- 7 Jun 2008
- 1,029
- 113
Whether the authorities should "profile" people in security screenings is a hot issue in the US. So-called "conservatives" and Republicans argue that the government should target certain classes of people, particularly young men who look like they may be Muslims (Arabic/Middle Eastern ethnicity) for extra security checks. They argue that no grandma from Peoria (a small town in the US state of Illinois, used as an example) has ever tried to smuggle a weapon or bomb onto an airplane.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other "liberal" groups have filed lawsuits attempting to stop such profiling, claiming that it violates the US Constitution and 14th Amendment, which bar such discrimination by race, religion, or ethnicity. I think they are correct as to US constitutional law. A more practical concern is that once the authorities target a certain group, the terrorists will likely use members of other groups as suicide bombers.
When my wife and I went to Japan last October, we saw another kind of profiling that is, imho, more defensible. A prominent sign at Japanese immigration booths said that all passengers originating in certain countries would undergo additional security screening.
The list included all countries in the Middle East and northern Africa, as well as Indonesia (pretty much all Muslim countries were on the list). This seems more fair to me because it's not based on race, ethnicity, or other immutable characteristics. If I (a white American) and my wife (a Japanese) had first visited Yemen before going to Japan, we would have been subject to the extra screening too.
I'm curious whether profiling is an issue elsewhere in the world.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other "liberal" groups have filed lawsuits attempting to stop such profiling, claiming that it violates the US Constitution and 14th Amendment, which bar such discrimination by race, religion, or ethnicity. I think they are correct as to US constitutional law. A more practical concern is that once the authorities target a certain group, the terrorists will likely use members of other groups as suicide bombers.
When my wife and I went to Japan last October, we saw another kind of profiling that is, imho, more defensible. A prominent sign at Japanese immigration booths said that all passengers originating in certain countries would undergo additional security screening.
The list included all countries in the Middle East and northern Africa, as well as Indonesia (pretty much all Muslim countries were on the list). This seems more fair to me because it's not based on race, ethnicity, or other immutable characteristics. If I (a white American) and my wife (a Japanese) had first visited Yemen before going to Japan, we would have been subject to the extra screening too.
I'm curious whether profiling is an issue elsewhere in the world.
