'The Conservative Case Against Racial Profiling'

Opinion Journal/Wall Street Journal ^ | Wedneday, September 5, 2001 | JAMES TARANTO

[JohnHuang2]

'The Conservative Case Against Racial Profiling'

Random and degrading police searches radically undermine this message. They tell black kids that they are indeed pariahs--that, no matter how hard they study, they remain suspects. As one Maya Angelou first-year student explained to me: "We can be perfect, perfect, doing everything right, and they still treat us like dogs. No, worse than dogs, because criminals are treated worse than dogs." Or, as a junior asked me, noting the discrepancy between the message delivered by the school and the message delivered by the police: "How can you tell us we can be anything if they treat us like we're nothing?"

[hinckley buzzard]

The founder of the "Maya Angelou" charter school is going to give us a lesson in the "conservative" case against profiling--right. And he's going to base it the idea that "random" checks by police undermine respect for authority, even though "profiling" is just about the opposite of randomness.

Furthermore, his data for this hypothesis is a collection of whines from underage heads full of mush, as if this were valid and reliable (unbiased and objective) data.

Why do liberals persist in acting as if these mouthy ignoramuses have something useful to impart? How predictable.How tiring.

[Sparkboy]

I read the article from your link. Interesting, but I'm not buying into it. For one thing, anecdotals from those who have frequent contact with the law tend to be umm... incomplete. You could drive a truck through what they leave out. Foul mouths and physical resistance come to mind. Another thing, race aside, is I think in any police force drawn from a large, urban, liberal population, you're going to have a significantly larger proportion of jerks on that police force dealing with the insolent civilian population. The whole situation is less civilized to begin with.

There really is no practical way to eliminate profiling. It will go on, official or not. The statistical reality officers deal with every day is that black males, 6% of the population, commit 40% of violent crimes. They ignore this reality at their own peril.

[libertarian_usa]

6% of the population, commit 40% of violent crimes

violent crimes are one thing.

most "victims" of this "profiling" by police are talking about general harrassment on the street, being pulled over for nothing and than charged with BS ie: seatbelt, etc and being harrassed and so on..

Either we live in a Police State where people are checked randomly to prevent crime and CIVIL LIBERTIES ARE eroded until you have full blown FASCISM in check or society deal's with it's problems while respecting the Constitution at the same time.