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Racial Profiling Means We've Lost

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Sat Aug 13, 2005 at 06:35:55 PM EST
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Mark Green writes an excellent piece at Huffington Post on the danger of racial profiling.

....every time civil liberties have been suspended, the result has been a humiliation not only for the targeted community but also ultimately for the United States. Besides the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War Two, for which the government issued an apology and reparations, Bush’s deferral of constitutional procedure for Guantanamo detainees drew a Supreme Court rebuke. Indeed, they make the further suspension of the rights of Middle Eastern-looking folk on New York’s subways that much more gruesome. You’re stopped at Columbus Circle on your way home from work, and you may wake up in Cuba without your family ever getting a phone call.

Ultimately, profiling hurts the so-called “war on terror” because it feeds the resentments of marginalized immigrants and can provoke victims to go from hostile to homicidal. Even Donald Rumsfeld has admitted that this is a “war for hearts and minds.” Needlessly degrading the very communities we want as our allies—on the specious grounds that it will make our commutes safer—risks even more terrorists growing from the soil of police sweeps.

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    • Racial Profiling Means We've Lost | 10 comments (10 topical)
    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:18 PM EST
    Go Mark Green. As NYC's Public Advocate he is right on. The profiling and searches only serve the 'tough on terror' rhetoric of whoever imposes them. Mayor Bloomberg is campaigning here using the 'war' to get himself re-elected. It is great to see Green take him on. Hope he runs again against Bloomberg who squeaked by after spending record amounts of his own $. I will vote for him again.

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#2)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:19 PM EST
    How can we lose when everyone is SO much safer as the result of singling out brown people?

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:20 PM EST
    So, was racial profiling pretty useless during the war on the KKK? Did it fail when the FBI was infiltrating and dismantling the white supremacist movement? How about the Mafia? (Which doesn't exist, of course!) Just wondering. -C

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:20 PM EST
    Cliff- Must be that you do not fit into any of the races you support for profiling.

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:21 PM EST
    squeaky - Actually, I'm a fairly prosperous white man from the south, so I could easily be KKK upper management. I am also 1/3 to 1/5 Italian (depending on how you figure) and work in an industry where money laundering would be easy. I also have a lot of guns and ammo and carry a concealed firearm most days (hint: carjacking me would be a bad idea). But I'm cool with the Fibbies taking a good hard look at me, figureing that I'm not a mafioso, Kluxer, or white supremicist and moving on to a more plausable candidate. But that's not germane - because your average leftie supports at least two of the examples of racial profile I gave. -C

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#6)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:21 PM EST
    This "lefty" doesn't support any profiling based on race alone. I prefer the american ideal of freedom from govt. tyranny.

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:22 PM EST
    Profiling means we've learned a valuble lesson (as apposed to worring about being PC)and when the danger passes...we can stop. Very easy....

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#8)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:22 PM EST
    -cliff- Racial profiling never applied to the KKK. Those wearing the unique KKK banner of a hate monger group cowardly hid their racial profile and identity. Italian mobsters were not indited because they were Italians. It was the bulge in their pocket and racketeering behavior that put them away. From your self described profile you may get stereotyped but not arrested. I can see why you have no compassion for those who are swept off the streets or harassed because of their race.

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#9)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:22 PM EST
    Why do liberals think it's OK to deny a student admission to college for being white, but not OK to deny a traveler admission to the subway for being Arab? (Not intending to troll, just curious, and I can't figure out how to phrase this without sounding inflamatory)

    Re: Racial Profiling Means We've Lost (none / 0) (#10)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:22 PM EST
    Because having power has responsibilities. I am sorry that you happen to be White and feel discriminated against. Perhaps you need to wake up from your self entitled slumber.

    Racial Profiling Means We've Lost | 10 comments (10 topical)