Posted on 07/22/2005 8:33:15 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that terrorists come "in all sizes and shapes and forms" and it wouldn't be fair for police to profile terrorism suspects on the basis of a Middle Eastern appearance.
Asked about the city's random stop and search policy, which Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Thursday would forbid racial profiling, Bloomberg told WABC Radio host John Gambling: "I think if we've learned anything, it is, you can't predict what a terrorist looks like."
"You want to have restrictions [on police terrorism searches]," Bloomberg explained. "You want to have the police to have the burden of being very careful and never discriminating."
"If you think that everybody with blue eyes is a terrorist, you can't just stop everybody with blue eyes," he added. "Terrorists come in all sizes and shapes and forms."
When Gambling reminded that "a higher percentage of them come from a certain section of the world," Bloomberg acknowledged: "That is true."
"But John," the mayor shot back, "the essence of our freedom is that you are presumed innocent - you're innocent until proven guilty. The presumption of innocence is the fundamental [value] of our society. And you just can't go and say everybody who has blue eyes - my example - is a terrorist just because most terrorists that you've caught have blue eyes."
Bloomberg acknowledged that his profiling ban would make it easier for terrorists to succeed in their next attack, but still insisted the practice was "unreasonable."
"It is just not a reasonable, not a rational - nothing that we want in our society," he maintained. "That does make it more difficult for the police - yes. But it's been more difficult for 235 years and we've kept the democracy and that's the challenge that we have to meet."
Wrapping up on the topic, Bloomberg caught himself profiling terrorists by sex - then quickly amended his comments, telling WABC:
"If you had no restrictions [on police searches]; number one, you'd give up all our freedoms; and number two, I don't know that you'd necessarily do any better at catching the bad guys - or that they are guys."
And out of curiosity, any idea how many terrorist acts have been committed by anyone of non-Middle Eastern descent? I'll wager that it's close to zero.
Why burden the police when we are at war. Aren't we at war with terrorism?
How can we win this war with this kind of handicap?
As long as they're more concerned with ogling women than with finding terrorists, you're right. We will lose.
For a guy who made a billion and changed NY to the better (approval ratings to the sky)
I DON'T THINK SO.
The man must be blind.
PROFILE!!!!
Our lives depend on it.
Search every male of obvious middle-eastern descent who tries to enter the transportation system.
Then carry out random searches of other riders, because the terrorists are smart and mean, and it won't be long till they're using blond, blue-eyed recruits to do the dirty work.
Oh, New Yorkers are soooo lucky to have him for mayor. Such fair minded, progressive thinking. I'll bet they feel safe and warm and fuzzy. We all should be so lucky. /sarcasm And if you listen carefully, you can hear the rumble of feet as the jihad minded rush to their new safe haven...
It's wrong to assume that all Muslims are terrorists or sympathize with terrorists. It is a FACT however that the vast majority of international terrorist activities over the past 20-30 years are committed by young Muslim men who have been pumped full of radical beliefs. It is completely irresponsible to pretend that terrorists are a diverse group -- we don't for example see 85-year-old Jewish females detonating themselves to kill innocent people.
No, make that some random Swedish guys.
Interesting point.
And when a surfer gets his leg bitten off, it is unfair to blame it on a shark. Afterall, there are many animals in the sea. You can never discount dolphins.
That's like being at war with calvary charges.
Its ONE. And it's the one that all the PC clowns hang their argument on. Oklahoma City and Timothy McVeigh. That was an act of misplaced revenge for Waco and Ruby Ridge.
yes
I hope the mayor was just spouting this nonsense to avoid political heat from pansies. If the police see some middle eastern guys with backpacks going into the subway, will they really make a point of it to leave them alone just because they've already reached their Arabic quota?
We should ONLY being checking those that fit a profile - Checking people at random is simply a waste of energy (and gives the Terrorists a small victory over American freedoms).
We have easily reached the point where political correctness is now more dangerous than racism itself.
Common sense is something a person is born with, unfortunately Bloomy wasn't born with it nor brains, probably thought they said 'trains' and ran to get out of the way, so he missed getting his brains.....
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