PRISONER EXPRESS

It's not the racial profiling that is the root of the problem. If the police get a report of a freckle faced, redheaded, white man robbing, burglarizing or raping they don't go look for an oriental woman to arrest for the crime. It makes sense to use reasonable judgment based on the evidence. Maybe there is no eyewitness, but they find a plug of red hair scraped off the window frame that was the entry for the burglar. They still have a good idea of what they are looking for and evidence to support their conclusions. You can't fault them if they look for redheads. They would be negligent if they ignored the possibility of a redhead burglar.

All that said, why do people get so upset over other races being targeted when there is evidence to support the theory? It is first a legal ploy to attempt to suppress any evidence seized. Lawyers do have a job to do and must put on the best defense possible even for the guilty. Secondly, many times they are right to suspect officers were only misusing their authority to harass minorities, because they do.

"Driving while black" is a common catch phrase, but I have been stopped for driving while white in black neighborhoods. It was where the dope was sold on the street. Why don't we hear about this in the media? It doesn't make as good a story because most whites, like myself, realize the police officer was only doing a job. It is even possible my best interest was what was at the heart of the matter since so many whites get robbed in those drug neighborhoods. Even the best interests of most of the folks who live there were being protected because his presence would possibly force the dealers out of that area. Dope fiends have hit children while speeding down narrow streets and shoot outs do occur.

On the other hand, when a black is stopped he refuses to consider any factor other than the color of skin. Blacks want to believe they are too smart to ever make the mistake of giving police another reason to target them. Playing the race card will often help their court cases too if they scream loud enough. They never think that flying gage colors in an expensive car with music loud enough to disturb the peace might be a factor. Driving itself is a privilege incumbent on proper conduct. That is why we have speed limits and laws that govern our actions. If an officer makes a stop due to suspicious activities and then smells alcohol or drugs he is well within his authority to investigate further and would be negligent not to. His first concern is to protect the public, as well as the driver and his passengers. As long as the officer is polite and professional in the performance of his duties no one should complain.

Suspicion can be based on race. Riding around with black coworkers in their neighborhood I would duck if we saw police. Hey, we were getting high and he would have been right to be suspicious. If he had caught us I'd have certainly done my best to prove the search was illegal to beat the charges. Doesn't mean his intuition was wrong though.

We look at the recent events of 9/11, the subsequent arrest and deportation of Muslims is shameful and there are horrendous violations of civil liberties as a result. Yes we must ask ourselves, what else could hey have done? Personally I would have liked to have seen the many members of the House of Saud and Osama bin Laden's family detained for questioning. That would have made more sense than rounding up all Muslims because they were suspects due to their religion or possibly supporting the hijackers of 9/11. You have to admit the suspicion had merit though. Where they went wrong was the inhumane way these indiscriminate detentions were done.

For all those prisoners who support the administration in their treatment of detainees, even the torture, you might want to remember it was less than 50 years ago that the common practice of police was to pick up likely suspects and beat them 'til they confess, whether they were guilty or not. Torture is a slippery slope. Once the establishment steps on it there is no telling how far back they will slide. Fifty years is not unthinkable.

The racial profiling was so widespread and indiscriminate that it violated all rights to human treatment and civil liberties. In that it was wrong. Though they would have been right to investigate those people to be sure they were not involved.

With a bit of common sense, and a large dollop of professional conduct, racial profiling is a proper tool in enforcement of our laws. It is when the innocent, targeted solely because of race or religion, are beaten and mistreated that the line between common sense and crime is crossed. To use race as one factor that attracts greater scrutiny is reasonable when race is an aspect of the crime being investigated. It allows police to limit suspects to only those possibly guilty. For race, without a whit of corroborating evidence, to be proof of guilt is inappropriate, a major violation of everything America stands for and a crime against all of humanity.