TSA Accused of Racial Profiling During Airport 'Chat-Downs': Is Racial Profiling OK?
mrosen814
2012/08/14 18:00:00
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TSA agents at Boston's Logan airport are being investigated over claims of racial profiling of "Middle Easterners, Hispanics and blacks." According to USA Today, "the chat-down program at Boston and Detroit airports is at the fore of TSA's effort to focus security on the riskiest passengers, rather than treating all travelers the same."
TRAVEL.USATODAY.COM reports:
TRAVEL.USATODAY.COM reports:
The TSA says government investigators are looking at complaints of racial profiling in the chat-down program at Boston's Logan airport.
Read More: http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2012-08-1...
Top Opinion
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Depsycho 2012/08/14 18:59:08
The FBI profiles serial killers and according to them he is typically a White male.
(However there are just as many, if not more, Black serial killers. They don't get the media attention that Whites do.)
If banks are being robbed and the description is always 'males with red hair and freckles', do we expect police to stop cars randomly? No. Or do we expect law enforcement to look for males with red hair and freckles in the area? It isn't racial profiling because the police would be prejudiced against irishmen... it would be common sense and rational procedure to look closely at people matching the description of those committing the crimes. Are there other bank robbers of different descriptions? Sure. Different terrorists? Yes. But no one is advocating ONLY checking arabs, just some extra scrutiny to those that match the description of those committing the vast majority of the crimes.
I'm a 50 year old male with greying hair... If all the hijackings were done by 50 year old males with graying hair, I'd expect to be watched close...
If banks are being robbed and the description is always 'males with red hair and freckles', do we expect police to stop cars randomly? No. Or do we expect law enforcement to look for males with red hair and freckles in the area? It isn't racial profiling because the police would be prejudiced against irishmen... it would be common sense and rational procedure to look closely at people matching the description of those committing the crimes. Are there other bank robbers of different descriptions? Sure. Different terrorists? Yes. But no one is advocating ONLY checking arabs, just some extra scrutiny to those that match the description of those committing the vast majority of the crimes.
I'm a 50 year old male with greying hair... If all the hijackings were done by 50 year old males with graying hair, I'd expect to be watched closely. And I wouldn't be mad at the police or TSA... I'd be mad at the other 50 year old males with graying hair that were trying to hurt people.
Get real, people. Before your desire to not offend or inconvenience someone ends up costing a planeload of lives.
We do it all the time.
If I was a schizophrenic white male and most murders were committed by schitzophrenic white males, then all of that group would be looked at closely and often.
Its logic. No one is denying all arab men the right to fly. No one is saying they are all criminals. But when 99.999 of all terrorist acts and hijackings are committed by one group, its a waste of money to search those outside that group in the same percentages and it is dangerous to let many of that group through without a closer check.
The nuts in the Klan are white. If a pickup truck of older white men are traveling in a black neighborhood in the South at night, it would be wrong to not keep an eye on what they are doing there.
It isn't racial discrimination, it is common sense crime prevention: you look at those who match the description of criminals you are looking for closer than those who don't match the description of criminals you are looking for.
Let look at the terrorist in America since 2010
2010 February 18: 2010 Austin suicide attack: Joseph Stack deliberately flew a small Piper Dakota aircraft into a government building in Austin, Texas, killing himself and an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee in an attack aimed at the U.S. government.
2010 September 1: Discovery Communications headquarters hostage crisis: James J. Lee, armed with two starter pistols and an explosive device, takes three people hostage in the lobby of the Discovery Communications headquarters in Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland before being killed by police. After nearly four hours, Lee was shot dead by police and all the hostages were freed without injury. Lee had earlier posted a manifesto railing against population growth and immigration.[63][64]
2011 January 6: Three packages detonate in the mail rooms of two Maryland state government buildings, causing minor injuries to the fingers of two government workers.[65]
2012 August 5 Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting: 6 killed, 3 injured...
Let look at the terrorist in America since 2010
2010 February 18: 2010 Austin suicide attack: Joseph Stack deliberately flew a small Piper Dakota aircraft into a government building in Austin, Texas, killing himself and an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee in an attack aimed at the U.S. government.
