Or . . . howzabout we make it just a
little tougher to get an I.D. here?
Even as a native(in more ways than one) U.S. citizen, I'm required to either keep a valid I.D. or be prepared to be detained until my identity can be confirmed. Make the I.D. tougher to get in the
first place, and problem solved as far as I'm concerned.
Also, forgive me for saying so, but what is it that disturbs us so about racial profiling? My guess is that it's the "racial" part.
Face facts, guys - to varying degrees, we
all profile, and racially is just one among a myriad of ways. We may try not to, we may mentally chastise ourselves for it, but we all, by virtue of simple human nature, by virtue of the learning process even, base our initial impressions off of what we see. Beyond that, we're not even the only species that does it. Here's an example:
When I was a kid, we had a gigantic German Shepherd named Rodney. He looked fierce, and under the right circumstances, he was fierce, but unless you were 1) a stranger; 2) in our yard; 3) doing something catastrophically stupid like trying to jimmy open a window, he was quite content to be your bestest pal. Well one day(I think I was 8 at the time), a new meter reader came to our house. I was out in the yard playing with Rodney and told the guy that Rodney wouldn't bother him, even watched as Rodney came over to make his introduction, let the guy pet him, and even let him take his frisbee and fling it out across the yard for him to chase. About that time, a friend of mine showed up on his bike and I walked over to talk to him, my back to the meter reader. My friend hadn't said more than two words to me when he stopped short and said, "What the hell?" looking over my shoulder. I turned and was just in time to see this jackass spray my big, friendly dog with pepper spray for absolutely no good reason. None at all. We called and reported the guy, then waited to see who showed up to read the meter next time.
Flash forward to next month.
Power company truck pulls up and I'm relieved to see that it's our old meter reader. Sittin there in the truck with his elbow cocked out the window, he listens in anger as I tell him what happened. He tells me that he was on vacation last month and that he's sorry to hear that happened. He gets out and walks over to read the meter. Rodney comes stalking around from the back of the house and I have little doubt that he'd have taken a nice, juicy chunk outta that guy's ass if I hadn't been there to scold him down. Thing is, Rodney knew the guy, had been petted by him, played with him, been around him month in and month out for most of his doggy life - knew his scent. Now, however, none of that mattered. He looked like the other guy and the other guy was bad. I wish I could tell you that he eventually got over it, but he never really did. From that day forward, anyone in a power company uniform was to be feared and mistrusted.
Now, as people, we're blessed with an intellect that allows us to look beyond first impressions, but that doesn't change the fact that we
have them. Every time you form a first impression, in short, every time you meet someone new, you are guilty of having just profiled someone based on their appearance, personality, and comportment. Does it mean you were right in your summary judgment? Of course not, but that's not to say that you were altogether off-base in all of your assumptions about them. That's something that only further exposure(investigation, if you will), and time will make clear.
Even more to the point, why is profiling such a dirty word? It's part of the arsenal of investigative techniques in virtually every branch of law enforcement. For instance, looking for a serial killer? Odds are he's a single white guy in his late twenties to early forties, so why not start lookin there first? That's profiling with age, gender, marital status,
and race as criteria. Should we do away with that too, just so they can canvas the neighborhoods questioning paraplegic, septuagenarian grandmothers in the name of equality?
