Political Crime and Ethics
Political crimes include all crimes committed or any acts omitted with the intention or inadvertently injuring the government or a political system. Siegel (369) defines the term political crime as “signifying all illegal acts that are designed to undermine an existing government and threaten its survival.” Individuals classified as political criminals are driven by a myriad of factors including principles and values, faith, and conviction. In some instances, political criminals are driven by financial gains. However, a majority of political crimes are not considered as antisocial, but seen as acts of patriotism and altruistic. For political criminals like Eric Snowden, the greater good precedes any other individual desire.
Eric Snowden is a former employee of an American firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, an organization that performed a number of contracts with the American government linked to the NSA and the CIA. He was an IT systems expert and an intelligence consultant. He leaked a series of classified information from the NSA when he was a subcontractor and an employee for the CIA (Siegel 369). He is regarded a political criminal because of the way he injured the reputation of the US government on both the domestic and the international fronts. He believes that he is a patriot who sacrificed his own luxurious lifestyle for the benefit of the American public, who he believed were denied basic rights through a violation of their privacy. He exposed a system that he defines as “governing in the dark where decisions with enormous public impact occur without any public input.” (Siegel 370). His actions, although fully qualified as political crimes, trigger a debate on whether they showcase patriotism or reveal him to be a traitor.
Snowden is a patriot. He is also a political criminal because his actions fit the definition of the same. As a whistleblower, his actions were not meant to hurt his government but to create awareness. He feels that the “public is owed an explanation of the motivations behind the people that make disclosures outside of the democratic model…” (YouTube Video 4:04-20).he is involved in treasonous activity not as a terrorist but as an individual who chose to be a whistleblower because of the actions of the governments. His actions show that the definition of political crime should be changed to accommodate those that are motivated by principles and values to risk their life in a move to defend the constitution and what is right.
