Sunday, August 12, 2007

TSA and Profiling - Should it be done???

I first have to say (to stay out of jail) TSA's official stance is that they DO NOT profile. Now for a dose of reality. Everyone profiles, right or wrong it happens. As a former frontline TSA officer I believe we should profile and so do many others. So is it happening on the sly....you bet it is. Profiling is a necessary evil. Sometime you have to profile to find the bad guy.

There is a misconception about what profiling is and that is why there is such an uproar from the ACLU types. When you profile you are looking for a specific type that meets the criteria. The problem is people think that means you don't look at anyone else. There in lies the problem. If the profile happens to be Middle Eastern men between the ages of 20-45 then every one of them gets checked. Also though, you randomly pull people from the group that is not profiled. There are different kinds of profiling as well and some are acceptable but not when it comes to race. Racial profiling is what it happens to be this time. Next time it might only be men with scars on their left ankle. The criteria changes and all facets should be considered including race.

Now the protect my rights at all cost people say that is wrong. They say it is unfair to inconvenience this profiled group just because they are similar to the people who perputrated the crime. Hello.....do you not think the 1000s of people who died were inconvenienced??? What about the children who will grow up without parents and the family memebers left behind...no inconvenience for them???? They also say that profiling violates their rights. Their rights to what??? I don't recall any constitutional right to be free from profiling. These same people aren't saying you can't profile based on psychological factors or physical descriptors just race.

It would actually help the public view of Middle Eastern Men if they were profiled. See the public is uneasy with the Middle Eastern men because of what happened. If they were profiled by TSA and checked the majority of them would be absolutely fine because they aren't terrorist. Then the government could say, "hey we checked them all and they were good". I stand by the old adage of if you have done nothing wrong, you have little to fear.

Now your going to love this. I was raised in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia to be exact. I lived there for 5 years. I am not terrorist and I don't look like a terrorist but I get some raised eyebrows when it comes up. I tell you this because that is why there is a need to profile, yes even racial, AND randomly check everyone else. I know that not everyone in the Middle East is a terrorist and I know this first hand but I still believe in profiling.

Here is one of the main factors about profiling and TSA. IF TSA incorporated profiling that is all it would be. TSA would not be arresting these people that meet the profile they would be just checking them a litlle more closely.

I would like to say I am sorry if you are offended but I am not sorry. Be offended, you have every right to be. Don't read anything more I write and consider me a loon, I don't care. I am not an expert on profiling in anyway and don't pretend to be. I was in security and I do fly on airplanes therefore I have a right to want to be safe and if that happens to offend a group of people then so be it. If the profile were white women between the ages of 25-40 then I would just have to accept that and get extra screening. There is always going to be a bad guy amoungst the good. Unfortunately the good have to suffer for the one bad. You can't sit back and allow bad people to hide behind the feelings of the good.

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