And while most New Yorkers might escape its direct effects, the nation's "war on terror" has involved detentions without trial, renditions to foreign countries where torture is practiced, the use of secret evidence in terrorism prosecutions, and the application of the "state secrets" privilege to block lawsuits against the Bush administration.
September 11 is only part of the story. Advances in technology like behavioral-recognition cameras, data-mining software and biometric scanners coupled with the desire for more aggressive security measures mean “there are more and more opportunities for government to intrude into your life, and fewer and fewer protections,” says NYCLU advocacy director Udi Ofer. Some of the trends—like security cameras and harsher immigration enforcement—date back to before the terrorist attacks. And a few of the new measures, such as a plan to collect DNA from people arrested but not yet convicted of crimes, have little to do with terrorism, per se. But these efforts have all accelerated in the post-September 11 atmosphere.
"After September 11, legal experts quickly concluded that we needed to strengthen the government's intelligence gathering authority, that we needed to shift the balance, as the saying goes, shift the balance between liberty and security," NYU law professor Stephen Schulhofer said in late 2003 to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. That the balance has been shifted since the 2001 attacks is not in doubt. The question, as Commission member Richard Ben Veniste told the commission's first meeting, is whether the proper equilibrium has been struck.
"This balancing will be no easy task, but it is imperative that we get it right," Ben Veniste said. "In 1989, Justice Thurgood Marshall warned, 'History teaches us that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.' … If the acts of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations who mean us harm result in a response that disproportionately curtails the personal freedoms and civil liberties that define our American way of life, then our enemies will have won a great victory without taking another life."
By collecting in one place, and taking a clear look at, these responses in New York City, "Freedom/Fear" hopes to stimulate further examination of whether this "victory" has been won.
