Blog 10: Essay 3 Final

Katia Perez

ENG 101—0768

Dr. Vasileiou

Essay 3

12/4/12

Do the Ends Justify the Means?

            Our society is constantly looking for new ways to keep the environment safe by attempting to eliminate or reduce crime, terrorism, and other possible threats. In many cases by trying to do so some ethical concerns are brought up. Should our society find ways to solve issues regardless of the methods used to get the desired outcome? Many believe that we should do whatever it takes to make our world safer but the actions taken are not always morally justifiable. Some methods used today to ensure safety violate some of our rights and perpetrate prejudices. All humans are born with natural rights and those rights should not be taken by higher powers to solve problems occurring in our everyday lives. Using unethical means to ensure safety is not acceptable.

Violating the natural rights of the people should not be acceptable regardless of the reasons for it. In the movie Minority Report a system called Pre-crime is used to reduce crime by arresting people before they actually commit the crime. Pre-crime relied on what they called “precogs”, a group of people who can foresee a crime before it transpires, to help them make these arrests. This system was flawed and unethical because it violated privacy and the public’s civil liberties. The crime rate in Washington DC decreased but at what cost? It was never certain that the people arrested were going to commit the murder. John Anderton, a cop on the run, proved the system not trustworthy when he chose to change his own destiny by not killing a man the precogs determined he would kill. Our modern world believes that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Anderton was arrested for the murder of a man whom he did not kill, did not get a fair trial, and was automatically assumed guilty. In this futuristic society an example is shown of how the people were stripped of all their rights in order to keep their society a safe environment. It is immoral to punish someone for actions they did not make and infringe on their privacy.

Other violations of privacy are often seen in our current security methods. One method used often in airports, prisons, and some times in homeless shelters is strip searching. Strip searches require the person being searched to remove all of their clothing and are more invasive than a frisk. This method can be very humiliating and disturbing to many people. In an article written by Donna De La Cruz a person describes a strip search as being violated, raped, and stripped of their humanity. This does not seem rational and should not be allowed. Harris says, “the courts have ceded control and autonomy to correction departments to do pretty much what they want in the name of security” (De La Cruz). In some cases, officers who work in these correction departments abuse their power and give degrading and improper searches. Those people subjected to these improper searches are being humiliated for security reasons. Many of these searches are supposed to be random but people are often targeted because of their ethnicity.  

Discrimination is one very important issue that comes along with new methods to ensure safety in our society. Many people are profiled because of their race or religion. In the book “How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America” by Moustafa Bayoumi, the author shares the stories of a few Arab Americans who were victims to the discrimination after the events of 9/11. Many Muslims had horrible experiences due to their race or religion. Bayoumi talks about a certain individual who was detained and separated from most of her family because they had been falsely accused of being associated with terrorists. After 9/11 many people were arrested for silly reasons, such as speeding, because they were Muslim. Many of these people were deported or detained for months. A similar situation took place after the bombing of Pearl Harbor with many Japanese American citizens. Bayoumi stated in his book about the Japanese detainments that, “The administration’s own intelligence often confirmed that the community as a whole was not at all a threat to national security. But rather than following the course of justice, the administration exploited the jingoism and racism of the moment”(40). All of those innocent Japanese American citizens were punished and discriminated against even after the government was well aware that they were not a threat to our society.

As our civilization grows we are constantly finding new ways to ensure safety. Most of these methods help our society reduce the chances of crime and other threats but are considered immoral and violate our rights. People are naturally inclined to want to feel safe and have a sense of security and freedom but does defying our privacy implement that liberty or safety? Our society shouldn’t go to extremes to keep our society safe if it means reprimanding innocent people, violating our rights, and forming discrimination towards people. If protecting our environment involves going against the public’s ethical and moral beliefs then the ends do not justify the means.

Works Cited Page

Bayoumi, Moustafa. How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America .          

New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.

De La Cruz, Donna. “Defendants are increasingly suing over strip searches.” The Associated

Press 13 January 2001: Domestic News. Print.

Minority Report. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Tom Cruise. Amblin, 2002. Film.