False Accusations

      In no way is it legal to detain a human without evidence, but is it worth it to break the law to keep citizens safe? That is up for argument. Whether it was in Arthur Miller's play the Crucible, or the ideal of senator McCarthy in the red scare, both cases made a precedent of falsely accusing to achieve the original goal. McCarthy falsely accused hundreds of being communistic all for his original goal of achieving fame, and in the Crucible characters like Abigail and Betty and their actions of accusation on the towns women, are used to complete Miller's objective of showing falsified accusation. This action of "accusing" is often seen in today's world both in a small scale and large.  In recent news the sentencing of Jose Padilla, which ended up being 17 years in federal prison, was a much shorter than many had hoped for. But, in an article written by "The New York Times" Judge Cooke was quoted saying, "There is no evidence that the defendants personally maimed, kidnapped, or killed anyone in the United States or else where." This is directly related to what went on in the red scare, people were falsely accused, with very little evidence of being communists. It is also seen in the Crucible when the girls falsely accuse the townswomen of being with the devil with zero evidence of actually being with the devil.



     Another recent story that had citizens questioning the basis of argumentation was the spying done by the U.S. government and the NSA. The NSA claimed that the tapping of cell phones had led to them thwarting 54 terrorist attacks. In an article written by ProPublica it states, "During Keith Alexander's presentation in Las Vegas, two slides read simply "54 THWARTED ATTACKS." The NSA, President Obama, and members of congress have all said NSA spying programs have thwarted more than 50 terrorist plots. But there is no evidence this is true." Just like McCarthy the U.S government in this case claims, with or without evidence, that their invasion of personal privacy by tapping phone lines has helped save lives. This is exactly what happens in the Crucible when Reverend Hale shows up. He claims to have solved witchcraft issues and cleared the devil from several towns with very little evidence of that actually happening. The main reason that all of this works is that the citizens are afraid. Whether or not anyone is actually a terrorist, or townswomen were with the devil, or a person was a communist, the public are too afraid to risk it. It isn't worth the risk to not believe what the people in power tell you to believe, which is a main theme in both McCarthyism, the Crucible, and in more modern events the sentencing of Jose Padilla and the spying
performed by the NSA.