The only problem with this is not that profiling is somehow intrinsically evil. The problem is that it is an ideological foe, not a racial one. Most Arabs in the US are not Muslims. Most Muslims worldwide are not Arabs. And what are we doing again to confront the ideology? From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
NEW YORK — Arabs should be targeted for searches on city subways, two elected officials said, contending that the police department has been wasting time with random checks in its effort to prevent terrorism in the transit system.
The city began examining passengers’ bags on subways and buses after the second bomb attack in London two weeks ago. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said several times that officers will not racially profile.
But over the weekend, state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said police should be focusing on those who fit the “terrorist profile.”
“They all look a certain way,” said Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn. “It’s all very nice to be politically correct here, but we’re talking about terrorism.”…
They all look a certain way, eh? Like John Walker Lindh? Richard Reid? Jose Padilla? “Jihad Jack” Thomas?
It’s still a good idea. If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. If you really don’t want terror attacks here, you won’t mind being inconvenienced. But it just isn’t enough.
But the director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Wissam Nasr, said their push for racial profiling is offensive and ignorant because “terror comes in all shapes and sizes, and certainly there’s no legislation or system that’s going to identify terrorists on the spot.”
In response to Hikind’s suggestion, the New York Police Department said in a statement that racial profiling is “illegal, of doubtful effectiveness and against department policy.”
The Republican mayor reiterated Tuesday that it is against the law and doesn’t work.
“I’m against it for fairness reasons, and we’re not going to do it,” he said.
This is absurd. I’m against flying planes into the World Trade Center for fairness reasons. Profiling is imperfect, but nonetheless a useful measure — and certainly less time-wasting than the mad and ineffective airline security checks.