2010 September 1: Discovery Communications headquarters hostage crisis: James J. Lee, armed with two starter pistols and an explosive device, takes three people hostage in the lobby of the Discovery Communications headquarters in Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland before being killed by police. After nearly four hours, Lee was shot dead by police and all the hostages were freed without injury. Lee had earlier posted a manifesto railing against population growth and immigration.[63][64]
2011 January 6: Three packages detonate in the mail rooms of two Maryland state government buildings, causing minor injuries to the fingers of two government workers.[65]
2012 August 5 Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting: 6 killed, 3 injured including a police offer who was tending to victims at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Wade Michael Page age 40 killed himself after being shot by police.[66] The shooting is being treated by authorities as an act of domestic terrorism.[67][68] While a motive has not been clearly defined Page had been active in white supremacist groups.[66]
2012 August 15: Guard shot at the Family Research Council in Washington D.C. before helping to subdue the suspect the Floyd Lee Corkins. According to the compliant against Corkings he said "I don't like your politics" during the incident. The council is a pro Christian, Anti Abortion organization.[69][70]
Yeah Muslims are really coming after you.
Serial killers? White males.
Bombings in Ireland? Catholic Irish males.
Lynchings of blacks in the South? White males.
No one is saying arab men are the cause of all problems or that other groups shouldn't be watched closer in other areas.
But terrorism and hijackings? Until muslim arab men stop committing the vast majority of them then they need to be looked at closer than other groups that aren't committing them.
Be upset at those doing the damage, not those trying to use common sense and facts to reduce risk.
A park manager hired security officers and told them to search and question white men located in the park. The park manager believes white men are most likely to commit a sex crime against a child. He tells the security officers to confiscate cell phones and cameras. The manager performs a cursory search of the confiscated materials video files and images.
The manager is trying to prevent pedophiles from taking pictures of children.
Do you agree with the park manger's logic?
No one is arresting anyone, but checking out people who match the description of criminals in an area where the crimes are likely to occur.
In your scenario, if a middle aged white man goes to a park and starts watching children where molestations and kidnappings have occurred by a middle aged white man, do you think no one should keep an eye on him because it would be racial profiling?
Noticing the nervous look is legitimate profiling. If it was just a regular brown-skinned guy, THAT'S racial profiling. There's a difference. One is noticing a legitimate area of concern that should be investigated, the other is letting fear and racism take over while you harass an man whose only crime is being Arab post-9/11.
I'm no for prejudice or advocating treating innocents differently. That isn't what is going on. They are simply being checked thoroughly because they match the descriptions and parameters as those trying to kill innocents.
If a bank is robbed and - without a description - black men are stopped and checked then it is prejudice. There is no reason to assume the robber was black in that case. Assuming so is racial prejudice. BUT if a bunch of banks were robbed by 30-40 year old bald black men and the police know they are going to rob more, they would be silly not to be watching bald black men between 30-40 years old that walk into banks. Even sillier to be following italian teen girls, or old chinese men. Law enforcement and the TSA know which groups are likely to try a hijacking and while they need to screen everyone, there is only one group that has committed most of the hijackings and that group should / needs to be watched and screened thoroughly. Not to harass all members of hat group, but because one slipping by past a TSA worker trying to hard to be PC will cause hundreds of deaths.
A park manager hired security officers and told them to search and question white men located in the park. The park manager believes white men are most likely to commit a sex crime against a child. He tells the security officers to confiscate cell phones and cameras. The manager performs a cursory search of the confiscated materials video files and images.
The manager is trying to prevent pedophiles from taking pictures of children.
Do you agree with the park manger's logic?
No one is arresting anyone, but checking out people who match the description of criminals in an area where the crimes are likely to occur.
In your scenario, if a middle aged white man goes to a park and starts watching children where molestations and kidnappings have occurred by a middle aged white man, do you think no one should keep an eye on him because it would be racial profiling?