Every single day, the people of the United States live in a country that is constructed around the 27 amendments of the US Constitution. These amendments were written to ensure individual rights to the people of the United States. To have a right means to have permission to do something legally in a country. For instance, the second amendment gives US citizens the right to bare arms, or the right own some form of “arms” (typically a gun of some sort), in order to ensure the safety of the citizen and to give them a good sense of freedom. If these rights were to ever taken away by the government, then they could no longer live under the, what was, genuine statement, America: Land of the Free. Over the past decade (or so), the US government has been making decisions that has resulted in invasion of their freedom.
One quote that really formulates this idea is in an article from progress.org. The quote states…
“Every American citizen has lost a number of important rights that made America great and strong. Instead of standing tall and proud, the authoritarian U.S. government is taking a stance that imitates communism by taking away individual rights.”
In all honesty, the people of the United States did lose some very important rights, and that’s being said by a victim of these acts of freedom invasion. A really good example of invasion of the freedom of the people is the “Stop-and-Frisk” policy enacted the New York City Police Department. This policy gives the law enforcement of the state of New York the right to stop and frisk any person they deem to be suspicious or a possible danger to the people of New York. Just in the year of 2011, approximately 684,000 people were stopped and frisked. Doing the math, that averaged out to about 1900 people were stopped and frisked every single day in New York in 2011. With this policy comes some pros and cons that affect New York in different ways. This quote from the New York Times explains the pros that have come about from this policy:
“New York City in 2012 had the lowest murder count in at least 50 years, and it is on pace to have even fewer murders this year. At the same time, the number of stops by police officers has dropped precipitously from more than 200,000 in the first quarter of 2012, the high-water mark of the program, to just over 21,000 in the third quarter of this year.”
While those facts do a good job sugar coating the good things that came along with the policy, that still doesn’t resolve the fact that the government is doing as they please, even if it means invading the freedom of the people. With that pro comes one con, and that’s racial and social profiling. Let’s look this quote from nyclu.org:
“An analysis by the NYCLU revealed that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports.”
This quote states that 90% of the people that are stopped and frisked in New York have done nothing wrong and weren’t up to anything. Out of all of the races that live within New York, the two that seem to be targeted the most are people of the black and latino community. If these acts of invasion continue in New York, not only will the people feel like their freedom has been invaded, but then they will begin to feel the effects of racial profiling and stereotyping. What ever happened everyone being equal?
Getting down the specifics, the one thing that this “Frisk-and-Search” policy defeats is the fourth amendment of the US Constitution. According to Wikipedia.com…
“The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.”
Now looking at this frisk and search policy as a larger picture, the government is now going against the amendments and regulations of the US Constitution, a document that the people of the United States has been using as a structure for their country since 1787. If the government has the right to go against the fourth amendment of the constitution, then the people of the United States should be allowed to do whatever they’d like without being penalized by the law enforcement. Why? Because if the government is allowed to be unequal but the people aren’t, then the people of the United States are living in a country of corruption and invasion. Not only is it ungenuine of the government to completely disregard such an important amendment, but it also makes the government seem more like a democracy rather than a republic due to the simple-minded choices they have the ability to make just because they have the power to do so.
One quote that really formulates this idea is in an article from progress.org. The quote states…
“Every American citizen has lost a number of important rights that made America great and strong. Instead of standing tall and proud, the authoritarian U.S. government is taking a stance that imitates communism by taking away individual rights.”
In all honesty, the people of the United States did lose some very important rights, and that’s being said by a victim of these acts of freedom invasion. A really good example of invasion of the freedom of the people is the “Stop-and-Frisk” policy enacted the New York City Police Department. This policy gives the law enforcement of the state of New York the right to stop and frisk any person they deem to be suspicious or a possible danger to the people of New York. Just in the year of 2011, approximately 684,000 people were stopped and frisked. Doing the math, that averaged out to about 1900 people were stopped and frisked every single day in New York in 2011. With this policy comes some pros and cons that affect New York in different ways. This quote from the New York Times explains the pros that have come about from this policy:
“New York City in 2012 had the lowest murder count in at least 50 years, and it is on pace to have even fewer murders this year. At the same time, the number of stops by police officers has dropped precipitously from more than 200,000 in the first quarter of 2012, the high-water mark of the program, to just over 21,000 in the third quarter of this year.”
While those facts do a good job sugar coating the good things that came along with the policy, that still doesn’t resolve the fact that the government is doing as they please, even if it means invading the freedom of the people. With that pro comes one con, and that’s racial and social profiling. Let’s look this quote from nyclu.org:
“An analysis by the NYCLU revealed that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports.”
This quote states that 90% of the people that are stopped and frisked in New York have done nothing wrong and weren’t up to anything. Out of all of the races that live within New York, the two that seem to be targeted the most are people of the black and latino community. If these acts of invasion continue in New York, not only will the people feel like their freedom has been invaded, but then they will begin to feel the effects of racial profiling and stereotyping. What ever happened everyone being equal?
Getting down the specifics, the one thing that this “Frisk-and-Search” policy defeats is the fourth amendment of the US Constitution. According to Wikipedia.com…
“The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.”
Now looking at this frisk and search policy as a larger picture, the government is now going against the amendments and regulations of the US Constitution, a document that the people of the United States has been using as a structure for their country since 1787. If the government has the right to go against the fourth amendment of the constitution, then the people of the United States should be allowed to do whatever they’d like without being penalized by the law enforcement. Why? Because if the government is allowed to be unequal but the people aren’t, then the people of the United States are living in a country of corruption and invasion. Not only is it ungenuine of the government to completely disregard such an important amendment, but it also makes the government seem more like a democracy rather than a republic due to the simple-minded choices they have the ability to make just because they have the power to do so.