alleghany

Right, if the crime isn't mutually exclusive then the profile won't be. I don't think that cops only target black people for any one crime. To say that is definitely playing the race card. My neighborhood has had a string of recent break-ins. The suspects are black males. My neighborhood is predominately white. That being said, I expect that the sheriffs department would stop black males in my neighborhood more frequently then white females even though the population is predominately white.

Looking forward to the minority report crap going live.

The issue is profiling, which is not mutually exclusive with committing a crime.

You cannot arrest according to population, you have to arrest according to crimes committed . Ask anyone in the black communities how safe they feel in their own home.

mommotwo (view profile)	Posted 12:19 pm, 05/27/2014
Isn't stopping crime the main goal? If you find more offenses by profiling, then doesn't it stand to reason that profiling is a legitimate technique?

First, stopping more crimes is the main goal. Second, profiling is a useful and necessary tool. BUT, how profiling is used determines whether or not it is a "legitimate" technique.

If cops only consider certain facts, like the make up of the prison population is predominately black, and automatically determine blacks to be more apt to be offenders and resort to profiling based on color and the past sins of those incarcerated, then they are merely using profiling to be racially biased. Certainly if they search every black person they encounter and find some reason to arrest them, then they are chipping away at crime little by little. But, had they spent an equal amount of time searching a proportionately similar sampling of whites and treated them the same and not cut them any breaks, chances are, they would have made just as many arrests; still chipping away at crime; just not laying all the blame on one particular group. Does it make us feel safer to know that 10 black men were arrested and sent to prison than it would to know that 90 white men were arrested and sent to prison for the same offenses?

A profile is supposed to paint a picture of the type of person that might have committed a crime so the cops will know what to look for. If all the pics are of black people, then while the cops are busy shaking them down, a lot of guilty white thugs are getting away with crimes that are just as bad...or, worse. Where's the justice in that?

If you don't profile on history and experience you will end up just like TSA, strip searching 80 year old ladies and doing a full body search on infants. It is political correctness gone crazy. Ask Israel how they zero in on people trying to kill them.

But you are comparing them differently and your scenario won't work. In the trucking example you used you based it on actual accidents. That means in order to use your analogy you would need to base your percentage on actual crime numbers. That being said, the persons actually committing the most crimes should be stopped more frequently.

I didn't make my thoughts clear Gr8. If blacks represent 10% (100) of the overall population (1000) of a given area, and, whites represent 90% (900) of that same area, IF cops are going to search 10% of the total population they should search 10 blacks and 90 whites. Of course if the cops are working an area where the population is predominately black, then the numbers will change accordingly.

It's like in trucking. If the weigh man stops only trucking companies that have in the past had violations, then those companies are going to end up with a proportionately worse safety rating (because if they look, they WILL find something wrong...with any truck). While the truckers that never get checked will have a better safety rating, even though they may be worse offenders than the ones getting checked. They're just not getting caught up with. It doesn't mean that Acme Trucking has the most unsafe trucks on the roads, just that they are being scrutinized on a higher level. They may in fact be some of the best when compared to all within the entire industry. Meanwhile, FedUp who has all the newest, and perceived to be the best equipment and drivers and is therefore rarely ever inspected by the weigh men, has the highest incident rate of accidents involving fatalities and just recently took out a charter bus and killed over a dozen children in one incident. (Names used as examples only.)

So would you rather share the road with a truck that has a missing mud flap that's never been involved in a traffic accident, yet been written up 3 times in less than 24 hours for a missing mud flap (and supposed to have 15 days to get said violation corrected), or, a truck that has a spotless record (only because it's never been inspected at a weigh station) that will end up killing 12 to 15 people before the day is out?

Isn't stopping crime the main goal? If you find more offenses by profiling, then doesn't it stand to reason that profiling is a legitimate technique?

http://en.metapedia.org/wik..._and_crime

"If an area has 10% of its population as blacks, then why not stop and search 10% blacks and 90% whites (assuming no other groups of people exist in the area)...and go for a variety of people from both groups (wealthy, poor, employed, unemployed, young, old)."

Ummm....so you're saying that 90% of whites need to be pursued...and only 10% of blacks need to be pursued? I think you may have gotten your stats a little mixed up there. Percentages are still percentages...based on a TOTAL number...not a percentage number. I think you inadvertantly posted that.

http://www.nydailynews.com/...-1.1332840

I hear you....I do. However, how do you know when someone is being racially profiled...and when they are simply being pursued because of their own actions? No matter who is implicated...who is arrested...it seems that it is ALWAYS a case of racial profiling. When do facts and truth finally come into play?

I agree Gr8, but, we both know that racial profiling does go on and is sometimes used to poke around and hunt for a broken law instead of just addressing one that is obvious. Just like a cop will stop a driver for something simple and use it for the purpose of doing a search. It (racial profiling) goes on away from here quite often. If you always stop black people more than you do white people and do searches, then, it stands to reason that you are going to find more blacks than whites doing something illegal. If you always zero in on a particular type of white person, you are naturally going to tilt the stats in favor of the white folks.

If an area has 10% of its population as blacks, then why not stop and search 10% blacks and 90% whites (assuming no other groups of people exist in the area)...and go for a variety of people from both groups (wealthy, poor, employed, unemployed, young, old). If you're a cop on a beat in a predominately black neighborhood, then, logically, you are going to profile and arrest more blacks. But cops in a predominately white neighborhood should be using the same tactics. And for sure, when it gets to the court system, trials, convictions, and sentences should be equal for equal offenses regardless of color.

Here in Wilkes County, racial profiling has little meaning. I don't think the majority of local residents can relate to it really. JMO

I would like to add that sometimes there are cultural differences that make one group stand out as abnormal and unacceptable to another group, yet those differences are very much normal and acceptable within the first group



Violence can't be excused as a cultural difference.

lol...and don't we all just got what we are given? I mean there's just so much of that stuff thats "fixable" or "rearrageable" I suppose...that being a given if you are into Plastic Surgery.

I would hope I've seen enough thugs of all races on dah youtube to recognize one in the real world!

However, once you have proven your character to be that of a thug (red, white, black, yellow, green), then don't be upset when you are included in a racial profile.

I'm not a very suspicious person. Initially. Everybody deserves the chance to prove their character without regards to looks.

....and none of those cultural differences justify breaking laws...just sayin

Mom, I know what you meant when you said that, but, I would like to add that sometimes there are cultural differences that make one group stand out as abnormal and unacceptable to another group, yet those differences are very much normal and acceptable within the first group. Just as things that seem normal and acceptable to the second group may seem inferior to the first.

Sometimes the thing that makes another person suspicious to us, is our perception of the differences that exist between us and them.