Originally Posted by pterostyrax
...a male of eastern descent between the ages of 17 and 40.
The problem with profiling is that it typically ends up creating a profile for who we're not looking for, too.
The second set of bombers in London were from Africa and South East Asia -- not the Middle East.
As numerous posters have mentioned before, SSSSing 70+ year old little old ladies of Norwegian descent is a complete waste of time and energy.
I agree that the SSSS system is lousy. But regardless, we do need to screen 70+ year old ladies of Norwegian (or even Danish) descent. Why? Because we need to make sure that they don't have any contraband on them. It's probably less likely that they'd intentionally have any, but they can be used as mules, nonetheless. In fact, they're probably a good target for it, owing to their advanced age.
Anyway, what, exactly, do you suggest we do with this profile anyway? If I'm a TSA Officer and I see a guy with dark skin, what am I supposed to do?
Originally Posted by FWAAA
Profiling young middle-eastern males (prohibiting their air travel, in fact) would have paid off in spades on the morning of September 11, 2001
A few of them were profiled. One was selected by a ticketing agent because he seemed "suspicious" and a few others were picked up by CAPPS. But it didn't matter because they didn't have any contraband on them (as far as I know) so they were allowed through the checkpoint without any trouble.