Fear Vs Civil Rights
Fear is a natural response to being threatened. ... Add to that the fear of sniper shootings, both in Virginia and more recently in Ohio, and even rational people start to make irrational decisions. Many US Citizens have friends or family fighting the war on terror, either in the states or abroad, and therefore still spend a lot of time living in fear. Their fear is not for themselves, but for their loved ones. ... Even those of us that do fit the “right” profile face issues every day that infringe on our civil liberties, but due to our fear of terrorism we just go along with it. ... We turn a blind eye to other people having their homes searched, phones tapped or being arrested without just cause, because we fear that since their family came from another country they are more likely to be terrorists. ... Because of and order enacted after 9/11 called the Patriot Act, which allows the government to overlook certain civil liberties if they believe you might have terrorist ties, there are an unknown amount of American citizens being held in prisons right now with no lawyer, no phone call, none of the rights we would expect to be given, simply because they arose the suspicions of the wrong people.