Profiles

[Disclaimer – any numbers, percents, age groups are grabbed from thin air as examples in order to make a point and are not the result of any form of scientific study or research unless a specific source is linked.]

Okay, what is it that people have against profiling? If, statistically speaking, it was to be shown that 75% of terrorists were white males in the 25-40 age range, what is the big problem with paying a little more attention to white males aged 25-40? Oh, wait … if it was white males no one would have a problem with profiling in the first place … they’d call it good police work.

So why is it no longer good police work when the majority of terrorists fall into another ethnic group? Why is it that people have to be so adamantly against profiling that they actually end up making law enforcement pay LESS attention to the people that are MORE LIKELY to be the cause of problems for fear of being accused of ‘profiling’?

Certainly I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be looking at everyone, even in the above example 25% of terrorists would NOT fall into the ‘white male aged 25-40’ category. But I mean come on … if 75% of terrorists come from a specific ethnic group, then, in my opinion, something close to 75% of the attention of law enforcement and security personnel needs to be focused on the people that MATCH THAT DESCRIPTION.

It’s not a matter of racism … I don’t believe that my race is better than their race … Though I’m sure that someone reading this will probably call me a ‘racist’ because I believe that one of the best ways to catch criminals is through the use of profiling. I’ll just call them an ignorant slob and be done with it.

I don’t know the exact numbers, though I’d be willing to bet you that the numbers are out there. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies collect data regularly on people that commit pretty much any type of crime and so can tell you what type of person is most likely going to commit any given crime.

Last I knew middle aged white males were the highest percentage of serial killers … so, if you’re looking for a serial killer then you should probably spend a majority of your time on middle aged white males … concentrating your investigations on old ladies in wheelchairs is, most likely, only going to lead to more dead bodies.

So why is it that people wildly outside the ‘terrorist’ profile seem to be the most commonly picked for ‘closer investigation’? Very simply … if you take an Arabic male for screening then you can probably expect to be accused of ‘profiling’ and/or being prejudiced …

Profiling makes sense … it works, and it has a greater success rate than ‘random’ checks. Is there still a chance that someone can be overlooked? Sure, but there is ALWAYS that chance. Remember profiling doesn’t mean ONLY checking those that ‘match’ the profile …

The side effect of profiling might also be that the people belonging to that ethnic group might, oh I don’t know, start to put pressure on to distance themselves from those elements that create the problem.

Can’t call them Islamic terrorists … that would be insensitive to those followers of the religion of Islam that aren’t terrorists. Well maybe if we stop being ‘sensitive’ to them all the time then maybe it would encourage them to do things in order to distance themselves from their more radical elements.

Let’s just get rid of the whole concept of ‘political correctness’ as it seems to be aimed at mucking up our ability to use common sense in this country.