I am in favor of racial profiling, among others...

[Red Lion]

I am really tired of poeple pushing profilling, predominently racial as wrong and should not happen, while people clearly islamic plot to kill people in terror plots in the UK and other places. I recently heard the ex-mayor of Minneapolis MN, an African American women give cred to the St. paul MN police dept for racially profiling African American thugs/gangs and cracking down on gang violence, and making a huge dent in violence. I really respect this honesty. I am for profiling, racial among them if it is for the greater good of the people and coordinated by trusted public servants. What do others think?

[kevin1]

I couldn't honestly say that racial profililing isnt sometimes justified, look at crime statistics and see if you agree. In an area where the population is predominantly of one type the odds are that the majority of crimes will unquestionably be committed by members of that race, that's just the law of averages.

[BigTiny]

Race is a factor in profiling, but it shouldn't be used without proper training. Around here you rarely see a white person stopped by police, and I have never seen a white person getting their car searched. The local police are using race as the first choice to begin the progression to reasonable suspicion. Meth has made white people here more likely to be in illegal possession than blacks, yet blacks are still stopped at a much higher rate. This results in wasted time for the officers. Wasted time = less criminals in jail.

[petasux]

Racial profiling has its place, if your a cop in a nieghborhood where 95% of violent crimes are committed by young black males then it would make sense to me to start an investigation looking at young black males.If you were looking for someone in the midwest manufacturing meth then it would make sense to look at white males between 18 and 30 as thats the majority of meth cookers arrested around here.Looking for a terrorist, im gonna go with a male muslim.

As a side note I think people sometimes scream profiling when its not really the case, if a nieghborhoods predominately black, mexican, or asian theres going to be more of that race arrested there, its who lives there and theyd have to import white people in order to arrest them.

[Champlain Islander]

I don't see anything wrong with profiling. All these attempts to stop it are just being PC. If someone steals a skateboard out of a store who you going to stop the 90 year old lady in a walker out front or the kid with baggy pants and hat on sideways standing out front? I live in one of the whitest states in the land and most of the drug and violent arrests involve someone who isn't white. If I were a cop I would profile. If you owned a hardware store and saw a couple of Middle Eastern types come in and buy fertilizer and kerosene wouldn't you make the call to local LEOs? If you were a screener at the airport and saw a towel head come into the line wouldn't you take a closer look at his carry on?