I’m seeing “freedom” being used so often as a defense of bad behavior. How do you personally view “freedom”?

I know this sounds like a bad high school English class question, but I’m genuinely interested. Especially in regard to the recent protests we’ve been seeing and how Americans are accustomed to a life of “freedom” and how that interacts with public safety.

We have an idea in this country, expressed in a Ben Franklin quote, that to give up any freedom, even temporarily, for any other cause is anathema; it makes you undeserving of that freedom. Is it ever valid to question this idea?