Racial Profiling... Pros And Cons

[Emotion]

I'm doing an argumentive paper on Racial Profiling, and i needa little help.

Ever since September 11, 2001, there was all this increased security and all that carp that came with it. One of the things that came with it was increased racial profiling towards people of Arab background or people who look of Arab backgrounds. Obviously, it's wrong in general to do racial profiling just beacause of their nationality and the "chances" of them "being more likely to do it."

But where will we draw the line? When is enough, enough? It's bad enough that there's so much profiling against African-Americans/Black people about how people think they're going to commit a crime or how they all like chicken. That's total carp. Of course those are not the only examples, and probably bad ones, but you get my point. There's already enough discrimination in our country, this just makes it worse.

What do you people think? What are the pros and cons?

[Budge]

Talk about the foolishness of grabbing an 80 year old grandma [of whatever color], on the airport security line and how they make them strip her shoes off and more.

This could have been set up for the camera, but I was watching Little people, Big World, and the -father who is scooter-bound was run through the entire rigomarole, anyone with half a brain knows neither of these folks are a terrorist.

[Aloysius]

of course, we have seen from experience that terrorists instantly perceive any exceptions in our secuirity screenings and act accordingly. if we stop checking all the white people, they will send their white recruits with the bombs or just plant them on random white people. if we stop checking old folks, they will dress as if they are old and/or plant bombs on old people.

that's terrorist tactics 101, exploit exceptions in secuirity checks.

[Budge]

Most 80 year old grandmas arent working for terrorist organizations and have settled down by that age from any extreme radicalism.

Who are they going to use their actual grandmas?

How many "white" American terrorists are there besides a few liberal wannabes like the kid who ran off to Afghanistan?

Anyhow I know most of this terrorist hysteria is mostly an avenue for the powers that be to strip away rights and implement technology that will make 1984 look like a cakewalk. Dont get me wrong, terrorism does exsist, but whatever happen to the concept of courage, and not giving up liberty for security like a bunch of scaredy-cats?

[homeschoolmom]

Except whose "good judgement" are we going to go with? The airport securities?

[desertwoman]

Airport securites should learn from the best in profiling.

[cmotherofpirl]

define racial profiling.

[Aloysius]

you dont think someone can dress themselves to look like they're really old? it is a pretty easy trick.

[avemaria40]

Racial profiling is so annoying. My dad used to get stopped all the time, because he's dark-haired and sometimes has a beard. Oh no, someone has a beard, they must be a terrorist (sarcasm). He doesn't even look Middle Eastern or w/e.

[Budge]

[quote]you dont think someone can dress themselves to look like they're really old? it is a pretty easy trick.[/quote]

And that Baby in the carriage could just be a Little man like they used to show on old time cartoons...

Sheesh, some of the terrorism stuff is getting foolish. Americans used to be proud of having some backbone and courage in life.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='Budge' post='1096415' date='Oct 19 2006, 10:36 PM']
And that Baby in the carriage could just be a Little man like they used to show on old time cartoons...

Sheesh, some of the terrorism stuff is getting foolish. Americans used to be proud of having some backbone and courage in life.
[/quote]
American's used to not have to worry about their planes being hijaked and flown into major government buildings, either.
These people don't care who they hurt in the process!

[Anomaly]

Well, based on the evidence of who has been terrorists, the vast majority of the terrorists have been middle eastern males, aged 18-40, with dark hair.
The other fact is that they cannot check everyone, so logic dictates that you should check a higer percentage of middle eastern males, aged 18-40 with dark hair.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't randomly check other races, genders, ages, etc. Were working with probablitly percentages.

The real fact is, it isn't hard to smuggle illegal substances onto a plane. What about all the recent incidents of finding kinives and objects on planes? Even the gel-bomb has been around for a time. In the 'Road to 9/11' it showed that it was being tested before WTC and one had already been set off on a plane.

The goal of terrorism is to cause fear, not just kill. A bunch of smoke bombs going off in planes would disrupt airlines and cost the US economy billions.

Terrorism is emotional black-mail, just like a child throwing a tantrum in the grocery store. The parent can give the child candy to shut her up, or they can abandon the shopping cart 1/2 full of stuff and take the child out to the car for punishment. It's easier to give them candy, but what has that accomplished? You just taught the child that bad behavior has power and will get the child what she wants. Lot's of parents cave in because it's easier, but they are just creating future problems for others who will ahve to deal with the child in school, the playground, as they grow up...

[Winchester]

Racial profiling is a subset of profiling. It does not go by race alone, typically. And if done properly, it works.

[dairygirl4u2c]

I would generally be for racial profiling when there's a purpose, such as when terrorists are commonly arab.

A couple problems generally. If you racial profile, it could be a self fulfilling prophecy. I target blacks, so I wonder who's going to have more arrests? Then blacks have more arrests, so I better target them more...
Also, what if the people who did wrong are only one in a million? I'm going to start profiling blacks now, because one of them did something against whites in resentment. I punishes them all unproportionally.

[Anomaly]

[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' post='1098179' date='Oct 21 2006, 11:49 PM']
I would generally be for racial profiling when there's a purpose, such as when terrorists are commonly arab.

A couple problems generally. If you racial profile, it could be a self fulfilling prophecy. I target blacks, so I wonder who's going to have more arrests? Then blacks have more arrests, so I better target them more...
Also, what if the people who did wrong are only one in a million? I'm going to start profiling blacks now, because one of them did something against whites in resentment. I punishes them all unproportionally.
[/quote]
Great point. That's what anti-profilers do to argue against profiling. If 1 arab out of 90,000 searched is given a hard time for the wrong reasons (using profiling as the excuse), they don't want any profiling which puts the other Million people at risk.