NY Assemblyman in favor of racial profiling

ntdz

Diamond Member
Aug 5, 2004
6,989
0
0
I'll do the commentary for you.

I couldn't agree more with him. Profiling works, and while people of that race might not like it, the facts that minorities commit more crimes and that almost all terrorists are Muslims means we would be doing ourselves a disservice by NOT profiling.
 

shoegazer

Senior member
May 22, 2005
313
0
0
or we would just be making ourselves less safe by profiling. oklahoma city and olympic park bombings for instance.

or the DC sniper. i think the fbi was pretty sure it was one middle aged white male. whooops.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
116
Originally posted by: ntdz
I'll do the commentary for you.

I couldn't agree more with him. Profiling works, and while people of that race might not like it, the facts that minorities commit more crimes and that almost all terrorists are Muslims means we would be doing ourselves a disservice by NOT profiling.

I agree. I welcome the state of NY to begin racial profiling, just so al-Qaeda will be forced to use a disconnected caucasion person for their next bombing. You think the only people that al-Qaeda recruits are token Arabs?
 

lozina

Lifer
Sep 10, 2001
11,711
8
81
it would be better if we just put them all in detention camps. it would completely justify temporarily detaining millions of them when you consider that just a few of them could do something like the london bombings!

edit: <- really proud this assemblyman is from my state. really.
 

johnnobts

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2005
1,105
0
71
this specific method of profiling (based on race (middle east descent), gender and age) is appropriate b/c at the PRESENT MOMENT the terrorists (those affiliated with Al Qaeda or some similar group) all fit this pattern. If these terrorists manage to recruit blond-hair, blue eyed Muslims, or 70 year old grannies, then the profile will no longer match and will need to be done away with. But for now, the profile fits, and should be used. Just because the police will end up patting down and searching innocent arab men doesn't mean its innapropriate behavior.

now, racial profiling in cases such as pulling a black man out of a BMW is inappropriate, it is racism, b/c that is a profile that does not fit. It is well established that there are plenty of black folks who have a whole lot more money than people such as myself, driving a crumby little civic.

when you use the naive excuse, "Well we have to give the appearance of being 'color-blind' and have to search randomly,'" and so lets say you will search every 1 out of 10 people, regardless of their skin color and appearance, and the 10th person is a granny but the 6th, 7th, and 8th persons happen to be young arab men, its a no-brainer who should be searched in the process. by abandoning the established profile (until it is proven untrue) you are wasting man-power, and are subjecting the civilian population to a greater risk of a successful terrorist attack.
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
Not racial profiling but selective profiling.... You wouldn't expect a woman to be a scuicide bomber. Don't think old ladies or Old men would be bombers either. Choose the young and suspicoius looking. Mostly from 17-55. Choose every 3rd or 5th guy from that group and you will have less searches, and still have the "aura" of saftey.
 

Tommunist

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2004
1,544
0
0
Originally posted by: johnnobts
this specific method of profiling (based on race (middle east descent), gender and age) is appropriate b/c at the PRESENT MOMENT the terrorists (those affiliated with Al Qaeda or some similar group) all fit this pattern.

weren't some of the recent london bombers of ethiopian (or at least some african country) descent?
 

HomerJS

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
39,407
32,902
136
The reason racial profiling is so controversial is the only people racially profiled are minorities.

Major white color crimes (Enron, Worldcom, etc) that ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people are committed by 55-60 white males. If the Justice Dept decided to randomly detain white male CEOs and CFO of major brokerage firms and investment comanies demanding to search their files and computers how long do you think that would last?

Yet the NJ State Police didn't have a problem using this same tactic with blacks on the NJ Parkway and Turnpike.
 

RightIsWrong

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2005
5,649
0
0
I heard a man speaking about this on NPR yesterday and he made an interesting point. Basically that racial profiling doesn't work because those that are wanting to do the harm, will just change their MO. When they start checking males, they will use women. When the start checking women, they will use some other group. His belief is one that they should be profiling, but not based on race or ethnicity. That they should be profiling on behavior. Watching for people that seem to be doing things that seem odd or out of place.

Also stated that random profiling of all people as opposed to subsets would be more effective because then it takes away the ability to use alternate people without the chance of them getting checked out also. I thought that it made sense. But maybe that is just me.
 

zendari

Banned
May 27, 2005
6,558
0
0
Originally posted by: shoegazer
or we would just be making ourselves less safe by profiling. oklahoma city and olympic park bombings for instance.

or the DC sniper. i think the fbi was pretty sure it was one middle aged white male. whooops.

Profiling doesn't necessarily mean that anyone who isn't an Arab male is going to be disregarded completely, but rather that a general focus is placed on people of this origin. If you are checking 1 out of 1000 people better to check the people more likely to be terrorists. If the terrorists change in origin the profile has to change as well.

Whether it works or not remains to be seen, I'll leave that decision up to the police and Justice Department rather than to liberal activist groups.
 
Feb 10, 2000
30,029
67
91
Originally posted by: ntdz
I'll do the commentary for you.

I couldn't agree more with him. Profiling works, and while people of that race might not like it, the facts that minorities commit more crimes and that almost all terrorists are Muslims means we would be doing ourselves a disservice by NOT profiling.

I agree with you as to the terrorism issue (and support racial profiling of terrorism suspects), but much less so as to the allegation that "minorities commit more crimes," and that they should thus be subject to racial profiling.

There's a complex chicken-and-egg aspect to this, and the fact of the matter is that blacks, for example, are arrested without having charges filed far more often than whites or any other ethnicity. The point is that police (and the lay-public) have a suspicion of black men in particular that is statistically far in excess of their percentage of overall criminal activity, so it's effectively impossible to winnow out what their actual contribution is to crime. White people essentially get a pass when it comes to police suspicion, and this is surely at least part of the reason they are less well-represented in America's prisons than blacks, Latinos, etc.
 

