Ethnic Profiling Quotes
The Congressman was a rabid foe of immigration in general and possible illegal immigration in particular (See {614687}). As his colleagues were trying to improve the methods of identifying illegal workers at the job hiring stage, they were very concerned that law enforcment and some employers would make judgments about the likely criminal status of a person based on his/her ethnicity, race or other general superficial characteristics.
The judge found that Blacks and Hispanics were stopped and frisked at a much higher rate than whites despite the fact that whites, when they were stopped and searched had a higher rate of carrying an illegal gun or illegal substances.
This is a very important quotation because it is an excellent example of the statement of the logic that advocates of racial profiling use. Wording may be different but the essence of the argument is always the same. The problem with the argument is twofold. First even if the statistical predictability is true, such statistical correlations were known by the Founding Fathers who nevertheless believed that it was better for the nation for the Government to follow due process and not base decisions on officials views of statistical tendencies regardless of how valid. However, even the statistics application is flawed. The problem is that there are many statistical relationships in our complex society. The vast majority of the use of racial profiling tends to only use those relationships which tend to reinforce the discriminatory biases. For example, the vast majority and proportion of the Americans who embezzle money are white males who have a college education. Yet there are few law enforcement officials who would say that we should pick white males with college emblems on their windshield, out and stop them as they might have stolen checks, business forms or other items associated with embezzlement. But those same people will advocate stopping Black males on highways under the likelihood that they are more likely to have illicit drugs. So if society profiled on EVERY characteristic that statistically related to crime, it would not be as unfair as when society picks and chooses those characteristics as this is where racism or other prejudice come into play. However, it is NEVER a good idea because it is so inefficient as a law enforcement method. Even though people of Irish extraction tend to be alcoholics more than other groups, once you start picking up Irish people to stop impaired driving, you find that most Irish are NOT alcoholics. Last there is usually huge variability within any ethnic or other group. Native Americans have an alcoholism succeptability that is even greater than the Irish. However, if one looks at each of the many Indian Reservations in Indian Country (Oklahoma), we find some reservations where almost every adult is an alcoholic and other reservations where there is no alcoholism at all. For the power of the state to generalize, that power is brought to bear on those Indians who would not be likely to be drunk as those which are.
In 1924 Congress voted a bonus to all veterans but refused to pay it until 1945. With the privation of the Depression, 15,000 poverty stricken veterans marched on Washington, and set up camps. The fact that there were Negroes in the Camps was evidence that the demonstration was Communist inspired as at the time the Communists were one of the very few groups favoring integration. The Army bias was so strong that the presence of Jews was evidence of radicals. The Army, under General Douglas MacArthur with George Patton leading the Calvary, attacked the protesters camp and burned them out injuring many. President Hoover got the blame but MacArther did not obey Hoover’s instructions not to cross the bridge to the camp. He was in character as was his aide Major Dwight D. Eisenhower who tried to dissuade MacArthur from attacking to no avail.
