Ethnic profiling

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Just got this via email from a...conservative...neighbor. Discuss!

-----------------------

Please pause a moment, reflect, and take the following multiple choice test.... no need to keep score. The events are actual cuts from past history.

Do you remember?

1. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:

a. Olga Corbitt
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzeneger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40

2. In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by:

a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40


3. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:

a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40


4. In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:

a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40


5. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year-old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:

a. The Smurfs
b. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40


6. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a U.S. Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:

a. Pierre Elliot Trudeau
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40


7. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:

a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40



8. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:


a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40



9. In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:


a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40



10. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:


a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 -40


11. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:


a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40


12. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:


a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17-40



Nope, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling - do you?


So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, Secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning former Governors, BUT Muslim Males between the ages 17 & 40 must be left alone

As the writer of the award winning story "Forrest Gump" so aptly put it, "Stupid is as stupid does."

[singpilot]

Blue!

You are my hero.

You are welcome in my plane anytime.

[mikester]

Very subjective. I work with a lot of muslims aged 17-40. Based on that judgement being around them is dangerous.

[island911]

[juanbenae]

D, to all of the above. unless you're brj, then any thing is possible.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Mikester: so do I. In fact many of them are even named "Mohammad".

Doesn't change the math, though.

[ronin]

brj? you mean bigrubberjeep?

[Hugh R]

Here in Southern California, the INS is being trashed for doing sweeps for illegal aliens, because they're selectively stopping hispanics who don't speak English and are hanging out at the Home Depot. Why don't they stop me, how do they know I'm not here illegally from Canada? BTW, I am a first generation American whose parents were from Canada, but they were here legally.

If you want to hear something interesting, and related, I work in the movie industry and I work with the special effects people closely. When they use detonating cord on a location where they travel, they keep their work clothes separated from their non-work clothes, and put their work clothes on a truck back to L.A. so that when their luggage goes through the bomb detector it doesn't get set off. Imagine having six pyrotechnicians taking the same plane, and six times the bomb detector goes off!

[Eric Coffey]

Originally posted by mikester
Very subjective. I work with a lot of muslims aged 17-40. Based on that judgement being around them is dangerous.

So you are saying you would feel completely comfortable on an International flight with a plane full of Muslim males that weren't screened or "profiled"? You're right, it doesn't necessarily mean it is more dangerous, just potentially more dangerous (see Blue's comment about the math).

The bottom line is that profiling works, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so-to-speak. Plus, if you have nothing to hide, the minor inconvenience shouldn't be a big deal. If the IRA had committed multiple terrorist acts against the US, I would have no problem (as a pale white guy) being "profiled".

[pwd72s]

Nope! We must avoid profiling. We must strip search every Swedish grandma caught with a 2 piece pool cue! (on the list of forbidden airplane carry on items) Yeah, I'm being sarcastic here...it's political correctness run amok...Me? wanna fly? Not likely. It's not the terrorism that keeps me away. It's the stupidity of the rules imposed by the bureaucracy and the politicians. Before 9-11-01, flying commercially was merely a PIA. Today? There is nowhere on the planet I want to go badly enough to buy a ticket. I'm not blaming the airlines here. Just the stupid a-holes who make the rules they must operate under.

[juanbenae]

yes ronin.

[ronin]

[84porsche]

Originally posted by pwd72s
Today? There is nowhere on the planet I want to go badly enough to buy a ticket. I'm not blaming the airlines here. Just the stupid a-holes who make the rules they must operate under.

I agree. When I was in London. I had to take my shoes off, take off my belt etc so they can make sure that I wasn't a terrorist. These new rules can be ridiculous and need to be corrected. The industry needs to spend money that will enforce what passengers can carry on planes. If someone has one of these items, they need to be stopped and if they miss their flight, oh well. Children follow the rules better than adults. It is really a matter of common sense and if more people had it, this world would be a better place to live.

[Superman]

I'd like to also pretend that airport security is an unecessary inconvenience but I cannot do that. It is a necessary inconvenience. We are the last to catch on, that's all.

Blue makes a very excellent point that I agree with, but I'd probably point out a potential inaccuracy, or maybe it's just a semantical thing. Blue says "Muslim Males between the ages 17 & 40 must be left alone."

