The Pew research on willingness to give up liberty

David M Brown dmb1000 at juno.com
Thu Sep 20 12:40:28 PDT 2001


Matt,

Re the "newsbyte" item you recently distributed, assuring readers that
the public still supports privacy rights at least for email and phone
conversations...

Following are passages from the survey write-up at the Pew Research
Center site <http://www.people-press.org/terrorist01mor.htm>. The survey
is about public attitudes in the wake of the terrorist attack. The quoted
passages pertain to attitudes toward civil liberties.

The newsbyte is somewhat misleading, because it mentions only those
instances where most of the public is least comfortable with loss of
liberty and greater surveillance of innocent people. It's a spin.

I guess it _is_ lucky that "only" 29% of Americans support internment
camps to round up LEGAL immigrants from hostile nations. And that 70%
don't want their phone calls or email to be monitored. On the other hand,
70% would have no problem with a national ID card that would have to be
presented on demand. 40% favor monitoring of their credit card purchases.
I would be happy to learn that this survey is fundamentally flawed. If it
isn't, we can only hope that second thoughts will prevail over time.

If more than half think of us think it's hunky-dory to give up some
freedom to combat terrorism, we're in trouble -- even if people are a
little bit queasier about this particular measure or that particular
measure. Especially when the public and the media and pols are all
singing the same song about the "new balance" we need.

Once the principle that people have certain inalienable rights is ceded,
there is not much ground left to stand on when they find that they do not
particularly like warrantless door-to-door searches or whatever. We all
know that even "temporary" war-time violations of liberty are often
retained after a war ends (as witness NYC rent controls).

And this is a war that by all indications will be fought indefinitely.
The liberty we lose now, we're not likely to get back any time soon.

David M. Brown

MOST SEE NEED TO SACRIFICE LIBERTIES

             Even more than was the case after the 1995 terrorist bombing
in Oklahoma City, Americans think it will be necessary to give up some
civil liberties in order to combat terrorism. A majority (55%) say the
average person will have to give up some freedoms in order to prevent
such attacks in the future.  The only dissent comes from respondents
under age 30, where just 40% think restricting civil liberties will be
necessary, while 50% disagree.

Sacrifice Civil Liberties to Curb Terrorism?

                     April    March    April         Sept

                     1995*    1996      1997          2001

                       %          %          %              %

Yes               49          30          29              55

No                 43          65          62              35

DK/Ref.         8            5            9               10

                      100        100        100            100

*L.A. Times

             In the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing,
roughly half of Americans (49%) felt that sacrificing some civil
liberties would be necessary, but this view lost support in the years
that followed. By March 1996, only 30% said they thought curbing civil
liberties was a necessary step to control terrorism, while nearly
two-in-three (65%) said it was not.

             Though most see a loss of civil liberties as a necessary
step, many have reservations about government action.  Nearly as many
worry that government action might excessively restrict the average
persons civil liberties (34%) as express concern that the government
will not go far enough in enacting strong new terrorism laws (39%).


No Draconian Measures

             Despite the expectation that it will be necessary to
sacrifice some liberties, the public does not give blanket approval to
all possible government responses to the terrorist threat, especially
when it involves personal privacy. Seven-in-ten favor a requirement that
citizens carry a national identity card at all times to show to a police
officer on request, a proposal that has particularly strong support from
women (75%).  But the public is more dubious when it comes to government
monitoring of telephone calls, e-mails and credit card purchases.

Measures to Curb Terrorism

                                            Favor    Oppose  DK/Ref

                                               %            %            %

National ID cards               70            26         4=100

CIA assassinations           67            22        11=100

CIA criminal contacts        67            22        11=100

Monitor credit cards          40            55         5=100

Internment camps              29            57        14=100

Monitor phone/e-mail       26            70         4=100

             A majority (55%) would not favor permitting the government to
monitor their credit card purchases, and fully seven-in-ten oppose
allowing the government to monitor personal telephone calls and e-mails.


             Perhaps most important, Americans clearly reject the
establishment of internment camps to round up legal immigrants from
hostile nations. By roughly two-to-one (57% to 29%), the public opposes
that idea. On each of the measures related directly to civil liberties,
college-educated Americans express more concern about restricting
freedoms than those with a high-school degree or less.

             By contrast, the public is much more willing to remove some
of the shackles from the CIA in order to combat terrorism. Fully
two-thirds favor allowing the CIA to conduct assassinations overseas when
pursuing suspected enemies of the U.S., and an equal proportion are
willing to allow the CIA to contract with criminals in pursuing suspected
terrorists. Americans under age 50 and men express the strongest support
for such actions. ####

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