Profiling at Airports may be the Best Way to Protects Our Rights.
Do you remember when Congressman Dennis Kucinich and others were opposing the Patriot Act as a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution? They argued that the government was becoming oppressive by listening to phone calls coming from overseas cell phones, or looking at what books had been checked out of a library without a warrant. They argued we were using fear as a reason to violate our own values and the Fourth Amendment:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person and things to be seized."
Where is Congressman Kucinich and Senator Reid, those defenders of our liberty, when the TSA searches every person going on to a civilian aircraft for no reason without probable cause? Why are they quiet about our civil liberties? Tell me why does the same administration that demands the underwear bomber be read his Miranda rights, that war criminals at Guantanamo get civilian trials, refuses to acknowledge the Fort Hood shooter was a terrorist, and prevents the state or Arizona from asking for identity papers from people who they have cause to stop, allow every American to be searched at Airports? Can anyone say hypocrisy?
Where is the Democratic Party, who presents itself as the great defender of human rights around the world, when every peace loving American is being treated like a criminal? Now I know what some people will say. Well what have you got to hide? My question is for what reason am I suspect? Ladies and gentleman, this is going too far! They search your bags; they make you take off your shows, and now they either pat you down or do a full body scan. This is an egregious violation of American values, but worse, it will be ineffective.
So how do we protect ourselves? We do it by abiding by the Constitution. The fourth amendment gives the government the right to search, or to seize, or to hold some who is a reasonable suspect or who has probable cause to act in an illegal way. In other words it allows for reasonable profiling: If a woman is raped. The police will start looking for a suspect. If she tells them her assailant was a white male, and the police question ever white male in the vicinity of the crime, that is racism. If she says, he was a white man, driving a red Camaro, the presence of a second criterion so narrows the field of suspects that it can no longer be racism to search every white male, who was driving a Red Camaro in the area at the time. Searching every Moslem at Airports would be racist. But when a Moslem man's father calls the US Consulate in Nigeria and tells them his son is an active participant in Al Quida training camps, and we know he is coming to the US. Why is it anymore unreasonable to search or question every Nigerian Moslem coming into the country within a certain time frame, than it is to search every white American male who drove a Red Camaro in the area of the rape on the day it happened. The fact is profiling is what investigators do. Some of them are even called "Profilers."
We cannot continue this Insane Airport Security, a violation of the Constitution, because a few people may be inconvenienced or embarrassed. There is no Constitutional protection of my ego or esteem, only of my property and papers. There just are not enough TSA officers, nor are there sufficient devices to catch every threat. All this mass hysteria does is diverts the attention of the officers from the terrorist who figure out ways to get around the
security. We go out of our way to protect those who should be suspect. Political Correctness may be a greater threat to our liberty and Constitution than The Patriot Act ever was.
It is time to use Constitutional methods of search such as were called for in the Patriot Act to protect American citizens. When those who screamed about the Patriot Act are silent about this current round of violation of rights, it makes one wonder if it was all about political theater or worse yet, political power. I personally have had the experience of being questioned by law enforcement about what I knew about certain events. It is a little is intimidating; It is embarrassing, a couple a times I was even offended at some of the interrogators innuendo. But there was no long term negative consequences to me. If a middle aged white Male driving a 2011 Chevrolet Traverse commits a crime in my home town. I expect to be questioned. I hope to be questioned, so that I can be eliminated as a suspect. I would feel the same away about Nigerians flying into the country at the time of the underwear bombers suspicious acts. Yes it would be intimidating, embarrassing, and inconvenient to question them, but I would think the innocent would welcome having their name cleared as well as the suspect found.
I believe the States should pass laws defining what appropriate profiling is; however, when Arizona tried to do that the Federal Government took them to court. Ultimately it is the Supreme Court that will decide where the limits of the Fourth Amendment fall, or else it will be the American electorate after the next terrorist attack on U.S. Soil
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person and things to be seized."
Where is Congressman Kucinich and Senator Reid, those defenders of our liberty, when the TSA searches every person going on to a civilian aircraft for no reason without probable cause? Why are they quiet about our civil liberties? Tell me why does the same administration that demands the underwear bomber be read his Miranda rights, that war criminals at Guantanamo get civilian trials, refuses to acknowledge the Fort Hood shooter was a terrorist, and prevents the state or Arizona from asking for identity papers from people who they have cause to stop, allow every American to be searched at Airports? Can anyone say hypocrisy?
Where is the Democratic Party, who presents itself as the great defender of human rights around the world, when every peace loving American is being treated like a criminal? Now I know what some people will say. Well what have you got to hide? My question is for what reason am I suspect? Ladies and gentleman, this is going too far! They search your bags; they make you take off your shows, and now they either pat you down or do a full body scan. This is an egregious violation of American values, but worse, it will be ineffective.
So how do we protect ourselves? We do it by abiding by the Constitution. The fourth amendment gives the government the right to search, or to seize, or to hold some who is a reasonable suspect or who has probable cause to act in an illegal way. In other words it allows for reasonable profiling: If a woman is raped. The police will start looking for a suspect. If she tells them her assailant was a white male, and the police question ever white male in the vicinity of the crime, that is racism. If she says, he was a white man, driving a red Camaro, the presence of a second criterion so narrows the field of suspects that it can no longer be racism to search every white male, who was driving a Red Camaro in the area at the time. Searching every Moslem at Airports would be racist. But when a Moslem man's father calls the US Consulate in Nigeria and tells them his son is an active participant in Al Quida training camps, and we know he is coming to the US. Why is it anymore unreasonable to search or question every Nigerian Moslem coming into the country within a certain time frame, than it is to search every white American male who drove a Red Camaro in the area of the rape on the day it happened. The fact is profiling is what investigators do. Some of them are even called "Profilers."
We cannot continue this Insane Airport Security, a violation of the Constitution, because a few people may be inconvenienced or embarrassed. There is no Constitutional protection of my ego or esteem, only of my property and papers. There just are not enough TSA officers, nor are there sufficient devices to catch every threat. All this mass hysteria does is diverts the attention of the officers from the terrorist who figure out ways to get around the
security. We go out of our way to protect those who should be suspect. Political Correctness may be a greater threat to our liberty and Constitution than The Patriot Act ever was.
It is time to use Constitutional methods of search such as were called for in the Patriot Act to protect American citizens. When those who screamed about the Patriot Act are silent about this current round of violation of rights, it makes one wonder if it was all about political theater or worse yet, political power. I personally have had the experience of being questioned by law enforcement about what I knew about certain events. It is a little is intimidating; It is embarrassing, a couple a times I was even offended at some of the interrogators innuendo. But there was no long term negative consequences to me. If a middle aged white Male driving a 2011 Chevrolet Traverse commits a crime in my home town. I expect to be questioned. I hope to be questioned, so that I can be eliminated as a suspect. I would feel the same away about Nigerians flying into the country at the time of the underwear bombers suspicious acts. Yes it would be intimidating, embarrassing, and inconvenient to question them, but I would think the innocent would welcome having their name cleared as well as the suspect found.
I believe the States should pass laws defining what appropriate profiling is; however, when Arizona tried to do that the Federal Government took them to court. Ultimately it is the Supreme Court that will decide where the limits of the Fourth Amendment fall, or else it will be the American electorate after the next terrorist attack on U.S. Soil
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