Racial profiling actually does very little to catch the actual 'bad guys'. I just did a paper on Racial Profiling for a Criminal Investigations class and have learned quite a bit. Racial Profiling, while most associate this against black people, has since 9/11 greatly included people of Arab descent. The most ridiculous case I found was of an 8 year old boy in Oklahoma, who is of Arab descent, being routinely stopped at the airport for questioning (away from his parents). Apparantly his Cub Scout pinewood derby racecar was considered suspect in his carry-on, because it was disassembled in Tulsa.

This kind of stuff just serves to piss off the moderate Muslim citizens, who are the best weapon we have in calming or locating the extremists.

But this isn't about what they look like, it's about how they react to questions.

And it's crazy to pretend that profiling doesn't happen. If you want law enforcement to do any good then there will be profiling.

I've been profiled once going into England. I understand why, we looked suspicious (in a leech sense, not a criminal sense.) I'm a bit annoyed with the immigration guy who wouldn't drop a theory that had been disproved

That's what they all say. That's not how it works out.

Just because racism exists doesn't make racism right. And good law enforcement is different than good security screening. The core purposes are not the same.

Immigration screening is not security screening for they have different core purposes. And just because one individual understands "why" something happened to them, doesn't mean it's as acceptable for other individuals. That is, it may be ok to volunteer yourself for additional screening (including racist profiling), but it's not ok to volunteer others for the same against their wishes.

Spot on.

There was a story in the UK papers about about 12 yr old boy who this week ran away from home and was able to get through airport security then get on a plane - all without a boarding pass and without a pasport or any ID.

Everyone just assumed he was withsome one and was no threat. Because he was a white middle class average looking 12 yr old.

But what if someone indoctrinated him to take a bomb on board? Everyone on that plane would be dead while security are happy with a charade of "profiling people."

Its nonsense. If everyone has not been checked there is NO security - just a lot of theater. Feels good - if you are not the one being profiles - but does NOTHING to make anyone safer.