29 April 2013
Boston and the Patriot Act
Extraordinary martial law-type actions were used by the FBI and the local Boston area police to mount an effective response to the Marathon bombing. This temporary and unusually draconian suspension of civil liberties was indeed accepted by Boston residents who are normally very vigilant against encroachment on their rights by government. However, that doesn’t mean, as Daniel Henninger implies in his article in the April 25, 2013 Wall Street Journal, that they would be as compliant with such “protections” from terrorism before an attack on their well-being.
Yes, that means continued vulnerability to random violence. That, after all, is a price of freedom. An unspoken reliance on society’s quick ability to react with effective police action when it is called for is an essential component of a liberal democracy. That is what the Patriot Act was enacted to institutionalize. However, liberals soon regretted precipitously making explicit what had been unspoken before 9/11.
If anything, the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings demonstrated that unspoken reliance on the willingness of citizens to allow their liberties to be infringed in extreme circumstances can work in truly liberal societies. It did not show any diminution of Bostonians’ or liberal Americans’ valuation of their freedom below their security from deranged brothers or international religious fanatics. Commitment to every principle has reasonable limits—in this case public safety was paramount.
Extraordinary martial law-type actions were used by the FBI and the local Boston area police to mount an effective response to the Marathon bombing. This temporary and unusually draconian suspension of civil liberties was indeed accepted by Boston residents who are normally very vigilant against encroachment on their rights by government. However, that doesn’t mean, as Daniel Henninger implies in his article in the April 25, 2013 Wall Street Journal, that they would be as compliant with such “protections” from terrorism before an attack on their well-being.
Yes, that means continued vulnerability to random violence. That, after all, is a price of freedom. An unspoken reliance on society’s quick ability to react with effective police action when it is called for is an essential component of a liberal democracy. That is what the Patriot Act was enacted to institutionalize. However, liberals soon regretted precipitously making explicit what had been unspoken before 9/11.
If anything, the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings demonstrated that unspoken reliance on the willingness of citizens to allow their liberties to be infringed in extreme circumstances can work in truly liberal societies. It did not show any diminution of Bostonians’ or liberal Americans’ valuation of their freedom below their security from deranged brothers or international religious fanatics. Commitment to every principle has reasonable limits—in this case public safety was paramount.
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