AWCC

Banned
Aug 2, 2005
2
0
0
Originally posted by: HomerJS

Major white color crimes (Enron, Worldcom, etc) that ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people are committed by 55-60 white males.

Actually most of those people are Jewish. Then again, most probably think Seinfeld is white too.
 
Feb 10, 2000
30,029
67
91
Originally posted by: AWCC
Actually most of those people are Jewish. Then again, most probably think Seinfeld is white too.

Ahem, mein fuhrer, neither Bernard Ebbers nor Ken Lay is Jewish. And since when are Jewish people not white?
 

alchemize

Lifer
Mar 24, 2000
11,486
0
0
Originally posted by: DonVito
Originally posted by: AWCC
Actually most of those people are Jewish. Then again, most probably think Seinfeld is white too.

Ahem, mein fuhrer, neither Bernard Ebbers nor Ken Lay are Jewish. And since when are Jewish people not white?

Great first post, eh? He'll last a long time on this board...
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
Originally posted by: HomerJS
The reason racial profiling is so controversial is the only people racially profiled are minorities.

Major white color crimes (Enron, Worldcom, etc) that ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people are committed by 55-60 white males. If the Justice Dept decided to randomly detain white male CEOs and CFO of major brokerage firms and investment comanies demanding to search their files and computers how long do you think that would last?

Yet the NJ State Police didn't have a problem using this same tactic with blacks on the NJ Parkway and Turnpike.

This is noted and we will start patting down old crusty white men looking for broken promises and falsified accounting records at our nations airports.

 

johnnobts

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2005
1,105
0
71
will just change their MO


they haven't changed their MO yet. Still young males of middle eastern descent. again, when and if their MO changes, the profile (which does involve race) will no longer be valid. but for now, it is.

for you lamers exclaiming "the terrorists have already won," if you really think america is still not a free society, why don't you go try living in china for a couple of years, or even better, cuba.
 

piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
60
91
There was a female reporter that did a lengthy investigation into the oklahoma bombing and she was shure that some Iraqi people were involved in helping McVay blow the place up. There were reports early on about this, but for some reason the FBI chose to pursue the American Terrorists only. She handed documents over to investigators in the FBI and they conveniently lost what she gave them. She has been on several talk shows, but I dont recall her name.

Added:
Her Name was Carol Howe
http://www.thenewamerican.com/focus/okc/

I would not trust what the government's official story is on the Oklahoma City Bombing. It is rumored that it was a botched FBI Sting and they covered that fact up. The FBI knew there were Muslim extremist groups that were in and around Oklahoma City.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,767
6,770
126
Originally posted by: johnnobts
will just change their MO


they haven't changed their MO yet. Still young males of middle eastern descent. again, when and if their MO changes, the profile (which does involve race) will no longer be valid. but for now, it is.

for you lamers exclaiming "the terrorists have already won," if you really think america is still not a free society, why don't you go try living in china for a couple of years, or even better, cuba.

Now just a darn minute here. You called me a lamer. That bites. But just out of curiosity, do you think you could clarify what you meant by 'thinking that America is still not a free society"? Does the comment, 'the terrorists have won' mean to you that I am saying America is still not free? How does that make any sense? Surely a lamer would mean they have taken our freedom 'we used to have' away, no? How do the terrorists still keep us unfree and if so who would notice or care? Personally it doesn't seem to me you've made any sense as you collaterally hand out lamer labels.

Now if you had actually intended to say that the terrorists have taken our freedom and that such a notion is lame let me explain that I don't mean that. What the terrorists have accomplished is to terrorize us and divide us against ourselves. They have caused us to begin to march down the path of fear where we will start to do anything to feel safe and bankrupt ourselves in the process.

Perhaps you just don't like facing realities and truths that are unpleasant to your idealized image of yourself. But to deny reality is not to deal with it.
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,562
9
81
Originally posted by: HomerJS
The reason racial profiling is so controversial is the only people racially profiled are minorities.

Major white color crimes (Enron, Worldcom, etc) that ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people are committed by 55-60 white males. If the Justice Dept decided to randomly detain white male CEOs and CFO of major brokerage firms and investment comanies demanding to search their files and computers how long do you think that would last?

Yet the NJ State Police didn't have a problem using this same tactic with blacks on the NJ Parkway and Turnpike.
They already do that. They're called tax audits.

Personally, I think more of them should be done.
 

Proletariat

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2004
5,614
0
0
W/E dudes. I'm quite sure everyone already does this naturally. It really isn't that big a deal unless it gets out of hand.
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
Originally posted by: piasabird
There was a female reporter that did a lengthy investigation into the oklahoma bombing and she was shure that some Iraqi people were involved in helping McVay blow the place up. There were reports early on about this, but for some reason the FBI chose to pursue the American Terrorists only. She handed documents over to investigators in the FBI and they conveniently lost what she gave them. She has been on several talk shows, but I dont recall her name.

Added:
Her Name was Carol Howe
http://www.thenewamerican.com/focus/okc/

I would not trust what the government's official story is on the Oklahoma City Bombing. It is rumored that it was a botched FBI Sting and they covered that fact up. The FBI knew there were Muslim extremist groups that were in and around Oklahoma City.

The conspiracy theory goes this was directed right from Clinton himself. He saw the Oklahoma bombing as a way to crack down on right wing groups in this country.
I guess McVeigh even went to the philipines to stay with his father and met several times with known Al-Queada members.