Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests NYC Officials Call for Racial Profiling

My entirely unwarranted (and possibly unwanted) .02 cents:

Racial profiling will work to a limited degree, but only for a while and ultimately, IMHO at too great a cost in terms of public opinion of the government and law enforcement. There needs to be a balance; as it stands today, law enforcement does have their hands tied in areas of investigation due to Constitutional rights that ARE NOT negociable, but they damn-sure need more leeway in their methods of surveillance. Finally, much more sophisticated tools are needed over racial profiling to where race is but one of many variables that are considered. Travel, buying habits, race, religious persuasion, birth origin, scholastic pursuits, reading habits, internet habits, etc., etc. Of course, it takes an Act of God to obtain warrants to the level needed to dig that far today, but there does need to be a greater degree of tracking along those lines...

Racial profiling would possibly nab a few nutcases up front, but I fully believe that it won't do anything to stop the really worrisome events that keep the Intel communities up at night. Al-Qaedas leadership remains intact and regardless of one's thoughts towards their goals, they have some fairly smart SOB's running the show that have managed to elude the largest manhunt in the history of the human race. Yes, it's been Arabs that have been the poster-children of terrorists, but locking a great many eyes on all Arab gentlemen would QUICKLY steer Al-Qaeda to other methods and other races to carry out their desires.

Finally, racial profiling plays right into what Al-Qaeda wishes most; a larger and spreading rift between Western cultures and Islamic ones, thereby polarizing more and more moderates of both sides.

It needs to be done, but in such a way that it's only one small component of the entire profile.

2) Islam is no more a violent religion than Christianity is. History bears this fact out. I have read the Koran and while it does condone violence in places, so does the Bible (OT). Extremists aren't usually known for taking a balanced view of things, so expecting them to NOT latch on to particular passages and thoughts to the exclusion of hundreds of pages to the contrary isn't surprising at all.