http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050803/ap_ ... t_security

NEW YORK - Middle Easterners should be targeted for searches on city subways, two elected officials said, contending that police have been wasting time with random checks in efforts to prevent terrorism in the transit system.

The city began examining passengers' bags on subways and buses after the second bomb attack in London two weeks ago. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said several times that officers will not engage in racial profiling.

But over the weekend, state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said police should be focusing on those who fit the "terrorist profile."

"They all look a certain way," said Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn. "It's all very nice to be politically correct here, but we're talking about terrorism."

On Tuesday, Republican City Councilman James Oddo said the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack by Middle Eastern men in hijacked airplanes prompted him to publicly declare his support for Hikind's statements.

"The reality is that there is a group of people who want to kill us and destroy our way of life," he said. "Young Arab fundamentalists are the individuals undertaking these acts of terror, and we should keep those facts prominently in our minds and eyes as we attempt to secure our populace."

Oddo commended Hikind for "rushing headlong against the strong undertow of political correctness."

Hikind said he planned to introduce legislation allowing police to racially profile, and Oddo said he intended to introduce a resolution in the City Council supporting the measure.

The director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Wissam Nasr, said their push for racial profiling is offensive and ignorant.

"Terror comes in all shapes and sizes, and certainly there's no legislation or system that's going to identify terrorists on the spot," Nasr said.

The New York Police Department said in a statement that racial profiling is "illegal, of doubtful effectiveness and against department policy."

The Republican mayor reiterated Tuesday that it is against the law and doesn't work. "I'm against it for fairness reasons, and we're not going to do it," he said.



are you fucking kidding me? what a bunch of racist pricks.

the funniest thing i ever saw about racial profiling happened right after 9-11, and i believe the interview was from jersey.

the basis of it all was, apparently african americans were being stopped on a freeway over there at a much much much higher rate than non african americans. so they asked a african american what he thought of this, and as you would expect, he went on and on about how it was racists to single out black motorists.

he was then asked about if it was ok to single out middle-eastern looking people at the airports to prevent another 9-11, and he was all for it

I have no problem with profiling the groups most likely to commit crimes. That's common sense not racism.

I do have a problem when police trump up charges against a particular group when the individual isn't doing anything wrong.

There is absolutely nothing racist about watching a group more closely when individuals within that group have been know to commit various crimes.

If I have a shaved head a swastika tattoo and I'm reading guns and ammo watch me a little more closely than the old crippled lady, ok.

Racism is the belief that your race or culture is superior to another.

What does this have to do with "racism"?

No superiority is implied.

This practice is not racist, nor is it culturalist it's common sense.

The problem you have would be with individuals who are racist.

Is it of any more doubtful effectiveness than completely random searches? Give ME a fucking break.

I'm not an advocate of racial profiling, mainly because I think it's largely ineffective and unfair to entire groups of people. But you have to admit, racial profiling is going to be somewhat more effective than completely random searches.

They're both ineffective violations of civil rights though.

i agree that if you have a shaved head and a swastika tattoo (which is a symbol of nazi fucking germany) then you should be looked at a little more closely, but just because i'm a middle eastern person doesn't mean i should be hassled more than anyone else at a fucking bus stop.

"They all look a certain way," said Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn. "It's all very nice to be politically correct here, but we're talking about terrorism."

you're trying to tell me there's no sense of racism or prejudice in that?

I often wonder why the officials from Oklahoma City never did racial profiling after the bombings at the federal building.

I'm not advocating persecuting Muslims here. I'm saying that watching the particluar groups proven most likely to commit crimes is obvious common sensical police work, it has nothing at all to do with racism.

If Hiland is racist, fine, that's on Hiland not the process of profiling.

Kudos to both of these officials. It needs to be done.

Yes. All you folks calling for this ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Maybe we ought to profile backwoods white rednecks and former military personnel because of OKC. Or maybe we should start profiling white suburban teenagers because of Columbine.

I'm an American who is half Armenian. Idiots ask me all the time if I'm Muslim, just based on the way I look, despite the fact that Armenia was actually the first Christian state. I don't need some idiot cop hassling me because of what he thinks I am by the way I look. It's ludicrous, and while you folks who may not "look like a Muslim" can easily sit back and say it's necessary, I'm sure if some feature you possessed that you had no control over all of a sudden made you a terrorist suspect, you'd feel the same way I do. Fuck that.

brother ara, i feel your pain, im black from the waist down

if the buffets empty, do you look at the fat guy first? probably.
If all the Captain Crunch is gone off the top shelf, do you look at the tall person first? Probably more so then the 5'3 guy.
If your weeds all gone by the time it gets back to you, do you look at the guy with the Abercrombie pants and the Phish Shirt, who brought none of his own? Im betting yes.


and i dont buy the "OKC" angle. Last time i checked, those were not suicide bombers. As soon as a suicide bomber is NOT Of middle eastern descent, then im all for saying its wrong. If one demographic up to this point has been the only group thats done it, then it makes sense to focus on that demographic. It is stupid to focus and waste time on a 74 year old obese black woman for the sake of Political Correctness.

for the record- im of Greek descent (complextion, eyes and hair similar to that of arabs) and while crossing the border from canada was asked "if ive been hanging out with osama" before having my car searched.
I was not at all offended.

and they do. Any kid with 4 names on any sort of list is thrown in jail for years.

I seriously can't believe I live in the United States of America. You people make me fucking sick.

What we need is smart profiling--take into account a series of physical, mental, and emotional traits to be on the lookout for.

Sole racial profiling is just plain dumb, and if it were implemented, the terrorists would find a way to circumvent it.

ara, you need to calm down, big deal, people think its ok, people dont question your hatred of everything bush, because thats your opinion, even if people dont agree with it

Unfortunately, the people doing the profiling aren't all that smart. Simple instructions are easy to follow.

My main beef with the profiling is that it's ineffective, so it in no way outweighs the violations of privacy and dignity that it overwhelmingly drops on completely innocent upstanding citizens. If it were making a difference, there would be an issue to debate. As it is, all the logic weighs against profiling.

If you can't see the difference between this and someone's disdain for a politician I don't know what to say. Thank God most people don't feel this way, and it will in all likelihood never happen. It just shows people's true colors when they support some shit like this.

i can't believe that some of you aren't offended by these politician's comments. it's un-fucking-believable what they said.

"They all look a certain way," said Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn.

like honestly, are you fucking joking? no one but me and ara are offended by this???

What, Common Sense at the sake of PC? Fuck PC. If it takes you an extra 30 seconds to get on a subway to make a hundred feel safer, then whats the problem exactly? No ones saying detain all arabs, or search every single one of them or persons with darker skin. Im saying its just plain stupid to waste police time and money just to give the appearence of being PC. if ONE type of person has commited nearly EVERY type of this attack, then yes, police should be able to focus moreso on that one type of person without being forced to check an obvious non threat just to be PC.

Some of the wordings that rep used are a bit tasteless, but that doesnt excuse the fact there is some validity.