Racial Profiling

On my walk to work I came across a sign pasted on the side of a building that called out for us all to "Stop racial profiling." I got it. I've heard it hundreds of times. And I've heard it over and over of late with this whole SB1070 thing. "It will cause racial profiling!!" And that's bad. Why is it bad? Well, because, as they're all very careful to assure us, it's racism! This, however, is a fundamental lie.

Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, let me explain. I'll do so by way of illustration. A friend of mine is a brilliant engineer. He is, however, not your typical-looking engineer. He has a scruffy beard and his hair is typically too long and he's not concerned with dressing up. He drove for the longest time his precious old Dodge Dart. The car was rusty brown partly because it was painted brown and partly because it was rusty. It was a raggedy car, but it got him where he needed to go, taking his daughter to school in the nicer part of town on his way to work. Well, one day, after dropping off his daughter, he got pulled over by the police. He wasn't pulled over because he was speeding or running a stop sign. He was pulled over because in that part of town he and his car didn't fit. In a part of town where nicely coiffured people drove expensive cars, his bearded visage and ratty automobile didn't fit in. It did fit the typical appearance of a shady character that might come into this part of time to perpetrate a crime. In other words, my friend was profiled on the basis of his car and face and the policeman, in due diligence, checked him out. Of course, he was shortly on his way again with a minimal amount of inconvenience because he was not a criminal, so it was only amusing to him.

Profiling, in this use, is a method of constructing a outline of what a particular criminal would look like in terms of appearance, behavior, thinking processes, etc. The idea in law enforcement is simply this: People with certain characteristics fit the profile of a particular type of criminal. Thus, if you see someone with these characteristics, you might want to check to see if they are that particular type of criminal. The TV show, Criminal Minds, tells the story of an FBI profiling unit, a group of agents who develop a profile of a particular criminal so they can decrease the number of candidates from which to select the perpetrator. While the show is fiction, the concept illustrates what profiling is. Typical law enforcement profiling includes the BOLO (Be On the Look Out) and the APB (All-Points Bulletin) where persons of interest are highlighted and sought as possible suspects. The profile will typically include the characteristics of the person, often including distinguishing marks, height, weight, hair color, and even race not because it is racially intended, but because it is descriptive. Thus, "profiling" is not "racism". "Racial profiling" is simply noting that people of x race are often associated with y crime in this area and a wise police force will take that into account.

Now, consider anti-American terrorism from 1975 to Sep. 11, 2001. A listing of these events along with the perpetrators will tell you, statistically, that more than 60% of the time these attacks are by Middle Eastern groups. There have been a couple of others. We have, for instance, Timothy McVeigh as a stand out example. But the majority are Arabic people. Is it wrong, then, to profile on that basis? When they showed films of people in Arab countries receiving the news of the attack on the New York Trade Center, the response was overwhelmingly positive. They cheered! If there is a vast majority of people from Arab countries who hate America, would it be wrong to profile on the basis of national origin? The ACLU says "Yes, it's wrong!" and it isn't allowed here, but Israel (as an example, but certainly not alone) does it all the time and their airport security is considered the best in the world for it.

There are, of course, problems associated with racial profiling. The most obvious problem is the problem with profiling in general. If you limit yourself to that profile, will you miss other possibilities? If 95% of the people coming into this country illegally across the southern border are Latino and law enforcement, therefore, looks at Latinos, they will miss 5% who are not. If Arab terrorist groups realize that law enforcement is profiling on the basis of Arab descent, then they'd likely (and, according to the news, already have) recruit non-Arabs to do their dirty work. So profiling in general can cause law enforcement to miss possibilities that fall outside the profile. That's a problem. Still, if the majority of people perpetrating this crime or that crime fall within this profile or that profile, then, logically, profiling (whatever the profile is) will increase the possibility of catching the people doing the crimes. The second problem and, I think, the one that causes the most concern, is when individual law enforcement personnel employ racial profiling from a personal basis of racism. That is, they're already racist and then they employ this useful technique. In this instance it is likely that, instead of merely determining the status of the individual in question, they would go on to harass or harm the person in question. We would all agree that this is a bad thing. But I need to point out that harassing or harming people on the basis of race is already illegal, and racial profiling is not to blame for that; racism is. That is, racial profiling is not racism, but racism can make racial profiling an excuse to harm people.

So, let me summarize. The cry these days is against racial profiling. Racial profiling is mistakenly equated with racism. There are logical reasons that profiling on the basis of race might occur. Profiling of any type and racial profiling specifically has potentially negative aspects. Racism, however, is not one of them. That would simply be an underlying problem that is exacerbated by racial profiling. So here is my question (okay ... questions). Why is racial profiling immoral? If, for instance, the vast majority of illegal entries into this country are perpetrated by a particular racial group, why would it be wrong to simply ask about the status of people in that particular group? (Ask, not harass or harm. Remember, that's illegal.) On what basis would we eliminate racial profiling as a law enforcement tool? And is that basis sufficient to eliminate all profiling? If not, why not? I ask because it seems to me like profiling is a legitimate tool of law enforcement and I'm not at all sure why it is not allowed.