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Public Safety And Individual Rights Essay

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Prioritizing individual rights and those of the public has long been the subject of debate. Do the rights of the individual outweigh those of the community? Arguments for both are strong and valid, yet defining the line between individual rights and public safety proves to be challenging. Individual rights are vital to living freely, however freedom without security is not possible as citizens are not truly free if they are not safe. Public health is becoming more of a concern for citizens. A controversial public health issue often reported in the news is vaccinations and the right of parents to opt not to vaccinate their children. Immunization from diseases has eliminated the spread of many infectious and possibly deadly diseases. Measles, …show more content…

(Bill or Rights, n.d.) Attempting to keep the country safe while supporting its citizens’ rights is a continuous struggle for the government and its agencies. Absolute privacy with absolute safety, albeit utopia, is a lofty expectation and a challenge to procure. The Associated Press - NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reports 42 percent of Americans feel their security should be a vital objective of the government. While civil libertarians may strongly disagree, 54 percent of Americans feel individual rights may need to be forfeited in order to avert terrorist acts. Warrantless surveillance has been a very contentious subject relating to this right, especially surrounding the abilities granted to governmental agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA) via The Patriot and USA Freedom Acts. Despite this controversy, more than half of Americans, 56 percent, still believe the government possesses the right to surveil internet correspondence, conversations, and phone calls without a warrant for suspicious or terrorist activity. This may be due to the fact that the number of Americans who fear that they or someone in their family could eventually become the victim of a terrorist act has doubled since 2013. (Americans,

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