RACIAL PROFILING? OK, LET THE GAMES BEGIN ...

So polls are now showing that Americans are fine with Arizona-type laws that allow racial profiling, as long as the goal behind the effort is greater security and public safety. Do we really want to go down this road?

Seriously, if "reasonable suspicion" is going to be our bar then profiling in the name of security means we're going to have to start targeting right-wing groups and people who look like this ...

and this ...

and this ...

and this ...

and this ...

Because when you can do stuff like this ...

or even this ...

... the net of racial profiling has to get wider to include people who look like this ...

On another level, scenes like this ...   



... suggest that society will become increasingly divided if we begin embracing racial profiling as a police tool. More simply, logic tells us that the profile net is going to have be cast wider than people are comfortable with today.

The silver lining in all of this? It serves as a reminder that the Founding Fathers had a reason for including the Bill of Rights when the Constitution was formed. Fear, witch hunts, and stereotypes that inflame public passions should not govern public policy.

- Mark