Profiling III...The Elaboration

Okay, for those of you who haven't been paying attention, the running conversation has been about racial profiling. The reason why this has taken up multiple posts? Well, my buddy Justin, who is usually very sympathetic with my rants, has been making some decent counterpoints that have caused me to further explain my bleeding-heart-liberal tirade. Sure, I could just post follow-up comments, but I don't think everyone reads those, and I think these are some good points to cover in the main blog.

I think the main issue here is that I'm not making my point clearly enough, so it's easily misunderstood. There have been places in my two previous posts where people might think I'm saying that we should totally ignore the fact that militant Islamic groups have committed more severe and simply more terrorist attacks than any other ethnic group in recent history. Well, I'm not saying that at all. Like I said in my last post, I don't think we should be cowed by the PC police either. To treat somebody differently from anyone else because you fear public retribution from the politically-correct watchdogs is reverse racism, and it's not any better than just plain old racism. I do, however, feel a lot of sympathy for the innocent people that have to deal with all the backlash generated by the actions of the crazed members of their ethnic group.

Look, I'm not saying that we should just let Mamoud, Fahid, and Ahmed walk through the beeping metal detector unmolested while we strip search Grandma, John, and Jim-Bob; that's foolish. But I am saying that the exact reverse of that is racist and equally foolish. Islamic terror groups have sent out pleas for sympathetic westerners to join them and help carry out attacks because they know this kind of behavior is going on. So, if I hear one more well-to-do white man bitching about being held up an extra hour or two at the airport while we ensure, not only his safety, but the safety of everyone else on his flight, I'm going to punch him in the face! I am not a criminal. I will gladly let security check my luggage and me before I get on an "airborne missile, complete with a human payload and a thousand pounds of jet fuel" (isn't "airborne" implied in "missile"?).

And yes, while some sort of x-ray device that everyone walked through like in Total Recall would help, people can get pretty inventive when they have a goal in mind. I'm sure a resourceful terrorist group could figure out how to carry out an attack with very little carry-on accoutrements. A sort of "MacGyver Jihad" if you will. I think the only effective technological tool would be a device that can sense resolved malintent. Or perhaps we can station some Care Bears in airports to vanquish the hate from terrorist hearts.

If only we lived in a fantasy world...

Grandma, what a great profile you have!

A few short words on profiling. It's really easy to say as a white American that racial profiling is a good idea in some instances. It's really easy because white Americans have no fear of being profiled. Imagine, however, someone stopping you in an airport or in traffic because you were a member of an ethnic group of which several members have performed or are performing serial criminal acts. Would you not resent the implication that just because you're a member of that ethnic group, you have some part in those activities?

Let's also be clear about something. There's racial profiling, then there's criminal profiling. There's a big difference between these. One is a valid and effective law enforcement tool. The other is manipulating statistics to support prejudice and bigotry.

I mentioned in the previous post about the Belgian woman who suicide bombed troops in Iraq, but let's not forget Timothy McVeigh. He was a home-grown terrorist, right here in the good old US of A. And how about the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski? Did they have to carpet bomb the mountains of some Middle Eastern country to find him? No, he was hiding in a cabin in the mountains of Montana.

I understand that we do have to be realistic. There are a considerable amount of organized terrorist attacks committed by extremist Muslims, but to discount the possibility of a western terrorist out of hand is not just dangerous; it's foolish. I certainly think there needs to be more brains in our security, and I don't believe we should be cowed by the PC police either, but I do believe that there's a lot of sentiment in this that promotes the idea of racial profiling being a good way to keep us safe. That kind of thinking is insidious. It's racism that benignly slips in as a warm fuzzy of security for the greater good. It ends with the average citizen feeling vindicated for treating foreigners like criminals, especially if they have a beard and are wearing a turban.