Racial Profiling
Offline http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110531/ap_on_re_us/us_terrorism_charges_iraqis
Are people still in pc shock with racial profiling?
It seems to make sense to me to look into people from the mideast who are here when we have a threat of terrorism from..the mideast dare I say?
Not enough to throw them in jail or open up concentration camps mind you (sorry japanese americans) but it seems common sense plays out as far as who IS a potential threat here and to be against racial profiling so much that it actually seems to point the finger completely away from said potential threat seems ridiculous. This pc idea is intended to make sure no feelings are hurt but wtf does a pipe bomb feel like?
Anyway I haven't heard much about it lately, thoughts?
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
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This too harsh or just a sore subject? I really haven't heard a lot about racial profiling lately, is it a dying thing?
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
Because it doesn't make much sense? You have an increasing amount of Middle Eastern people like me abandoning the traditional faiths, and increasing amount of Europeans and Americans of all stripes converting to Islam (I witnessed it myself when I was a Muslim). Focusing on those of Middle Eastern descent, even if they are several times more likely to commit an act of terror, makes no sense because it just leaves us open to attack by some white kid indoctrinated by an insane Imam.
Terrorism can come in any shape and size. There have been Islamist "terrorists" from the Phillipines, South Asia, the Middle East, and even Europe and America that have fought with al-Qaeda. There have been female suicide bombers. Al-Qaeda will make use of that as soon as we start becoming more specific with racial profiling, whether now or later. The safest thing is to check everyone, and not concentrate on a few choice ethnic groups.
And honestly, if you were al-Qaeda and you had one shot at a good suicide bombing in a Western country, who better to send than the white boy they're not expecting?
True but I haven't heard of much of this...yet.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
This guy's story was pretty popular for a while...
Well, I think it best to start with the idea of profiling as a more general thing, which is not itself bad. It is a standard technique in law enforcement circles. Really, the FBI has a whole division dedicated to profiling serial killers. That and the basics of profiling are taught to pretty much every detective.
The term racial profiling became controversial in the US because of the fairly specific fact that there are quite a lot of young black men involved in the drug trade. So when the cops pull over some black 17 year old who is driving a $50,000 car, the charge sometimes comes up that he was stopped for “driving while black”. OK, now tell me why his buying such a car for cash when he has never even had a paper route should not be an obvious problem?
As far as potential terrorists go, if you only target young men with middle eastern names, then you are probably leaving the door open to a number of possible problems. White boy terrorists might seem obvious but the number of those that have happened thus far tends to suggest that as less than likely. More likely would be recruiting from prison and that is going to take you into other realms of the race equation altogether.
On the other hand, you could possibly build a profile based on some type of known risk factors. For example, if you know who the radical imams are, then you can score a potential threat based on known contact. Other things such as purchasing large amounts of fertilizer with cash could also be used to build a profile.
The thing being that while that might catch some people, it would not catch others.
Computer matching might have caught Jose Padilla. Recruited in prison, attended a known radical mosque, close friends with someone else known to have aided terrorists, traveled to several middle east countries. I would think that there would be enough there to flag him for at least closer scrutiny.
However, that probably would not catch the lone wolf terrorists such as the Times Square bomber (despite being everything that would turn up in a pure racial profile, he did not leave any actionable clues). Traditional law enforcement got him two days later.
There was also a white supremacist in Maine who tried to build a dirty bomb a couple of years ago. Again, because he was white, he would not come up in a racial profile but with regular profiling, he might have gotten himself flagged for buying the shit in the first place.
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Racial profiling is a big reason Timothy McVeigh evaded capture for so long, as the initial thought was that it was a radical Muslim who committed the attack. It's biggest problem is that it focuses the search to a group that may or may not include the actual perpetrator of the crime. If that person is a part of that group, then you're lucky and you have the chance of catching the person easier. If not, then enjoy the wild goose chase.
Skeptic Magazine had a great piece a couple of years back about how unscientific criminal profiling is, and it brought up many of the problems with the practice (whether it's racially motivated or not).
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Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudoph, Scott Roeder(sp). So we should profile every anti-abortion protester?
Lets profile Mexicans too while where at it.
OR, what we could do is simply go after ANYONE we have probable cause for for any reason.
You have more to fear dying from a car accident or dying from a domestic crime, like robbery or murder.
Stop buying into the Fox News scare tactics.
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I don't think that it a very good idea to alienate people. Even if their is some short term gain I don't think the long term effects of alienating a large group of people is really worth it. We all have to live together some how which means that we have to try and treat each other with respect, and I'm not sure we can do that if we treat innocent people like terrorists just because it's convenient.