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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mac Con Ulaidh who wrote (35886)	10/29/2001 2:43:01 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

The full para, no two paras, in which that phrase appeared is this: That link calls for an end not of unfair racial profiling, or of profiling with race as the only element, or of humiliating racial profiling practices, or of statistically nonsensical profiling. (I assume the cases you referenced were of abuses.) Just "comprehensively." End it. That makes no sense to me, if valid statistics say race is a genuine element in the probability-profile. It is PC law enforcement, I suspect. <<What is the profile of someone who kills an abortion doctor? >> I assume that if one were looking to investigate a huge wave of such crimes, thousands of them, say, one would include in the profile Christian fundamentalist as one element to use in creating potentially productive profiles to use as investigatory tools. There would be other elements. And I assume that if a prospective abortion doctor murderer profile were released including as an element "possible association with Christian fundamentalism," and many innocent CF's were being questioned, there would be an outcry against the injustice of the process. It would be understandable. My point is that if the profile is an accurate one, and results in more 'good' arrests than would a profile ignoring one factor (race; membership in a particular religious group), we have to decide if we are going to not use the profile? It's risk/reward, cost/benefit, isn't it? Maybe even if it works, we have to pretend it doesn't because too many innocent people's feelings get hurt, and that is divisive and unfair. The cost outweighs the benefit. Of course if the stats are invalid, and the profiles "fixed" to discriminate against one class of people, then the whole issue is settled. Stop that useless and bigoted profiling. Do you, choosie, believe race is ever legitimate to add to profiles of various categories of criminal? Or would you support, as the ACLU does, a "comprehensive" ban on racial profiling? An end to it, period?