Sample Assessments

The Fourth Amendment is a part of the Bill of Rights that secures our houses, persons, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. No warrants can be issued without probable cause and must describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. With the spike in terrorism and cyber crimes people have become extremely fearful and have become more inclined to substitute these safeguards for new laws, such as the Patriot Act, that remove these freedoms and protections that we have. These new laws allow police officers to search or seize with a warrant that was received without any evidence (including tapping any telephone) as long as they state that they believe that there is some sort of terrorism or terrorist that needs to be monitored or captured. In recent news there were some librarians that were very upset about the Patriot Act because it would allow law enforcement to come into any library and look up all of the records of books, videos, and get personal information about anyone, without a warrant. These librarians felt like this was a major violation of our rights. I believe that these librarians were right and the people should not allow this country to become a dictatorship. Without our right to privacy then what so we have left? There are other ways to fight terrorism and cyber crime without stripping the people of their rights. So many soldiers lost their lives to gain these freedoms and now the government wants us to quiver in fear and allow terrorism to remove these freedoms from us again. 

References

Goodspeed, Rob (2002). Libraries adjust to Terrorism Searches. The Michigan Daily, pp. B2, B3. 

Axia College of University of Phoenix. (2007). Inside Criminal Law. Week Four Rules of Law Enforcement reading, aXcess, CJS200—Foundations of the Criminal Justice System Course Web site.