Is it racist to try to defend racial profiling?
No. Racial profiling is not racism. It is stereotyping a bit, yes, but in the case of law enforcement, it's generally warranted.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
This, to some extent.^JohnG@lt wrote:
No. Racial profiling is not racism. It is stereotyping a bit, yes, but in the case of law enforcement, it's generally warranted.
Profiling consists of more than racial characteristics. That is but one of many attributes law enforcement looks at when trying to determine if someone fits the statistical model of the "most likely" suspect for a given criminal activity.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
― Albert Einstein
Doing the popular thing is not always right. Doing the right thing is not always popular
― Albert Einstein
Doing the popular thing is not always right. Doing the right thing is not always popular
too many fucking ivory towers
Tu Stultus Es
You're overstating a little.JohnG@lt wrote:
No. Racial profiling is not racism. It is stereotyping a bit, yes, but in the case of law enforcement, it's generally warranted.
If there is a crime and a witness says the guy has a certain skin color and the cops look for a guy with that description then that's just common sense.
If there is a terrorism alert that security needs to watch for people from a certain country and so they do extra screening on people from that
country, that's just common sense.
But if a cop pulls a person over because they are black driving through white neighborhood, or because they are brown and the cop suspects they smoke pot because of ethicity, or suspicion based on skin color without more is what drew the officers attention to the individual then that's not common sense, and that's where racial profiling becomes racism. But the intent of the officier is hard to prove which is why the cops discretion to use such tactics must be severely limited if individual rights are to be preserved.
The days where an officer in a wide brimmed hat, with mirrored sunglasses, chewing his cud, strutting up to a car and stating in a smarmy voice "where you think urrrr goin boy?" is a relic of past abuses but should be in mind when we think about setting policy and thinking about how racial profiling could be abused.
Profiling is profiling, its a normal part of law enforcement.
Officials harassing people because they're racist shits is another - and I saw a bit of that in Florida.
Officials harassing people because they're racist shits is another - and I saw a bit of that in Florida.
Fuck Israel
All I know is that whitey is never subject to negative profiling, so I'm cool.
Realistically, suspicion by association is a pretty nasty concept when it comes to levels of abstraction as wide as race. I'm sure we're all guilty of it, though.
Realistically, suspicion by association is a pretty nasty concept when it comes to levels of abstraction as wide as race. I'm sure we're all guilty of it, though.
We are, and I wouldn't call it racism either. I live in what's known as the Melting Pot of the world. There are people from every single country living here. Now, if I were to hear a story on the news about a car being broken into and the stereo stolen I wouldn't suspect the Asians in my neighborhood or one of the Jews. Based on past experiences I would suspect either a white trash drug addict or a black man. This isn't racism. Perhaps a bit of classism but it's warranted in this case, no?mikkel wrote:
All I know is that whitey is never subject to negative profiling, so I'm cool.
Realistically, suspicion by association is a pretty nasty concept when it comes to levels of abstraction as wide as race. I'm sure we're all guilty of it, though.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
-Frederick Bastiat
Hookers are the most racist people in the world. They charge white people up to 20% more.
Maybe its just you they charge the extra.Cybargs wrote:
Hookers are the most racist people in the world. They charge white people up to 20% more.
Fuck Israel
HAHA GOOD ONEDilbert_X wrote:
Maybe its just you they charge the extra.Cybargs wrote:
Hookers are the most racist people in the world. They charge white people up to 20% more.
No seriously they do. They did a study in SuperFreakonomics that hookers will charge a brother 20% less than whitey.
Maybe its because black hookers charge less anyway and are more likely to have black customers?
Same as asians get better gas mileage, its not that they drive better, they just tend to drive smaller more asian cars.
Always need to look carefully at how a study has been done.
Same as asians get better gas mileage, its not that they drive better, they just tend to drive smaller more asian cars.
Always need to look carefully at how a study has been done.
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2010-05-06 07:09:31)
Fuck Israel
No coz they know whitey is more likely to pay more (most of the whiteys who come arent from the projects and have good jobs).Dilbert_X wrote:
Maybe its because black hookers charge less anyway and are more likely to have black customers?
Same as asians get better gas mileage, its not that they drive better, they just tend to drive smaller more asian cars.
Always need to look carefully at how a study has been done.
Using profiling as a basic precaution can be warranted.
Acting upon profiling only can be a problem.
i.e. You see 8 hispanic males, all in their teens to 20s, all wearing similar colored hoodies, walking down a residential street at 10PM. Context clues say they are probably in a gang!
As such, I would say it is prudent to exercise extra caution.
It probably wouldn't fly for a cop to stop them all on suspicion of possessing cocain.
Acting upon profiling only can be a problem.
i.e. You see 8 hispanic males, all in their teens to 20s, all wearing similar colored hoodies, walking down a residential street at 10PM. Context clues say they are probably in a gang!
As such, I would say it is prudent to exercise extra caution.
It probably wouldn't fly for a cop to stop them all on suspicion of possessing cocain.
Profiling solely by race or religion can be seen as a violation of the 14th Amendment.
That being said, it's sometimes very effective.
That being said, it's sometimes very effective.