Aug 30 2006
Media Squashes Poll Results Supporting Profiling
I find it stunning that the US media (and Quinnipiac itself) are not announcing a stunning revelation in their latest poll. I had to go to some overseas news outlets to find the data:
A majority of Americans approve of ethnic profiling at airports and subways to prevent terrorist attacks, a new poll shows.
The poll conducted by Quinnipiac University found 60 per cent of respondents believe that authorities should be allowed to single out people who look like “Middle Eastern” for security screening.
Only 37 per cent opposed it in the poll which has a margin of error of plus/minus three per cent.
That ties in well with Chertoff’s recent request for more flight information so authorities can do more targetted risk assessments as opposed to random searches. This is not going to go overwell with the leftwing. But it is another sign among many that the political tide is turning towards national security and away from Lamont and Kos and Impeachment.
This is part of the polling Quinnipiac did and I posted about here showing Americans believe another terrorist attack is probable. Obviously their is a linkage in these two results. It goes to the concept of “reasonable” searches. Which, coincidentally, is at the heart of the NSA-FISA kerfluffle.
BTW, Rusty at Jawa Report makes a good point – we may want to profile on religion more than race.
On the Jawa Report… Christians are relatively a minority in the main Islamist countries, but the general spirit of that argument is correct. I was talking with an Iranian last night and have Iranian friends. The country is full of people who hate their government. They are not anything like those fanatics.
Religion and ethnicity both have to be taken into account. However, it is my belief that the 9/11 hijackers went to a titty bar before doing what they did because they were getting into the role of being a normal, non-religious Arab. They were using method acting techniques. We know for a fact that they rehearsed their activities beforehand, whether or not they truly were trying to method act.
You can’t go by beard or by clothing or by books they are carrying, either.
You can’t even say the people would not be anglo.
And they can deny even their religion and religious beliefs if it suited their cause. (Generally, any true believer does not, however, but Islamist ones have been known to keep their beliefs and still mislead authorities.)
If you want to go by nervousness, a lot of people are nervous at airports.
I am not opposed to focusing on religion and race, however. The point about race is it just makes it easier. There is no sure bet, however. The realities of most of these countries is they are raised to be fanatics. They have no choice. Many may not be fanatics, but they still believe a lot of the same crazy things their fanatics countrymen believe.
Brazil…
From "Brickbats," Reason, Oct 2006 (print edition):Transportation Security Administration officials grabbed Daniel Brown at Los Angeles International Airport and dragged him off for interrogation, causing him to miss his flight. Brown was par…