Benlog

… there can be no freedom. I think it’s important to repeat those words to yourself every now and then: without due process, there can be no freedom. You might think that terrorism requires exceptions to the rule of law. We need to be able to torture, you might think, in the case of a ticking time bomb. We need to be able to keep people in jail without evidence, you might think, in case the authorities really know that those people are terrorists.

But then you find out what really happens when we give up due process. When we cut corners. Give law enforcement too much authority and enforce too little accountability. Innocent people get jailed without reason. Innocent people get tortured. How are we free, if an innocent person runs the risk of torture?

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the innocent person, that poor, innocent, victim of the war on terror we lament for a day before sighing “well, mistakes happen”… could be you. It’s not a mistake. It’s a systemic problem due to an administration that wants more power and less accountability. It makes me so mad.