “sneak and peek” warrants for minor crimes not just terror crimes.
Although many supporters state that these clauses will help catch terrorist faster and catch more crimes in the process. However the agencies like the FBI will have a better and more complete database of innocent citizens because there is no guarantee that the FBI won’t search this information. We are giving up our rights in order to protect ourselves although our privacy is being invaded and in the long term it will not be beneficial to us at