The Patriot Act

How does our government protect us?

Figure 1

     As citizens of the United States we have a lot to be thankful for. One big thing we can all appreciate today is how our government keeps us safe from our nations enemies. It wasn't until September 11, 2001 that our country realized just how much damage our enemies could do to us. Figure 1 pictures the tragedy in which nearly 3,000 people were killed from a terrorist attack on New York City. Immediately following this our government knew it had to change some things to ensure an attack like this would never happen on the United States again. The answer they came up with was something known as the Patriot Act. 

Figure 2 

    The Patriot Act is an act of congress that allows the government to protect me and you from terrorist attacks better. Before 9/11 there were certain tools that the government had to protect us. Think of this protection as an average size umbrella that someone would walk with. Now after the Patriot Act was passed think of this umbrella growing substantially to allow for better protection, like in figure 2. The tools in which the government can now use to protect us have grown substantially. One of the these tools is the governments use of new surveillance techniques. Basically, the government can watch over what people are doing in our country very well now. If someone is suspected of plotting an attack on the United States, law enforcement agencies can monitor their emails, text messages, and even phone calls. The Patriot Act aims to prevent attacks before they can happen. In addition, this act also allows law enforcement access to records. For example, say the cops suspect a guy named Bob is trying to learn about airplanes because he may steal one. The cops can go into the library and demand the records of which books Bob checked out to see if hes reading up on airplanes.

Figure 3 

In addition did you know besides plotting attacks, terrorists also try to hurt our country by stealing money from our nations banks? This is why the Patriot Act has a money laundering section as well. Money laundering is a term that describes crimes that deal with money. The Patriot Act changed the way banks and financial institutions run. They now have to monitor accounts more closely and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. It mainly aims to spot international crimes. Imagine if a hacker in a different country hacked into one of your parents bank accounts and stole all the money just by using a computer. The Patriot Act helps ensure crimes like these don't happen.

Growing up in the United States we should all appreciative what our  government is doing to keep us safe from terrorists.  Every second of the day someone, somewhere is keeping an eye on whats going on in the United States. The Patriot Act is working great. Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, nothing near this scale of an attack has occurred on our country. Our countries enemies still try to bring harm on us, but with the Patriot Act in place they will have a very hard time succeeding. 

 

References 

Figure 1, http://www.news.com.au/world/pictures-of-911-that-show-you-why-you-should-never-forget/story-fndir2ev-1226717187453

 Figure 2, http://www.subbota.com/2015/03/18/esli-zavtra-potop/

Figure 3, http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2014/12/11/austins-bank-break-down-the-biggest-and-most.html