Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Derrek]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164355,00.html

NYC Politician: Use Racial Profiling on Subways

Political correctness won't keep New Yorkers safe from terrorists, a state assemblyman said Sunday — promising to introduce legislation allowing cops to use racial profiling to target Middle Easterners when they search bags.

Dov Hikind (search) charged that it's "insane" to look for bombs in the bags of "75-year-old grandmothers," adding, "The FBI and authorities have a good idea of who is going to commit terrorism. They all look similar, but everyone is terrified of using the word 'racial.' "

The Brooklyn Democrat said the NYPD's 10-day-old tactic of randomly checking bags — without regard to race or ethnicity — at subway entrances may be politically correct (search), but it won't save lives.

"There is a terrorist profile for a potential suicide bomber, and it's not the 75-year-old grandmother . . . who has an oversized tote bag firmly tucked under her arm" said Hikind, who called random searches "insane."

Instead, he argued, police should be stopping and searching "people of Middle Eastern descent," with particular focus on young men and women.

"Every case of recent terrorism has been committed by individuals [from a] Middle Eastern country," he said.

"There are certain things you do in wartime that you don't do in peacetime," said Hikind, noting that he has voted against racial profiling in the past.

Conceding that racial profiling (search) by police currently is illegal, he said he will introduce legislation to remove that prohibition, adding he hopes Muslims will support it.

The NYPD, whose random searches began after subway bombings in London earlier this month, quickly rebuffed Hikind's proposal.

"Racial profiling is illegal, of doubtful effectiveness, and against department policy," said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg (search), campaigning in the Catskills, ducked a question about Hikind's idea.

All four of his Democratic challengers — City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields and Fernando Ferrer — said they opposed racially profiling straphangers for searches.

New York Civil Liberties Union's chief Donna Lieberman called racial profiling "discriminatory," and said it "serves no purpose whatsoever.

"It is bad law enforcement, and it is fundamentally at odds with our basic democratic values," she said.

Wissam Nasr, head of the New York office of the Islamic Council on American-Islamic Relations (search), said, "This is America — we don't do that here. That's Racial Profiling 101 — that's what we're trying to avoid."

But Aditya Maharjan, 42, a Hindu immigrant from Nepal who works at Curry in a Hurry in Manhattan, supported Hikind.

"If they can maintain safety, then we'll be safe, too," said Maharjan, even as he acknowledged that his skin color could single him out for such profiling. "Security is the most important thing."

Additional reporting by Stephanie Gaskell, Jenny Leszkiewicz and Elizabeth Rubin.

[Kuros]

Everyone should be randomly checked, but checking on young Arab men should be done more frequently. However, not all young Arab men should be checked.

[Neil]

The problem is that some of the recent bombers have been of African/West Indian descent so checking Arab guys wouldn't have helped.

With Christianity the born again types tend to be bigger zealots than the guys born and raised in the faith, it wouldn't suprise if the same was true for Islam and as a result the next attacks might be carried out by white or black fundamentalists in order to escape this profiling.

[Derrek]

Ok, go ahead and add African/West Indian-looking people to that. Police in NYC probably couldn't tell the difference anyway, and they'd check them too.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I think racial profiling is a dandy idea:

a) We could increase disaffection and alienation among all Middle Eastern, African and West Indians. That would of course include all African Americans because how do you tell any of the Africans apart? It's a little hard to tell if they came over on a United Airlines flight or their ancestor came over on a slave ship. So check 'em all.

b) We should probably include Hispanics because they resemble Middle Easterners somewhat. At least stop them and make them prove they aren't from the Middle East. Make 'em sing La Bamba.

b) Timothy McVeigh, the shoe bomber guy and the one that bombed Atlanta along with the gay bar and the abortion clinic were all white. So we should be stopping all white guys. Especially white guys with short hair. Maybe all white guys with short hair and tatoos. And white guys with pick up trucks. Just in case. We can test 'em by making them hum Onward Christian Soldiers. If they can do, they're probably packing a bomb.

Yes, I think we should be stopping everyone who isn't obviously from East Asia. Let the Chinese/Korean/Japanese Americans through and let everyone else line up to be frisked.

[waggo]

http://www.september11news.com/AAAHijakers22Photo.jpg

Look very closely at this picture Yaya....these men killed thousands of people.Tough luck if you look Middle Eastern....Suck it up.The aim of the game is to stop it happening again.

[Derrek]

[Butterfly]

[mithridates]

I don't like the poll options. I think it would help *if* it was accompanied by a lot of training on who looks like what, so that there is no mixing up Sikhs with Muslims for example. If it's going to be a ham-fisted, 'anyone-who-kinda-looks-dark-skinned' approach then no way. And it shouldn't make it into the newspaper. Once it makes it into the newspaper it's probably too late because (and this may come as a surprise to some) terrorists can read newspapers.
Instead of just racial profiling though, cops should be able to know who comes from where both by appearance and dress. They should know roughly what percent of the population is of which religion as well, for example Nigera has 250 ethnic groups and is just slightly more Christian than Muslim. They should know that. In fact, they should work on that for 30 minutes to an hour a day before work. When someone from Indonesia is being searched and they say they're from Malaysia, the cops should be able to say "no you're not, I can tell by your accent" as opposed to what they probably think: "where was Malaysia again?"

[sonofthedarkstranger]

[rok_the-boat]

Couldthis be the profile you're looking for:

http://www.theculture.net/barbie/

[dbee]

would heading into the ghetto's and detaining/questioning/searching all black males between the ages of 15-30 stem the tide of violence and drug use ???

[RachaelRoo]

Psychopaths can be surprisingly creative. Even if there was some useful profile of a terrorist that could be developed - and I think the recent, and not so recent, attacks indicate that there isn't - then they would sneak bombs into granny's handbag. Sick but true. Profiling just gives the terrorists an advantage because they will know what the authorities will be looking for and can maneuver around it.

[Butterfly]

I'd give the police a bit more credit than that.

[Kuros]