I'd guess that this group is subject to the same random search program as everyone else. So, they don't get a "buy." But again, I agree that any tool which the security professionals can objectively demonstrate to be an effective way of protecting Americans should be fair game. Of course, if I were trying to blow up an airliner I would probably put the bomb into something other than a backpack being carried by a muslim male.....

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Just to clarify, everybody....the entire body of my post was a quote from an email I received. Everything below the first line of text, that is.

[techweenie]

It's a good thing the government isn't operated by the prople who promote e-mail chain letters.

Otherwise, the 'exceptions' would have been missed:

Jose Padilla -- Ashcroft 'dirty bomb' suspect

Wafa Idris -- suicide bomber

Sarin Ahmad -- suicide bomber

Hanadi Jaradat -- suicide bomber

Da’arin Abu Asiyah -- suicide bomber

Dalal El Mughrab -- terrorist

Fusako Shigenobu -- terrorist leader

(unnamed) female suicide bomber reported 12/03 by DHS

People who want to focus 100% on young Muslim men tend not to think through to the likely result: that 'off profile' people would end up being used through extortion or unwittingly.

Our law enforcement people aren't being 'politically correct' they are doing the right thing.

[araine901]

Dont forget the killer of Robert Kenedy

[klaucke]

That has to be the stupiest excuse for ignorance I've read in a long time. You named 12 events that were not randomly chosen, which were obviously meant just to sway the results. The fact is, any Arab can make a similar list for the U.S. (and therefore it's citizens)

1. Who gives Israel 20% of it's foreign aid?
2. Who gives Israel weapons which are used to pillage innocent Palestinians?
3. Who vetos all the proposals in the UN to make Israel leave occupied territory?
4. Who invaded Iraq simply because they were the largest threat to Israel?
5. Who praises the known war criminal Ariel Sharon?
6. Who is Israel's b1tch?

Muslim males are not the problem, and the rest of the world knows it. Why do you think it is so hard to find support from other countries for our war in Iraq? The problem is the United States and it's support of Israel.

[rammstein]

I like the extra attention I get when flying. It makes me feel special. I like when they touch my peepee with the beep stick. BEEP!! What you got in there boy? "My Wang sir, here!"

And I was wondering- what about if I make a prison-style stabbing weapon from toothpaste and toilet paper (yes, this works) and had it in my pocket? I could get on the plane. How about a pencil?

How about when my girlfriend accidentaly got on a plane with her pepper spray in her purse, which went through security no problem?

The reality is, I don't think any of this will stop anything.

The real pluses are: locked cockpit doors, sky marshalls, and the fact that now when terrorists say they are seizing the plane, everyone knows to expect death and attacks them at once rather than wait to see what's next. Planes would be SO obvious, I think their next move will be totally different. These guys are all about thinking outside the box.

Airport security is fine. Just needs to be even stricter, more accurate. I enjoy the inconvenience. And the touching.

[}{arlequin]

LOL rammstein.

A lot of good points here. I get annoyed when I'm not allowed to get on a plane with a cue stick, too. Especially when, just weeks later, on the same flight, a woman with KNITTING STICKS is able to get on and continue knitting on the plane!!! I mean with those things, if you do it right, you could probably skewer two stewardesses at once!

And the shoe thing has got to be the stupidest thing ever. I don't know what came first, the prison shank or the shoe shank (sorry) but the point is, a shank from one location is also very useful in the other and vice versa.

So you take your shoes off b/c they have metal in them, a shank, b/c if you don't they would BEEP. Security people scan them, see the shank in the x-ray: "Yes, good job sir for taking off your shank-packed shoes. We SEE the shank clearly, therefore we will ALLOW you to put the shoes back on in 20 seconds and TAKE THE SHANK with you ON THE PLANE." I mean does that make sense??? What if I have 1/2 a brain and figure out that "Gee, they LET me take the shank EQUIPPED shoes on the plane. Maybe I should just make the shank have a sharp edge and make it REMOVABLE. That way, once cretins with the x-ray give me my WEAPONS BACK, I can take them out and have some actual use out of them."

How can someone make a *beep* more important than the *reason* for the beep?

that's all for now.