math_fanatic
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Are you referring to racial profiling?
About the best law enforcement could do on that front is to educate their employees, however I do not believe that all racial profiling is wrong. Human beings evolved to discriminate between things that are harmful and things that are not.
A problem only arises when we fail to recognize the origins of our discrimination. For example, 60% of prison populations consist of minorities. If a police officer decides based on that statistic to pull over minorities more often than whites then his reasoning is circular. He will arrest more minorities because he pulls over more minorities than whites and minorities will continue to represent a larger percentage of the prison population.
Whether minorities commit more crimes or not remains to be seen but apparently they are caught in the act more often, possibly because officers focus on them more often.
When it comes to racial profiling of Muslims because, at the moment, they seem to pose the biggest threat to our national security, I think there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. We need to respect the rights of everyone regardless of their race, religion, nationality, etc. but I don't think we should sacrifice safety for the sake of political correctness. If there are two men at an airport acting suspiciously and one has blond hair and blue eyes and the other appears to be of Arab descent and you only get to pick one to pull aside and screen more thoroughly, are you going to go with the white guy out of a sense of racial justice for Muslims? Or are you going to pick the guy who most likely fits the current stereotype of a terrorist?
That isn't to say you'd be right in picking the Muslim (granted we don't know for sure that he is, he just looks like one), but it's a numbers game. The white guy could be the real crazy one with serious intentions of causing harm but we didn't survive as a species this long by not taking the safe bets most of the time. You'd be smart to pull aside the guy who looks Muslim even at the risk of appearing racist. Would you rather save a plane full of people and be called a racist or look like a tolerant saint and take the chance of sending people to their deaths?
Now, don't get me wrong. I do not believe that Muslims or those who "look" like Muslims have been treated fairly since the events of 9/11. I have good friends who were harassed in the streets and called names simply because they looked like Muslims (whether they are or not is unimportant). They were insulted, belittled, and threatened and were completely innocent. Not only innocent but really good, decent people who couldn't in a million years deserve that kind of treatment.
I think that if racial profiling is used it should be used with discretion and consideration of the individual being profiled. The person should be treated with respect and dignity even if found guilty. Brutality, racial slurs, arbitrary legal delays, and detention without just cause should NEVER be inflicted upon anyone.
To get back to your question, I think the best thing law enforcement professionals can do is to take that last sentence to heart and ensure that they set a proper example for society.
 Posted 218 day ago
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