Forums → WEPR → Racial Profiling

I just want to prove the point that racial profiling may not be fair, but the little harm that it does can save lives, and if you aren't willing to be checked more thoughtfully at the airport, get pulled over in the hood, or simply show working papers, and would rather keep that tinny piece of freedom in tact and result in statistically more plane bombings, gang violence, and illegal immigration, than there's something wrong with you.

Honestly, many ethnic groups who don't deserve to be profiled don't help themselves. For every well-behaved hard working african american there are five who think doing drugs and being in gangs makes them "black"

Racial profiling, no matter what the criticisms against it may be, can and has shown to be an effective tool in law enforcement. While it may not be an accurate generalization, it has been used to increase the odds of a successful intervention of crime.

Let's look at a few examples.

1. Profiling at mass transit stations. (i.e. airports, bus, and train depots)
We have all seen that specific races and religions have been targeted for increased search. This is simply because we don't see asian Buddhists blowing up airplanes or attempting to derail a passenger train. The obvious inference would be that the odds of netting a convict by observing them with greater scrutiny are drastically lower than scrutinizing someone of middle eastern descent.

Therefor the most effective application of the odds in these scenarios as pertaining to utilization of search and the effective application of law enforcement manpower would show that your time is best spent scrutinizing those groups with a higher propensity toward illegal action.

2. Illegal immigration.
This one has raised a lot of questions and outcry recently, especially here in my home state of Arizona. However let's take into account that in Phoenix, as of the 2008 update of the 2000 census, there are an estimated 4,281,899 here in my city, Phoenix, and another 541,811 in Tuscon.

Now at the last estimate by INS there are believed to be at any one time in excess of 500,000 illegal latino immigrants in Arizona, with the majority of them between Phoenix and Tuscon. So with a combined total of just over 5 million residents in those two cities, and the statistic of the number of illegal immigrants it's a fair bet that you won't find them unless you pay close attention to the latino members of these cities.

Here are some quick facts.(US Census Bureau)
Percentage of hispanic population in Arizona: 30.1%
Total residents of Arizona: 6,595,778
Hispanic population of Arizona: 1,985,329

Hey guys, I don't know this, but this species on another planet, is very violent. They divided themselves into races so that they could distinguish themselves from others, and now, they discriminate against each other and keep each other out of their territory.

Pretty messed up stuff, right? They'r all one species, but some won't let them walk on certain areas of the beautiful planet that is theirs, just because they divided themselves into races. I hope that never happens on Earth- oh wait! It already happened. Too late. ):

I don't know if you know this*

Kevin, your statements seem to have little to no true bearing on the discussion. Racial profiling does not imply racism off hand. There is no hate or degradation involved at all. It is simply the use of identifying factors to increase the statistical probability of intervening in a criminal offense either in progress or prior to it's commission based on statistical data.

Kevin, your statements seem to have little to no true bearing on the discussion. Racial profiling does not imply racism off hand. There is no hate or degradation involved at all. It is simply the use of identifying factors to increase the statistical probability of intervening in a criminal offense either in progress or prior to it's commission based on statistical data.

You missed the point. You are completely missing the point. We are all one race, the human race. We came from the same place. We all walk the Earth, but we just can't walk on certain places just because some of us look different from one another.

....You missed the point. Some people are more likely to commit crimes than others, not because of there race par say but because there race implies they live in or there ancestors lived in, a specific country. Now lets say Arizona, witch is near the Mexican border, has trouble with ill eagle immigrants. Now think for a second. Are they more likely to come from Mexico or Germany? Mexico or any other country? Look at the former statistics for the exact numbers, but you can see were it would be effective to find illegal immigrants, yes?