Presumably so, more black people commit robbery, more white people commit heinous crimes, more Middle Eastern people commit terrorist acts, more Latino people commit assaults, more Asian people commit white collar crimes; however, logically all black people do not commit robbery, all white people do not commit heinous crimes, all Middle Eastern people do not commit terrorists acts, all Latino people do not commit assault, and, all Asian people do not commit white collar crimes. Therefore, no form of racial profiling is necessary for homeland security to be effective, but every form of intelligence is.
To profile someone because of their race is based on fallacious argument in which the premise of the argument, “if most of them do,” assumes that something true generally is true in every possible case; all of them do!” Just because a black male wears a white tee shirt that’s too big and blue jeans that ride across his buttocks doesn’t always mean that person is involved in, associated with, or part of a gang. Jeans and tee-shirts, and “sagging” pants are fashion statements similar to the baggy “Zoot-Suit” worn by 1930s/40s youth, or the tight body hugging jeans worn by today’s youth.
Profiling assumes a person is guilty before proven innocent. To assume that every Middle Eastern person is likely to board an airplane with a bomb is not only an ignorant argument based on false premises and conclusions, it is also against a person’s human rights and a presumptuous invasion of privacy. “…the man involved in Sunday’s incident was no threat to the flight… a Nigerian national, was suffering from an illness and spent a large amount of time in an airplane bathroom.” (www.theepochtimes.com)
Homeland Security was created to protect America using intelligent analysis, collecting pertinent information, and taking necessary action. It is high-tech investigation and intellectual analysis that will stop perpetrators, not harassing innocent people, profiling them based on how they look or what nationality or race they happen to be. Profiling is based on speculation, possibility, and a rush to judgment from generalizations. A generalization is, “A statement about all the members of a group that may be true in some or many situations but is not true in every case.” (www.dictionary.com)
Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence “is responsible for using information and intelligence from multiple sources to identify and assess current and future threats to the United States.” (www.dhs.gov) Homeland Security agents are highly educated in criminal law and procedure. It would be to their benefit to use advanced technology, smart investigative techniques, interrogative questioning, and conclusions based on logical arguments, rather than profiling. When agents utilize intelligent, deductive logic and reasoning, there is a higher probability for an accurate conclusion.
Homeland Security agents are highly skilled and presumably intelligent. How intelligent is it to profile someone? Is the simplicity of profiling a smart act? No, it’s an easy way out. To assume that because someone is a certain race, they should be typified, profiled, found guilty and characterized criminal without intelligent, adequate evidence is irrational. One of the greatest thinkers of all time, Greek philosopher, Socrates, explained the importance of logical reasoning, obtaining evidence, analysis, and rational conclusion, not from something said, but rather from something done.
Logically true and correct, profiling based on race is ignorant, unreasonable, and unjust. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” (14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States) Then, profiling is an egregious mismanagement of time and intelligence, and it is unconstitutional.
Increasingly, people are victimized by racial profiling at airports, court houses, law enforcement agencies, by authority figures, and others. “The ACLU’s ‘Campaign Against Racial Profiling’ fights law enforcement and private security practices that disproportionately target people of color for investigation and enforcement.” (www.aclu.org) Perhaps the practice of racial profiling will be abolished to make way for equal protections and respect for a person’s privacy. Privacy is every person’s right; profiling is every person’s wrong.
Out of all fairness, freedom and justice, and to those humiliated by profiling, to assume someone is guilty based on race is based on ignorance. To ubiquitously profile someone as up to no good based on generalizations and possibilities rather than specific facts and evidence is illogical and naive. There are smarter ways to identify criminal behavior using logical premises, arguments and conclusions, and intelligent, interrogative investigative practices. Criminality and terrorism have no race, gender, creed, or color; the devastation affects everyone – people from every nationality, one and the same.