Individual Rights vs. Public Order Advocates

An individual-rights advocate is someone who seeks to protect personal freedoms within the process of criminal justice. Their nature is to hold true what is written on the Constitution. A public-order advocate is someone who believes that under certain circumstances involving a criminal threat to public safety, the interests of society should take precedence over individual rights. Since September 11, 2001, many questions about individual rights versus public safety have arisen. The Patriot Act affects foreign travelers more than anyone, as it denies due process to a foreign visitor. This is unconstitutional as the American Government is supposed to grant due process to everyone. Law enforcement agencies must still obtain a warrant to conduct surveillance but probable cause is more lenient than in the past. Many people believe individual rights should be sacrificed for public safety but that is a dangerous move as if government is not forced to abide by the policies and procedures set by the constitution then government can become corrupt. Individual rights will trump public safety but you can still maintain a peaceful society without denying individuals their rights guaranteed under the constitution.
In "The End of America," Naomi Wolf lays out the ten steps that dictators (or aspiring dictators) take in order to shut down an open society. She warns, “If we want an open society we must pay attention and we must fight to protect democracy. The founders did not write the Constitution and Bill of Rights for all this bravado. They wrote those documents in fear. They came, or their families had from places where they were hung for speaking out for their rights. I saw that dictators learn from one another and they developed a blue print for closing down open society. And then I saw that this blue print was simple. It consists of ten steps….Each of those ten steps is now under way in the United States today.” The ten steps are 1. Invoke an internal and external threat