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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

How Many Rights Will You Give Up in the Name of Safety


How Many Rights Will You Give Up in the Name of Safety

January 15, 2008

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We all want to live in a world where we feel safe from horrible acts of violence. We want to know that we are protected and that we can go about our daily lives with this knowledge. Freedom comes at a price and unfortunately so does safety. At some point, the measures taken to make us safe will take away our freedom. How far would you go and how much freedom would you give up to feel safe?

We have the Constitution; we have the Bill of Rights as part of the Constitution and an aptitude more laws that protect our rights as human beings. Two thirds of the Bill of Rights is designed to protect our rights. Would you willing give up the safe guards of the Bill of Rights to ensure safety for all?

Let us look at the IV Amendment that protects us from unlawful search and seizure. Would we give up that right to ensure that terrorist cannot harbor dangerous weapons in their homes and businesses that they will use to hurt us? After all how many terrorists have these weapons and yet without just cause no court will issue a warrant. Without a warrant these homes and businesses cannot be searched and the weapons obtained by the police. Therefore, do we allow the government to take the Right away with the promise it will be used to find and convict terrorists so that the innocent citizens are safe.

Think about it though, if the government takes that right away it does not matter if you are a terrorist or not. That right once taken away will apply to all of us. So are you willing to give it up for safety?

Amendment V protects us from Double Jeopardy. Now would you give that right up as well for safety? Say a pedophile is taken to trial, yet there was a lack of evidence on the part of the prosecutor, and he was ruled not guilty. Now this pedophile is back out on the streets and living in your neighborhood near your children. Now say more digging is done and the police find additional evidence that will ensure a guilty conviction but under double jeopardy, this man cannot be retried for the same crime. To protect yourself and your children would you allow the government to do away with the double jeopardy rule and retry this man with the new evidence?

Think for a second though about this because once Double Jeopardy is done away with then we are all prey to a prosecutor who will retry us and retry us until he gets want he wants and that is a guilty verdict. How many innocent people will be retried until they are found guilty if this Right is taken away?

So how far do we allow the government to invade our lives and take our freedom away all in the name of safety? Should innocent people lose their rights just so that we can ensure the guilty always pay for their crimes or to prevent a crime from happening? This is your country and your voice so let it be heard. How much will you give up?
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