Thesis on "Freedom and Justice Concepts"

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[EXCERPT] . . . .

U.S. PATRIOT ACT: WE DESERVE BETTER

Following the events of September 11, 2001, legislation has occurred which has ludicrously removed the rights of citizens instead of serving to bolster and support citizen's rights in the United States. Furthermore, while the leaders of the United States are speaking of 'safety and security' the reality is that at no other time in history has the rights, safety and security of American citizens been so greatly compromised. The U.S.A. Patriot Act was passed in its first form in the "Uniting and Strengthening American by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism' act six weeks after the events of September 11, 2001." (Wronkiewicz, 2002, p. 1) One result of this is related in the work of Wronkiewicz who states that resulting from the U.S.A. Patriot Act is what is termed a "tense position" for the library community in its role as "guardians of intellectual freedom." (2002, p. 2)

STATEMENT of THESIS

The U.S. Patriot Act while being held by certain U.S. leaders to be aggressively attending to the safety and security of American citizens in reality, violates many of the basic human rights of individuals and does not make Americans more, but less secure. In a separate work entitled: "Son of the Patriot Act and the Revenge on Democracy" it is stated that "numerous constitutional rights, such as the First Amendment right to free speech and freedom of assembly, the Fourth Amendment right to be secure from unreasonable search and seizures" as well as others which will be reviewed during the course of this research study. The work of James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. entitled: "Securing the Home Front" state

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s that when it comes to "matters of strategy, thought should always precede action." (2007, p. 1)

I. The ARGUMENT

The USA Patriot Act has resulted in violations against the civil rights of U.S. citizens and mot importantly has resulted in constitutional violations. The League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area relates in the work entitled: "The Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act and American Civil Liberties after September 11, 2001" states a belief that "the individual liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States...should not be weakened or abridged." (2001, p.1) Additionally related is that the major parts of the Patriot Act include the following:

1) Information Collection: Gives federal officials greater authority to track and intercept communications, both for law enforcement and foreign intelligence purposes;

2) Money Laundering: Requires collection and sharing of financial transaction information and vests the Secretary of the Treasury with regulatory powers over U.S. financial institutions concerning suspected money laundering and terrorist activities;

3) Alien Terrorists and Victims: Seeks to further close our borders to foreign terrorists by provisions controlling entry into the United States; and 4) New Crimes, Penalties and Procedures: Seeks to detain and remove terrorists within our borders by creating new crimes, new penalties and new procedures for use against domestic and international terrorists, including increasing rewards for information, lengthening the statue of limitations applicable to crimes of terrorism, authorizing "sneak and peek" search warrants and execution of warrants nationwide and internationally. (League of Women's Voters of Cincinnati Area, 2001)

II. TROUBLING PROVISIONS of the U.S.A. PATRIOT ACT

Stated to be "...troubling provisions' of the U.S.A. Patriot Act are the following:

1) Immigrants - the Attorney-General can detain non-citizens on his own say-so without a hearing. The Act authorizes deportation, based on any support to a disfavored group, without any requirement that the support be connected to a terrorist act;

2) Citizen's Rights - Property can be seized without notice, without a hearing and on the basis of secret evidence. The government is given broad access to sensitive business and financial records of individuals without having to show evidence of a crime. Conversations with a lawyer may be monitored without a warrant or denied altogether and the right to a public hearing upon arrest exists only with the Attorney General's consent;

3) Privacy - the Patriot Act reduces judicial oversight of a host of investigative measures, including wiretaps, expands the government's ability to track individuals' internet use and gives federal officials expansive new powers that are in no way limited to investigating terrorist crimes. It authorizes the government to conduct wiretaps and searches in criminal investigations, without probable cause of a crime, as long as the government claims that it also seeks to gather foreign intelligence. The question arises that these activities are in violation of the Fourth Amendment; and 4) Freedom of Association - Under the Patriot Act amendments to pre-existing emergency powers laws, the President can designate any organization or individual a terrorist, thereby freezing all their assets and criminalizing all transactions by them. Muslim charities have been shut down, some without any charges. One has been designated a terrorist organization and was given no notice or hearing prior to its designation. (League of Women's Voters of Cincinnati Area, 2001)

III. CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Timeline is presented by the League of Women's Voters (2001) and the same has been attached to this study as 'Appendix a' for reference. The Timeline presents a 'Brief History on Restrictions on Civil Liberties'. In essence, this Timeline lists the various highlights of legislation and laws that have served to either support or diminish the civil liberties of the American people. One flaming example of just such civil rights violations occurred recently in Minneapolis and is reported by the 'Coldsnap Legal Collective' in Twin Cities, Minnesota which states: "In an outrageous series of state-sanctioned actions, police raided an activist "Convergence Space" and several homes in the past 24 hours, detaining multiple people on extraordinarily flimsy pretences, arresting several, confiscating computers and laptops, and even handcuffing a small child." (Coldsnap Legal, 2008) Reportedly, the intentions of law enforcement were."..a chilling effect on dissent prior to the launch of the Republican National Convention..." And the facts are stated as follows:

1) Last night, police raided an activist meeting location. All occupants, including a five-year-old child, were detained, handcuffed, and photographed. Computers were removed from the space, and some personal property (like notebooks) were seized;

2) a private residence on 17th St. was raided this morning and had its door kicked in. The same five-year-old child was again terrorized by armed law enforcement. The police continue to threaten to board up the house unless minor code violations (like a broken door) are remedied;

3) a private residence in St. Paul, occupied by local residents and out-of-town journalists, was raided on the basis of an identical search warrant to the one presented last night at the Convergence Space (it specified "bomb-making materials," though nothing of the sort was apparently seized); and 4) a private residence on Harriet Ave. was raided and has been threatened with being boarding up. (Coldsnap Legal, 2008, p.1)

New reports are rife with such incidents such as the report published in June 2004 by 'The NewStandard' in the article entitled: "Anarchist Home Builders Navigate Police Intimidation at G8 Summit' in which it is reported that Brunswick, Georgia, a small southern town was under heavy police and military occupation while the President met with other "world leaders on an island just miles from this small, economically struggling town..." (Lindsey, 2004, p.1) This incident involved a group of self-identified anarchists who desired to protest the military occupation in this small town through some worthy and positive form of protest and in this case, it involved refurbishing older homes for unwed mothers. However, as this group of young people went about their work they were harassed by both local police and the FBI. The police first set about enforcing a city code that made a requirement of a permit "for cleaning and repairing the properties, although they were not doing anything resembling construction or making additions to the properties." (Lindsey, 2004, p.1) Additionally, a backpack was taken from the group of young people for no apparent reason and there were no indications that the backpack was in any form "dangerous or contained anything illegal." (Lindsey, 2004, p.1) During this incident the Brunswick Police Department is reported to have been instrumental in securing the backpack's return or so told the group of young people in their communication to reporters however, the Brunswick Police Department denied any knowledge of assisting the young people and the FBI denied any knowledge of the backpack whatsoever and strangely enough the backpack was returned with everything intact plus an extra twenty-dollars. Lindsey (2004) reports that when the FBI was quizzed as to "why law enforcement personnel were interfering with and intimidating the group, Special Agent Tony Alig of the FIB said the activists were not working on houses but were instead hanging protest signs all over the house on Martin Luther King Avenue." (Lindsey, 2004, p.1) it is troubling to note in the report that these young unarmed, peaceful and positive protesters were doing nothing more than refurbishing old houses and hanging signs and that "The National Guard...is riding in Humvees with machine guns mounted… READ MORE

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Write a New Paper for Me

Quoted Instructions for "Freedom and Justice Concepts" Assignment:

“

write an argumentative paper of approximately 10 pages. Start considering now which topic you might most enjoy writing about. Possibilities include topics

The Declaration of Independence

Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development

Mancur Olson

Power and Interdependence

Robert O. Keohane and Joseph Nye

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations

It's the Zip Code, Stupid

***** O'Beirne

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Patrick Henry

The USA Patriot Act: We Deserve Better

Robert A. Levy

The Rights of Terrorists

Economist

Hot Nights in the City: Global Warming, Sea-Level Rise and the New York Metropolitan

Janine Bloomfield

Impact of the Global Media Revolution

Steve Bell

Operation Enduring Liberty

***** Cole

A Culture of Achievement

George W. Bush

Gay Unions Put Kerry Campaign Asunder

Donna Brit

Hate Radio

Patricia J. Williams

The key to doing well on this Final Project is to choose a topic that will hold your interest and that is of great significance to you. The primary goal of this project is to write a paper that demonstrates your ability to communicate your individual views according to the concepts covered in the course.

You are to select one or two of the readings from the list above and write about how the concepts of freedom, justice, equality and fairness are presented in those readings. Incorporate how your personal views also relate to the readings and the concepts.

You may use external sources, and you may use more than two of the readings. However, in order to insure a clear focus, you will want to have only one or two of the readings as your primary focus. For example, you may wish to write about the role of government to provide security for all citizens and use the articles on the Patriot Act and Operation Eduring Liberty to highlight examples of the affect of security on certain freedoms, the application of justice, and the perceptions of equality and fairness.

