Profiling

The politically correct (PC) crowd has succeeded in emasculating some of our law enforcement tools and tactics under the guise of profiling. The most obvious and blatant example of this is at our nation's airports. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has standing orders not to profile Muslim passengers, deliberately avoiding taking them out of line for either questioning or a more thorough search, since that would be "profiling." Instead, the preferred PC tactic is to "randomly" select passengers in general for a more complete screening. That results in the ridiculous, humiliating sight of 80-year-old grandmothers in wheelchairs, infants in diapers, our heroic military personnel in full uniform, and frequent traveler business types, being wanded and their carry-ons being inspected. Then, add to that debacle the general public observing this whole sordid affair, and you have one big cluster at our nation's airports, just so that "no one feels uncomfortable." That really means "so that Muslims don't feel singled out or targeted." Someone please tell me if I am wrong, but in the past ten years haven't 99.9% of all terrorist attacks and threats been committed by Muslims? Not to profile them seems to be a dereliction of duty.

In any basic police academy, recruits are taught that the most efficient and expeditious way to investigate a crime is to look for the most logical suspects. Generally speaking, police categorize, profile, discriminate--whatever term you care to use--criminals into categories or types. These types of criminals exhibit certain behaviors that coincide with their criminal acts. For example, drug dealers like to wear gaudy, huge, obnoxious looking jewelry (aka "bling") as part of their official uniform. If an officer on patrol spots one of these individuals, he generally assumes this subject is a drug dealer. These drug entrepreneurs travel in luxury type vehicles--BMWs, Mercedes, and Lexus, as well as SUVs. The officer can count on these guys or one of their associates--usually female--to be holding drugs, money, or guns. That is what is known as profiling, typing, or categorizing. Where I come from it is also known as "street smarts," and it allows cops to quickly identify and separate the good guys from the bad guys. Incidentally, the bad guys do the same thing--they profile us. Just as they make it easy for us to spot them, by their dress, hair styles, tattoos, etc., we wear uniforms, have short hair, and much to their chagrin, see "everything" going on around us. They spot us by our vehicles and behavior, catching us "rubber-necking" as we drive down the street.

Profiling is the most basic of skills that an officer must master if he is to be a success at his profession. It makes our job easier, and it eliminates wasted time and resources looking for someone that played no part in the matter that we are investigating. If a bank robbery was committed by two thin white males in their early 20s, wearing baseball hats and sneakers, why would a cop stop an elderly black person wearing a suit, and question him in regard to the crime? It doesn't make sense, does it?

If a neighborhood has been besieged by prostitutes, most of which are attired in clothing that barely covers the parts of their bodies that their mothers warned them to always keep covered, would any smart cop ask questions about prostitution of an old lady walking down the street with a shopping cart? If that happened, either that cop is a Mayberry reject or TSA-brainwashed. Regardless, he has no business being a cop, since he ignores the most rudimentary tool used by all of law enforcement--profiling. Talking to and investigating the most likely people that may have, or are about to commit a crime, enables us to arrest and detain those that are the most likely offenders.