Advantages of Racial Profiling

Advantages of Racial Profiling

Racial Profiling is the most strenuous and world's debatable topic. Profiling means law enforcement and private security practices that disproportionately target people of color, race, ethnic and religion for investigation and enforcement. More stories about the profiling are heard in the field of airlines, Police and government agencies and are being seen more as a disadvantage than advantage. Although, the system of profiling has caused lot of inconvenience to the innocent people, at the same time, most of them do understand that few minutes or few hours inconvenience is worth, as it provides the feeling of safety to travel in that particular airline or to stay in that country, as there will be no mishaps or any attacks by the terrorist. Let us accept the racial profiling as advantage. Surprised, shocked and calling me insane. I would like to highlight the advantages of racial profiling in both highway stops as well as airport scrutiny. Though, you might question me to address either highway stops or airport scrutiny but to convince the readers, I would like to address both the issues and convince the readers to see the positive aspect of profiling.

Most of the time, our assumption play a vital role to conclude the situation as racial profiling, without analyzing the situation. We all hear, read or see the mishaps at the highways, as criminals do their job and escape through highway. It has become very difficult to control these mishaps though efforts are made to stop them. Country cannot depute whole team of Police at airport or highways to check everyone, as this not only slows down the traffic and causes inconvenience to people but, also cost affecting to that particular department. I will quote an example which I experienced and was an eye-witness to this incident. Last May, I was traveling back to San Diego with my family from San Jose. I observed an old car was driven behind us for quite sometime and I could see from the mirror that the driver was really tensed. We thought to take a break to have lunch hence took a diversion and realized that the car also took detour and parked at the Shell Gas Station. I assumed that the driver was tensed, with a thought of running out of gas, but, I saw within few minutes there was highway patrolman questioning him. He was a Hispanic and after few minutes of questioning, he started telling people around him that he is being questioned because he is a Hispanic. But, as an observer, I could see that he was uncomfortable by the questioning and was not having an eye-to-eye contact with the policeman. Hence, I was sure that there is something fishy about the driver. After thorough check, policeman removed drug and a weapon from his car. Until then, people believed that it was a profiling, but when the drug and weapon was revealed, onlookers realized the truth. This incident proves that onlookers jumps into assumption of concluding any incident as profiling without analysis.

Drug abuse and drug supply is the major threat to the country. Statistical figures of 2007 shown by Gallup states, the Hispanics and the Afro-Americans are more involved in these cases. We always act based either on the facts, on the stories heard or on our past experience. This psychological strategy is applicable in the field of crime, scrutinizing people and stopping the traffic. It is natural for the police to take an action based either on the eye witness, if available or by the past history. Hence, the police stops people who belong to that particular race or ethnic group as their group are actively involved in spreading this threat. People who are aware of the background, will not feel humiliated or offended for stopping them, as they understand that the police are doing their job. I do agree that there are incidents where police arrest innocent but, at the same time, it is also true that they will be released after thorough check. Think over, can these be concluded as racial profiling or the steps taken for the safety of children and teenagers, who might become drug addicts. Arresting drug suppliers is the precautionary steps taken to build strong and good citizens.

Bruce Schneier in his article, "Schneier on Security" has said that observation and intuition is the best and proved way to catch the criminals. To support his statement, the author has quoted an example of the efficiency of the highway police which was confused to be racial profiling but was later appreciated for saving people. Ahmed Ressam, a wanted terrorist by Canadian police, changed his identity as Benni Antoine Noris and got the clearance by computer to travel to Los Angeles. He had an intention of blowing Los Angeles International airport on 14 December, 1999. He was carrying a suitcase in his car's trunk and had entered US by ferryboat from Victoria Island, British Columbia.