Question

How did September 11, 2001 affect national security policy in the United States? Is the USA Patriot Act a good law?

Answer 1

After the 9/11 attacks, the American government understood the new threat of rising terrorism and consequent created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to respond to such attacks and prevent another one from happening. Also, it increased the number of arrests made and conviction charges for terrorism. Before the attacks, such arrests were few but it increased exponentially after 9/11 and also led to an increased in hate crimes against certain sections of populations.

The Patriot Act is not good law because although it seeks to reduce terrorist attacks from happening, it violates one of the basic rights of people by giving authority to the government to search anyone without an order or a prior history of the crime of the persons. The US government need to understand that while it should prevent such attacks, the prevention shouldn't come at the privacy of innocent citizens.