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Walter Williams: Should Profiling Be Banned?
Creators Syndicate ^ | December 17, 2014 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 12/16/2014 10:22:20 AM PST by jazusamo

Last week, the Obama administration announced new curbs on racial profiling by federal law enforcement. Before deciding whether this is good or bad policy, we might try to develop a description/definition of racial profiling or any other kind of profiling.

A good definition of profiling in general is the use of an easily observed physical characteristic as a guess for some other, difficult-to-observe characteristic. The reason people profile is that information is costly and they seek methods to economize on information costs. One way to do that is through profiling.

Imagine a chief of police in a city where there has been a rash of automobile hubcap thefts and he's trying to capture the culprits. Should he have his officers stake out and investigate residents of senior citizen homes? What about spending resources investigating men and women 40 or older? I would imagine that he would have greater success in capturing the culprits by focusing most of his resources on younger people — and particularly on young men. Doing so would more likely lead to the capture of the culprits because hubcap theft is a young man's game. My question to you is whether you'd bring charges against the police chief because he used age and sex profiling — and didn't investigate seniors and middle-aged adults.

Some years ago, a Washington, D.C., taxicab commissioner, who is black, issued a safety advisory urging D.C.'s 6,800 predominantly black cabbies to refuse to pick up "dangerous looking" passengers. Cabbies in D.C. and other cities often bypass black males for fear of robbery or of being taken to an unsafe neighborhood. We seriously misunderstand the motives of a taxi driver who racially profiles and passes up a black customer if we use racism as the sole explanation for his behavior.

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: crime; profiling; racialprofiling; walterwilliams
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1 posted on 12/16/2014 10:22:20 AM PST by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

A one-legged midget wearing a glowing yellow hajib robs a bank and kills a cop. Should the police profile or just stop and search everyone. This is more LIB insanity. Someone remove them from this society!@


2 posted on 12/16/2014 10:27:54 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: jazusamo
Dear Prof. Williams: we're not supposed to notice that young, black males commit a staggering pct. of violent crime in our nation's cities. Noticing black crime is punishable by ostracism and threats of being called a racist by our liberal betters.

Just because only a very tiny pct. of black male deaths are caused by unfavorable (for the black male) interactions with police officers and six or seven thousand black males are shot and killed by other black males annually is not reason enough to discard the crime of noticing.

3 posted on 12/16/2014 10:28:36 AM PST by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: jazusamo

Have they published a definition of “what is profiling?”

They must have defined what things cannot be done by LEOs because doing those things would be “profiling.”

Let’s see the specifics.


4 posted on 12/16/2014 10:28:54 AM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: jazusamo

Only liberals think profiling is irrational, counterproductive or racist.

For the rest of us, it comes down to plain good old fashioned, common sense.


5 posted on 12/16/2014 10:31:44 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: jazusamo

Good column. Some profiling is nothing more than a description of the suspect. Sometimes it gets offensive, as in the taxicab issue. But understanding the real problem and placing anger and fixes where they belong is the only way out. I’m not saying cab drivers should not pick up black customers in areas where black crime is high. I think they should. But it does not help to label them racist when they are just trying to live to see tomorrow. They didn’t cause the problem.


6 posted on 12/16/2014 10:36:17 AM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: goldstategop
Last week, the Obama administration announced new curbs on racial profiling by federal law enforcement. this only applies to federal law enforcement, not our local and state law enforcement personnel, seems it was more show than go..
7 posted on 12/16/2014 10:36:55 AM PST by JoanneSD
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To: JoanneSD

We had a policy issued that falls in line with the fed guidelines.

Not saying it is right.


8 posted on 12/16/2014 10:38:57 AM PST by Glennb51
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To: goldstategop; Steely Tom; driftless2; hal ogen

Yep, common sense is what it’s about.

One idiot can be attached to this current insanity on doing away with racial profiling-—Eric-the-Red Holder.


9 posted on 12/16/2014 10:40:06 AM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
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To: hal ogen

A one-legged midget wearing a glowing yellow hajib robs a bank and kills a cop. Should the police profile or just stop and search everyone. This is more LIB insanity. Someone remove them from this society!@
= = = = = = = = = = =
I used to ‘weewee’ them off by saying if you are in Logging Country during Paul Bunyon Days and the main suspect was a ‘big guy’ riding a ‘Blue Ox’, if you are bowlegged and wearing a checkered shirt, expect someone to ‘talk’ to you.


10 posted on 12/16/2014 10:40:54 AM PST by xrmusn ((6/98)those who understand, no explanation needed-Those who don't none will work.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Well said.


11 posted on 12/16/2014 10:41:16 AM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
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To: jazusamo
Question: "Should profiling be banned?

Answer: No.

Comment: To ban profiling would be impossible as a moments reflection would establish. What is really sought by those seeking to ban profiling is black immunity for crimes.

12 posted on 12/16/2014 10:44:46 AM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: hal ogen



13 posted on 12/16/2014 11:04:13 AM PST by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: jazusamo

Well, there goes the Criminal Minds TV show. /s


14 posted on 12/16/2014 11:08:56 AM PST by CatOwner
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To: CatOwner

:-) It slays me the way everyone in the group takes their turn at profiling and Presto, they solve the case.


15 posted on 12/16/2014 11:14:11 AM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
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To: jazusamo

ABANDON ALL SELF-PRESERVATION INSTINCTS*, YE WHO ENTER HERE.

(*common sense)


16 posted on 12/16/2014 11:15:33 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: jazusamo

Not until the left uses it to stop, search, and arrest every Bible, gun toting conservative.


17 posted on 12/16/2014 11:26:46 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: jazusamo

One CANNOT do his job as a cop, and not profile racially. It is impossible!


18 posted on 12/16/2014 11:27:20 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens.)
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To: jazusamo

Hope not.

An outright ban would make it very hard to construct sewer lines and roads.


19 posted on 12/16/2014 12:08:08 PM PST by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: jazusamo

In a police report if the race of the suspect is omitted then they are black. All other races are always explicitly mentioned.


20 posted on 12/16/2014 12:11:51 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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