Americans Support Racial Profiling

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

One of the folks arrested as part of the foiled jet bombing plot the other week was actually a caucasian male, as was the so called 'shoe bomber'. Would racial profiling have 'detected' these people?

Maybe, if the profile included Arabs and UK citizens.

Or human beings in general. Be a bit pointless then I guess

Why not add, that if you are female you always inappropriatelyy touched .Why not. May be not you , But other people at some point of time and some place experienced that. It would be a lie, but a good one. For a good cause.

What the HELL was this about? Explain.

El Pollo Loco!

[gimygirl 0]

something that big shouldn't cause 'performance' problems! trust me!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This is why we have a Constitution - to protect the rights of the minority from the will of the majority. We aren't a mob rule society. However, given that, I don't think profiling if done methodically and logically is necessarily a violation of an individual's civil rights. Simply pulling someone aside because of the color of their skin or their natioinality in my opinion is a violation of their civil rights.

As Gupt pointed out, being male and within a certain age range is a perfectly legitimate profile. But beyond that, I don't see how it would be very effective or even safe to only seek out those who look Middle Eastern - in fact terrorists could use such narrow searching to their advantage.

I'd say the most effective method is random searches with the added clause that when it's an old woman who is randomly selected, they randomly select someone else. So in a way, profiling to disregard certain people as suspect would be more appropriate.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

As Gupt pointed out, being male and within a certain age range is a perfectly legitimate profile. But beyond that, I don't see how it would be very effective or even safe to only seek out those who look Middle Eastern - in fact terrorists could use such narrow searching to their advantage.

I'd say the most effective method is random searches with the added clause that when it's an old woman who is randomly selected, they randomly select someone else. So in a way, profiling to disregard certain people as suspect would be more appropriate.

Good points, all

[Kez/JWolf 6]

something that big shouldn't cause 'performance' problems! trust me!

Its always good to complain about how big something is, it makes the owner feel so good.....

Kezzie

[mawilson 2,133]

True - but as I said before racial profiling did not catch the shoe bomber, and would not have caught the white guy who was involved in the bomb plot the other week. Again if the issue were about religious profiling, this would greatly change the character of the dialogue.

As I said before, I'm against profiling.....but:

If the profile doesn't catch someone (e.g. Richard Reid the shoe bomber), all you have

to do is change the profile.

When two suicide bombers from the UK blew themselves up in a Tel-Aviv pub,

Israel's security police immediately changed their profile to include UK citizens.

[Ban Hammer 14,196]

El Pollo Loco!

the crazy chicken?

[type2negative 0]

Gee erecose.

Angry sre you, some sisters and so on.

Angry were people on My flag, that proved not to be jamaican.

I could be annoyed by crying baby, but not enraged. No anger here.

[garya505 2]

"profiling" and "racial profiling" are two different things and profiling doesn't always include race

profiling should never be used as an excuse for illegal or improper racial discrimination

gender, age, race, politics, and religion can all be used in profiling, as well as behavior

profiling works

yes, it can be a personal insult to be profiled because of our race, gender, age, religion, etc.

just my $.02

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Clearly you can't profile simply based on someone's appearance - which assumes a degree of stupidity on the part of the terrorist. After all someone who is committing mass murder in the name of a twisted conception of religion probably doesn't have too many qualms about eating pork, or swigging alcohol to throw off suspicion (for example). Similarly considering that the recent foiled plot involved not only a caucasian male, but a young couple woman with a newborn baby it seems to be rather catch-22 - because it implies that almost anyone could be a potential bomber. If a woman, or young mother with child is capable of this, why not an old lady?

Of course that would imply that everyone must be subjected to a scrutiny subject everyone (including the old lady) - but that is of course completely infeasible. Similarly the TSA can't search every bag (just as customs can't search every cargo container coming into port) and someone could quite certainly smuggle, say remote controlled explosives into a checked bag.

I'm not sure there is a 100% foolproof solution here, but clearly we should be suspicious of any attempts to marginalise, brand or outright discriminate against certain ethnic groups on the basis of a general fear.

[Traviesa 0]

Of course that would imply that everyone must be subjected to a scrutiny subject everyone (including the old lady) - but that is of course completely infeasible. Similarly the TSA can't search every bag (just as customs can't search every cargo container coming into port) and someone could quite certainly smuggle, say remote controlled explosives into a checked bag.

And there enlies the reasons why flying terrifies me...

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Gee erecose.

Angry sre you, some sisters and so on.

Angry were people on My flag, that proved not to be jamaican.

I could be annoyed by crying baby, but not enraged. No anger here.

No not angry, mildly amused perhaps.

BTW - is displaying the confederate flag your way of "assimilating" into our culture. It sure isn't in your use of the language my friend.

"Hope you like my film, otherwise I will be execute"

[type2negative 0]

British culture???..

No..

[mawilson 2,133]

erekose,

As much as I hate profiling, it does work. How many planes have been

hijacked from Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport? Not a single one

ever. And it wasn't for lack of trying on the part of the terrorists.

In fact, Richard Reid (the shoe bomber) had allegedly travelled to Israel

to familiarise himself with El-Al's security procedures; after being thoroughly

interrogated by BGI security officers (who apparently even asked him to

take off his shoes (!)), he gave up that idea pretty quickly.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Gee erecose.

Angry sre you, some sisters and so on.

Angry were people on My flag, that proved not to be jamaican.

I could be annoyed by crying baby, but not enraged. No anger here.

No not angry, mildly amused perhaps.

BTW - is displaying the confederate flag your way of "assimilating" into our culture. It sure isn't in your use of the language my friend.

"Hope you like my film, otherwise I will be execute"