Martin Luther King was wiretapped by the FBI for many years during the civil rights movement in which he participated. Sexual encounters were recorded, and really are about all the FBI got out of these wire taps. They used these against MLK and tried to bring him down with it. They did this, "Hoping to prove the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was under the influence of Communists, the FBI kept the civil rights leader under constant surveillance.". Now they found nothing of the sort of course.
MLK recieved numerous threatening letters from the FBI, and many awful things were said about him by the FBI and other government officials. JFK is one of the people who gave the FBI permission to break into his room and plant surveillance devices.
Now all this seems just wrong right? Well at the end of the article it states, "When you have a wiretap on someone you pick up all sorts of dreck. But in terms of the political history that ironically the FBI has created for us, it's a wonderful resource,"
This is not okay! A great resource? Is this how invading peoples privacy is going to be looked at? I sure hope not. We all know about the Patriot Act, and is that really okay? Yes, we found out things we never knew but how does this better our country? It doesn't. So we know about MLK's private life, what now? Nothing. Actions taken by our government have not really seemed to have progressed since the days of MLK to now, with all the wire tapping going on. Is it our job as Americans to stop this? Or are we just supposed to sit back and allow the government to rule our lives?
You may not have a problem with this, but think about it. It luckily did not stop MLK but what if a similar situation happens to a person that may really be on the verge of making a difference, but the government inteferes by invading their private life? I guess America will have to find out the hard way.
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