Profiling Nixed?

A federal judge here in New York City has issued a ruling that's sure to be a topic of discussion in law enforcement and civil liberties circles. The ruling said the government can't use ethnicity as justification for detaining two Arab men questioned for four hours following a cross country flight. The pair sued the government, alleging the detention was unjustified. The judge apparently agreed.

Black people have understood for years the injustice of racial profiling. The term "driving while black" has become a cruel joke, one that unfortunately is all too real. The ruling in this case, which involves a pair of Egyptian born men, centers on the government's contention that they acted strangely during the flight from San Diego to New York. Uncle Sam's undoing, however, was in asserting that the men's ethnicity was a factor in deciding to detain them, and that it was an acceptable factor.

As it turns out, one of the men held was a former New York City police officer, the other employed by GE in Egypt. At no time during their detention were they charged with any crime. Civil libertarians are hoping this means the beginning of the end of the ethnic profiling that began in the wake of 9-11.

I wouldn't count on it. Besides the possibility of an appeal, the fact is that law enforcement has shown an amazing elasticity when it comes to profiling. The fall back position will likely be a simple denial that ethnicity has anything to do with the decision to detain someone.

That leads, of course, to the preferred rationale for stopping someone, black or Arab. It's the famous "acting suspiciously". Whether in a car or on foot, it works for cops in black communities. My guess is they'll tell counterterrorism agents to drop any verbalizing of ethnic profiling, and simply say a detainee was speaking in Arabic, or changing seats, both of which raised red flags in the case of the two Egyptian men.

The fact is, most Americans don't have a problem with ethnic profiling. We've been lead to believe it keeps us all safer. I don't think so. What do you think?