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."
Moron
If they aren't going to profile, then they either should forget checking people, or check every single bag and purse and backpack...
This Mayor is as stupid as the Mayor of London!
Clearly, some people haven't.
Unless, of course, your name is Karl Rove.
Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg needs to try looking with his eyes *OPEN*, I've heard it works wonders for letting you see the obvious.
What terrorists? The ones who aren't young, Middle Eastern men?
Does Mr. Bloomberg have a brain tumor, you think?
Yes. It's just a huge coincidence that most of them so far have looked middle eastern. It's very likely that the next terrorist attacks will be launched by 12 year old black girl from Chicago or 60 year old white woman from Dallas. We don't want to waste valuable resources watching middle eastern men between the ages of 16 and 35 when we could be attempting to watch everyone.
The clueless voters in this country continue to vote idiots into positions of power. Bloomberg won't change his tune til it's discovered that the knuckleheads outside the Mayor's residence shouting Allahu Akbar and tossing a satchel charge at the front door have a somewhat Middle-Eastern appearance. Putz.
They are just saying this to try to avoid the inevitable ACLU lawsuits.
That single remark should be grounds for impeachment and removal from office. He's essentially giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
What an idiot. If they aren't focusing on those with a middle-eastern appearance, than there truly is no point at all in random bag checks. This kind of political correctness should have died in the 9/11 attacks. Would it take a nuke attack for Bloomberg to reacquaint himself with common sense?
Let's see. According to this logic, to track down the bombers, the Brits should quit looking for arabs and moslems and start looking for some Swedish guys? I guess being politically correct also means total stupidity.
"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."
And just because grey matter fills the cranial cavity of Bloomberg doesn't mean it's where his "brain" is located.
I was watching a Fox news report about bag searches in the NY subway. Of course the police picked a young blond headed girl about 20 years old to search. We're going to lose. This is insanity.
All we are saying...
...is give (the terrorists) a chance!
Everybody join in and sing!
It's only sporting, don't ya know...
How msny people have to die before the leadership gets the message?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.