In particular, address the following questions:

What is the thesis of the reading(s) you are writing about? That is, what is (are) the author(s) trying to convince the reader of?

Does the author argue successfully for this thesis? When addressing whether an author successfully addresses the thesis, you are essentially showing why the author is convincing, or why s/he is not.

The overall structure of the paper should be as follows:

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

The more fine-grained structure will vary. However, if you were to follow the general structure described in this guide, you would certainly be on the right track:

The Final Project: Your Guide

The Final Project is an argumentative paper and has three parts:

Introduction (thesis statement + argument summary)

Body (your arguments)

Conclusion (summary of what you did + thesis statement again)

First Step: Introduction

What's it about? How will you argue? The introduction itself has two general parts, requiring two things. First, you should state what you will argue for or against. Secondly, you will tell me how you will go about arguing. You do this by briefly outlining the arguments found in the body of the paper.

Example: I will argue that capital punishment cannot be justified using cogent, consistent argumentation.

Thesis: I argue this by showing that the only reasonably fathomable justification for capital punishment is vengeance. While vengeance may provide temporary relief to family or friends of victims, it conflicts with another principle which most proponents of capital punishment strongly adhere to.

The principal is this: inflict pain only insofar as it directly furthers our more morally virtuous goals, like the aim of protecting the innocent from immediate harm. As I will show in Section 3, anyone who accepts this principle must reject capital punishment, since support for capital punishment violates the principle.

How to formulate your topic sentence/thesis statement:

So, you have read the articles, and have perhaps done other side readings. What has struck you as particularly interesting, in relation to freedom and justice? What do you have an opinion about that interests you strongly enough to write several pages on the topic?

To answer this, you will be formulating a topic sentence, or thesis sentence. For example:

Examples: Topic Sentences/Thesis Statements

I will argue here that the No Child Left Behind Policy is detrimental to our educational system.

or

This paper argues that the Patriot Act violates certain rights and freedoms pertaining to privacy. I will describe these violations here, and show why the Patriot Act should be modified, or eliminated.

Remember: this is essentially the sentence that tells me what the paper is going to be about. This means telling me what you are going to argue for or against.

Second Step: Body (Show Your Arguments!)

This part contains your arguments. So, let's say you're arguing in this paper that the Patriot Act leads to the violation of certain privacy rights. And let's say you told your reader that you were going to argue that the act is discriminatory. Then, perhaps your argument will go something like this:

The Argument

Premise One

According to the No Child Left Behind Policy, students must fit into one of the following racial categories in order to enroll: White (Not Hispanic); Black (Not Hispanic); Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; American Indian or Alaska Native; and, Hispanic.

Premise Two

But not all potential students fit into one of these categories (McGettigan 2003).

Premise Three

Given that not all potential students fit into one of these racial categories, the policy exercises discriminatory bias toward those who are forced to classify themselves in one of these somewhat arbitrary categories.

Conclusion

Hence, the policy is discriminatory. (This is your thesis!)

This is a clear argument. However, an important element is missing; some people might think (without having reflected too deeply on the issue) that the racial categories provided in premise one are exhaustive, covering all possibilities. But this isn't the case. So it's up to you to show which categories are excluded. This will make up the rest of the body in this paper.

And yes, the conclusion should be restated here. Even though you have already said what it is.

Labels?

Remember that if you wish to label your arguments with premise headings, as I have done, you are free to do so. But it certainly isn't necessary.

Final, Third Step: Bore Me!

Conclusion: Be Repetitive

(a) What did you do again?

(b) How did you do it again?

I know, you've already given me your argument. But provide a summary now. This helps you keep a clear focus, and it helps the reader see the clarity of your points. So, tell me again what you argued, and how you argued it. To tell me what you argued, give me your thesis statement in different words, explained in a way not identical to how you have already explained it. This also helps you think through your point in a different way, or from a different angle.

(a) I argued here that ...

(b) I did this by showing how ...

Summary

So, the three parts are:

Introduction

Thesis statement

What you will argue

How you will argue it: arguments summary

Body

All your arguments

Conclusion

Summary of what you did

Repeat the thesis statement in other words

*****

How to Reference "Freedom and Justice Concepts" Thesis in a Bibliography

“Freedom and Justice Concepts.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2008, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/us-patriot-act-deserve/59318. Accessed 6 Jul 2024.

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1. Freedom and Justice Concepts [Internet]. A1-TermPaper.com. 2008 [cited 6 July 2024]. Available from: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/us-patriot-act-deserve/59318

1. Freedom and Justice Concepts. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/us-patriot-act-deserve/59318. Published 2008. Accessed July 6, 2024.

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