The Patriot Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Patriot Act - Essay Example According to President Bush, â€Å"The Patriot Act defends our liberty. The Patriot Act makes it able for those of us in positions of responsibility to defend the liberty of the American people. It’s essential law† (Allen, 2004). According to the Justice Department, the PATRIOT Act gives support to and encourages enhanced sharing of information among various law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels. In addition, this law assists law enforcement in their efforts to â€Å"connect the dots† from a wider scope of agencies when assembling evidence so as to â€Å"develop a complete picture† regarding possible threats from terrorists (Ward, 2002). Additionally, the Act increased border security funding and allows the Attorney General to disburse monetary rewards to those individuals and entities such as municipalities that have enjoined the fight against terrorism. Furthermore, it provides financial support for the training of first respond ers such as firefighters. Finally, the PATRIOT Act permits government agencies power to delay notification of search warrants, â€Å"which (is) a long-existing crime-fighting tool upheld by courts nationwide for decades in organized crime, drug cases and child pornography† (US Department of Justice, 2005). Critics of the Act suggest that is in contradiction to the tenants of the First Amendment. As an example, a citizen can be identified and treated as a terrorist if they are a breaking federal law such as trespassing on public property during a protest when a federal official is injured, not by that person but simply injured during the protest. This allows any person who was exercising their constitutional right of free speech to be arrested and detained indefinitely without benefit of legal counsel, a violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process of law. Section 203 of the PATRIOT Act allows law enforcement officers to give CIA with no court order information received

Lincoln's Assassination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lincoln's Assassination - Essay Example The Civil War had major implications in the life and death of Lincoln. In 1865, five days after the Civil War ended, Lincoln was shot dead by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at the Ford’s Theatre with his wife.2 The factors that led to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln did not eventually justify its outcome in the preceding days. Though Booth was convicted for his crimes, not many of those other conspirers were. This indeed created lots of perplexity among the historians and the researchers, in asserting who may or may not have been involved in the assassination along with Booth. There were many conspiracies as whether Booth was solely responsible or he was just a tool in a major plot conspiracy hatched by a group of people. However, the idea that the assassination was a result of grand conspiracy of the Confederates arose immediately after the tragic happening. There exist many facts and evidences to support the possibilities of Confederates plotting the assassina tion of Lincoln. ... ain.3 This is mainly because the Proclamation freed only the slaves in the seceded states while others had to wait until the Constitution was amended in 1865. To add up to the circumstances, the proclamation blocked the intervention of Britain or France into the war, for the support of the Southern states, as they did not want to be portraying it as a war for slavery. All these incidences created hatred against the Lincoln’s presidency, personating him as a tyrant. Though the South had hatred for Lincoln and was fighting for their independence, the Confederate’s plot to abduct or kill Lincoln arose after an Dahlgren incident of discovering Union cavalry officer’s concealed papers, which revealed the attempts of Union soldiers to kill Davis.4 When those Dahlgren Papers were distributed as evidences for plot to kill President Davis, it created outrage and disapproval for the Union government across the Southern states. â€Å"In the resulting uproar Southern newspa pers blasted Lincoln and Union leaders as depraved murderers and ferocious criminals and demanded that they be held personally accountable.†5 Booth was suspected as the Confederate’s secret services operative. One of the strong reasons behind it was that, there were coded letters found in the belongings of Booth, revealing his connection with the Confederates. In addition to that, when Booth escaped, he travelled using an underground path, which the Confederate spy network used to secretly transport resources to and fro. Also, the testimony given by George Atzerodt, a fellow Confederate conspirator, implicated that there were also plans to explode the White House for killing the President.6 However, there is also objection to the fact that Booth was solely a puppet in the hands of Confederate. Being a