Race profiling eyed for terror probes

Race profiling eyed for terror probes

www.sfgate.com

The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.

Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: root out terrorists before they strike.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Feel free to discuss this one, kids! I'm sure nobody will find anything wrong with our federal government openly endorsing racial profiling. My main problem with this is that it's gonna end up being a serious waste of money and time. This will go across the Supreme Court's desk and it will result in a number of convictions being overturned and a number of lawsuits being levied against the federal government (paid for by tax payer dollars, of course) because it really is unconstitutional. There, I said it... it's a violation of the Constitution to racially profile. I'm not entirely against it because I do believe it works, but to be so brazen about it is just a dumb move by the justice dept.

www.sfgate.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by burdman30ott6

How do you believe it's unconstitutional? Just curious.
Racial profiling does not mean you stop and interrogate everyone who is black for example. It means if a crime was commited by a black person with a yellow T-shirt and driving a red truck, you will stop a black person with a yellow tshirt driving a red truck and NOT a white person with a white T-shirt driving a blue car.

reply to post by WhatTheory


Untrue. What you just described is actually criminal suspect profiling... IE the police have been given a statement by a witness that said "I saw a black man about 6' tall commit this crime or fleeing from the scene." Voila, a suspect profile has just been created. Obviously if someone saw this and reported it, the cops aren't going to waste time pulling over white grannies or black midgets.

This is something entirely different. This is them stopping and investigating people with absolutely NO evidence they've committed a crime. It gives carte blanche to law enforcement to just be driving along and see an Arab who could be doing his job, out for a stroll, or just shopping but who isn't doing anything at all questionable or odd except being an Arab, and restrain him for further investigation. That, to me, is unconstitutional and actually is wrong. Trying to look at it from the target's side, if after Oklahoma City the government had suddenly said "OK, we're going to start stopping all white redneck guys in their late teens to early 20s driving pickup trucks because they might be subversives." I'd have been outraged (a word I feel is way overused thanks to Bill Clinton, but one which fits what I would have felt perfectly.)

Direct answer to your question, BTW is that it violates the 4th amendment (just cause) and it isn't equal treatment under the law, which is granted to all Americans by the 14th ammendment. I can't see this passing the eye of the Supreme Court without serious repercussions.

[edit on 3-7-2008 by burdman30ott6]

They aren't profiling based on race alone, they are looking at taking a number of things into consideration when looking for the "typical" terrorist profile.
From the original article:

Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person's race or ethnicity.

It just so happens that being Arab and Muslim seems to be a predominant trait of most of AQ's operatives. Blame Al Qaeda for not being a more politically correct and diverse group. We should make them take diversity training classes. If the terrorist were all ballet dancers, guess what, I would include that in my list of terrorist traits to look for.