Racial Profiling is still illegal no matter how you look at it

Since the underwear bomber failed at his attempt at blowing up a air plance, the conservatives have decided that maybe racial profiling should be used again. Forget the constitutional violation that occurred when it was used before. Forget the violation of people 4th and 14th amendments rights. Lets rewrite the constitution all in the name of good, right?

So what is the true definition of Racial profiling -it is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner. It is often confused with the more comprehensive offender profiling and has been perceived to be directed most often toward non white individuals. Although this practice has been common for centuries, the practice became particularly controversial toward the end of the 20th century in the United States, as the potential for abuse by law enforcement came to light.

So imagine you are in your car and a police officer stops you because you are black and pulls you out of your car and shoves a gun in your face and temporally detainees you in their car, only to find out that you were the wrong black man. Of course they apologize and say they are sorry for the mistake. Lets look at the situation like this, many a lives were lost simply because of this racial profiling. Sorry, I did not mean to kill him or it was an accident. Nothing good can come from this, no matter what the better good of all is.

In the United States, police officers target not race but certain characteristics that are only correlated with race. This is also related to the hypothesis that police officers have no racial preferences and only maximize the probability of a successful search. If black motorists are more likely to carry contraband or illegal drugs, racial profiling may lead to a higher probability of successful searches.^[1]

At least for the state of Maryland, data suggests that the probability of a successful search is very similar across races. This suggests that police officers are not motivated by racial preferences but by the desire to maximize the probability of a successful search. In fact, data suggests that the probability of finding contraband in excess of a high threshold is higher for black motorists, implying a bias against white drivers.^[1]

Critics argue:

• that race would ideally not be considered for any reason in a police action (save the exceptions made below).
• that race would ideally not be considered the primary or motivating factor for suspicion.
• that race could be considered when it is used to describe a specific suspect in a specific crime and only when used in a manner like other physical descriptions (e.g., hair color, weight, distinguishing marks). This is often referred to as the "be on the lookout" (B.O.L.O.) exception.
• that even if race could be helpful, use of race may cause many more errors where the actual offender happened not to fit the race predicted by the model and law enforcement fails to capture the suspect.
  

In the United States, the government does not have the right to conduct searches based solely on racial profiling. The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to be safe from unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause. Since the majority of people of all races are law-abiding citizens, merely being of a race which a police officer believes to be more likely to commit a crime than another is not probable cause. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires that all citizens be treated equally under the law. It has been argued that this makes it unconstitutional for a representative of the government to make decisions based on race. This view has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Batson v. Kentucky and several other cases.

Racial profiling is frowned upon in some societies. The security agent who checked in Muhammed Atta, the leader of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and a companion, would later say that looking at the pair his first reaction was to think "If this doesn't look like two Arab terrorists, I've never seen two Arab terrorists." But he immediately felt guilty, and had no legal grounds to search on the basis of their suspicious appearance had he wished to.^[2]

^{So that is the catch all end all we just want to get rid of all the bad Arabs, and of course after we get all those bad Arabs... Then maybe we can get all those bad blacks, and Hispanics!!! You know its all for the safety of the United States, right?}

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