How far are you willing to go to protect our society?
In the wake of the Orlando nightclub killings that is the legal question to decide.
America must decide how to balance our Constitutional rights against the rights of its people to feel safe.
How far would you be willing to go to curtail certain constitutional rights in order to protect society as a whole?
The FBI had done an investigation of the killer before.
They had interviewed him on two prior occasions concerning terror related cases.
However they closed their investigation of him in both cases.
The killer had made inflammatory comments to coworkers in which he displayed possible terrorist ties.
The FBI determined that there was just not enough of a link to continue their investigation of the killer.
And that gets to the central issue of this blog.
How much of a curtailment of citizens individual rights are you willing to compromise in order to prevent the tragedy like the one that happened in Orlando Florida?
Should the FBI have been authorized to continue to keep this man under surveillance even after they completed both of their investigations of him?
If a person’s last name is one of Muslim descent, does that justify the police and the FBI in doing additional security background checks?
Or should there be some additional evidence needed in order to continue an investigation of a person like this?
What is particularly scary is that the killer had obtained his gun legally in order to carrying out this terrorist act.
In fact incredibly this killer had worked as a security guard at a courthouse.
He had permission to carry a weapon and was a security guard at a courthouse.
And he was obviously a sympathizer to the terrorist group ISIS.
Is anyone getting chills yet?
Pittsburgh wrongful death, medical malpractice and car accident and criminal defense attorney Bernie Tully certainly is.
This shows how easy it is for someone who is willing to give up his life to commit an act of terrorism like we saw in the nightclub incident.
Pittsburgh wrongful death, medical malpractice, car accident and criminal defense attorney Bernie Tully thinks this is scary to the bone.
Are you willing to say it’s okay for the police and the FBI to continue to tail and monitor someone who they feel POSSIBLY could be a terrorist threat?
Assume its just their feeling without any real objective proof to back it up.
Would you be willing to say that is okay as long as it keeps us safe?
I am sure that many people would answer that question yes.
And that gets the heart of the constitutional issue between individual rights and protection of our society as a whole.
There is no easy answer here.
But it seems like our society is going to have to make that choice between the two competing interests sooner rather than later.
Where do you stand on the issue?
Thanks for reading.
Bernie the Attorney