Drawing the Line:Security Vs. Civil Rights

Paper Summary:

The author discusses the problems arising from the need for increased security and police activity in the light of rising crime rates and terrorism. However, according to the author, increased surveillance and police activity results in infringements of hard won human rights and civil liberties. The author of the paper contends that the parameters of the security apparatus must be carefully set, the boundaries between freedom and safety delineated in ways that do not blur the lines between public and civil rights. The writer also addresses the tendency for law enforcement agencies to judge segments of the population on the basis of race or religious background and how this also creates a situation where infringement of basic civil rights and liberties is possible. The author makes a personal statement at the end of the paper when he writes: "A society that loses its liberty is a police state. Modern day America is moving closer each day to that terrible point. "

From the Paper:

"Such attitudes encourage police, and other security personnel, to look on African-Americans with suspicion, again, particularly if they are young and male. Within the emerging security state, this equal to a greater probability that young Black men will be stopped and searched - even without good cause. Young African-American males, and other members of similarly suspect groups, will be probed into more closely, their records checked or seized. More and more, both private businesses and government agencies are requesting criminal background checks and credit reports on persons whose only crime is that they fit "the profile." Intelligence agencies capture e-mails and telephone calls in an ever-widening search for suspicious catchwords and phrases. The recent story of the fight over immunity for telecommunications companies that provided FBI agents with free access to private communications is but a case in point."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brown, M. K., Carnoy, M., Currie, E., Duster, T., Oppenheimer, D. B., Shultz, M. M., et al. (2003). Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Theodore, N., Martin, N., & Hollon, R. (2006). Securing the City: Emerging Markets in the Private Provision of Security Services in Chicago. Social Justice, 33(3), 85+.

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