Monday, June 01, 2009

Mandating Racial Profiling

Yeah, this sounds like a good idea.

The legislation has several logistical hurdles, he said. For one, Wisconsin driver’s licenses don’t list ethnicity or race, so Pettit said officers are usually put in the uncomfortable position of asking a driver or making a broad determination. Another is how to extract meaning from the data, he said.

How long before someone gets offended or sues because a police officer asks them their race?  Or what if an officer assumes a person’s race and the person is of another race?  Would that cause some trouble? 

This has “bad idea” written all over it.  It’s designed to stoke racial tensions - not resolve them.

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1213 hrs
Culture + Law + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. In many states, Hispanics are counted as white.  I guess this is to build up the number of “whites” that are stopped/contacted so it will always be higher than the number of blacks contacted.  I have no problem with “racial profiling”, which used to be referred to as officer intuition or experience.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 02, 2009 at 0637 hrs


  2. How far does your tolerance for racial profiling extend, gimlet?

    The recent murder of an abortion doctor got me thinking about that kind of terrorist.  Checking the wikipedia page on abortion-related violence, and some media reports, I found that these terrorists, at least in the US, are overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, middle-aged caucasian men. 

    So my question for you gimlet, or anyone else who supports racial profiling,  is whether all middle-aged caucasian men should be subject to increased scrutiny and police contact if they’re in the vicinity of a medical facility that provides abortion services?  Do you support that kind of racial profiling?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 03, 2009 at 1634 hrs


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