It has been almost a week and the Goose Creek "bomb scare" is still making front page headlines in the lowcountry. I even saw the story being covered by national television news earlier this afternoon. Everyone is asking "are they terrorists" ??? But today's Post and Courier article leaves readers asking if the pair were victims of racism and profiling. So. . . what happened and is it fair?
Terrorists or racism? I don't know if these two are terrorists or not. I'm not ready to say that Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed are, in fact, terrorists at this point - solely because they aren't being held by federal authorities - not yet, at least. What I am sure about is that these two aren't being held because of their race. These two are being held, because they had pipe bombs.
As for profiling - I would like to know why law enforcement decided to search the trunk of the car. Were authorities tipped? Was something said? We don't know. We won't know if it was "profiling" until we know the answers to these questions.
Furthermore - what's so wrong with responsible profiling? Aren't law enforcement officers trained to sense and "profile" suspicious or possibly criminal activity? I would much rather an officer use that training to "serve and protect" rather than "serve and clean up the aftermath" once a crime has been committed. There is a difference between responsible profiling and police misconduct that gave it a bad name. I'd have a major problem if every traffic stop involving a Muslim resulted in a search - that's irresponsible profiling, bordering on racism. Still, the simple outcome indicates that isn't what happened in Goose Creek. I hope we reach truth and justice concerning these two men.
As for the broader context - We live in a multicultural America. Educated Americans should realize that the vast majority of Muslims reject Islamic Terrorism. Terrorism is not part of their belief system. Furthermore, it's more than a blemish on the American Dream when any segment of our society becomes the victim of prejudice and ignorance due to atrocities committed by a few that have chosen to pervert their faith. I'm a Christian saying these things not out of agreement with Islam - but out of support for a responsible understanding of Islam - and out of support for America.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
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1 comments:
The fundamental problem with profiling is that more profiled people are arrested than nonprofiled, even if the incidence of wrongdoing is the same.
Let's say that, oh, 1% of the Midlands population has something illegal inside their car, whether it be weed, an open container, or an unregistered firearm. If the police search people from Lexington county twice as often as they search people from Richland county, then the arrest rate (from such searches) will be double for Lexington than Richland, making it look like people from Lexington are twice as likely to commit crimes (even if they aren't).
The situation might be different; it might be that hispanic people are less likely to have gun violations than white people, or vice versa. But either way you run into a situation where, because of uneven enforcement, a community, ethnic group, or some smaller subset of society (middle eastern men between 18-30 who wear traditional Islamic garb, for example) is painted as being more prone to criminal activity than it really is, perhaps even perpetuating the behavior as kids grow up with parents in jail.
All that to say, if a policeman sees something suspicious, of course he can search a car as long as it's within the law. I'm just saying that using race or age as a factor creates some serious problems.
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