NY Subway Riders Smarter than the NY TimesAccording to the
Letters Page today:
You say the New York City Police Department should not simply pick people of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent for bag searches at subway entrances. But given the events of 9/11 and the recent attacks in London, aren't they the people most likely to commit a terrorist attack? I say this as someone of Indian descent.
Anyone is certainly capable of committing such an act, but a certain degree of profiling is necessary. Is it worse for the police to be skewed somewhat in that direction, or to be politically correct and do what they can to avoid hurting someone's feelings? Another:
Since most of these terrorist attacks have been linked to people of Middle Eastern backgrounds, it is inevitable that people who appear to be of Middle Eastern background will be watched more closely and that there will be racial profiling to some extent in order to protect the security of the people.
If I am not doing anything wrong, does it really matter if police officers check my bag just because I look Middle Eastern? After all, they are only trying to protect my safety.Of course, they managed to get someone to denounce it:
The New York City police have said that anyone can refuse a search and leave the subway without being arrested. But the longer the practice goes on, the greater the temptation for the police to follow or arrest someone who doesn't agree to be searched.Yes, let's not "tempt" the cops to do their job!
This next writer appears not to be aware of the problem of
racist dogs:
The best way to make random searches while preserving civil liberties seems obvious to me: dogs. Trained dogs are reportedly better than most machines at detecting explosives, and they are indifferent to ethnic background or any other grounds for discrimination.At any rate, few of the NYC subway riders seem willing to die for the sake of political correctness.
