ACLU worried of racial profiling
In what seems to be a perfectly harmless program run by the American Trucking Association in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security designed to inform law enforcement officials of possible threats to bridges and other landmarks, the ACLU has decided to speak out on it because it may lead to racial profiling.
"This has the potential to be vigilante justice," says Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty project. "We are in danger of turning truck drivers into barely trained, inadequate police intelligence officials" who focus on "people of color."
Vigilante Justice?? The program asks truck drivers to report suspicious activity to a toll free number, such as someone photographing a bridge, or a garbage truck on the street at 5pm on a Sunday evening. Noone has asked, or will ever ask the men and women of the American Trucking Association to attempt to detain anyone they spot doing suspicious activities. All that is asked is they report it, much as New York City Subway riders are asked to report suspicious activity on the trains.
What I think is happening here is the ACLU is guilty of exactly what they are trying to stop... racial profiling. Every time a program is instituted with the goal of subverting terrorism the ACLU immediately yells "racial profiling". Is that because the ACLU is aware that 99% of the terrorist acts which occur in the world are from people of Middle Eastern and South Asian decent?
This program mentions nothing of race, nor has there been any indication that since its inception in 2003 there have been any reports that were based strictly on race. So why is the ACLU speaking of racial profiling? Its very simple... the program is designed to stop terrorism, and the ACLU treats the word terrorist as synonymous with the word Muslim.
"This has the potential to be vigilante justice," says Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty project. "We are in danger of turning truck drivers into barely trained, inadequate police intelligence officials" who focus on "people of color."
Vigilante Justice?? The program asks truck drivers to report suspicious activity to a toll free number, such as someone photographing a bridge, or a garbage truck on the street at 5pm on a Sunday evening. Noone has asked, or will ever ask the men and women of the American Trucking Association to attempt to detain anyone they spot doing suspicious activities. All that is asked is they report it, much as New York City Subway riders are asked to report suspicious activity on the trains.
What I think is happening here is the ACLU is guilty of exactly what they are trying to stop... racial profiling. Every time a program is instituted with the goal of subverting terrorism the ACLU immediately yells "racial profiling". Is that because the ACLU is aware that 99% of the terrorist acts which occur in the world are from people of Middle Eastern and South Asian decent?
This program mentions nothing of race, nor has there been any indication that since its inception in 2003 there have been any reports that were based strictly on race. So why is the ACLU speaking of racial profiling? Its very simple... the program is designed to stop terrorism, and the ACLU treats the word terrorist as synonymous with the word Muslim.
posted by Siggy at 10:43 AM
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