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Tuesday, August 02, 2005

New York Assemblyman: Use Profiling on Subways

As a New Yorker recently said to me after disembarking from a flight into Washington, “I’m all about profiling.”

So, evidently, is New York assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn). Ten days ago, the NYPD announced that it would conduct random bag searches in New York City subway entrances in order to ward off potential terrorists or, a less likely occurance, to stop them in the act. However, in an effort to placate Manhattan’s PC mafia, the New York Police Department shackled itself, announcing that it would arbitrarily choose people to search, without wighing the likelihood of criminality based upon proven profiles.

Mr. Hikind now wants to introduce legislation that would make it legal for the NYPD to profile for terrorists.

The Brooklyn Democrat said the NYPD’s 10-day-old tactic of randomly checking bags — without regard to race or ethnicity — at subway entrances may be politically correct, but it won’t save lives.

“There is a terrorist profile for a potential suicide bomber, and it’s not the 75-year-old grandmother … who has an oversized tote bag firmly tucked under her arm” said Hikind, who called random searches “insane.”

Instead, he argued, police should be stopping and searching “people of Middle Eastern descent,” with particular focus on young men and women.

“Every case of recent terrorism has been committed by individuals [from a] Middle Eastern country,” he said.

“There are certain things you do in wartime that you don’t do in peacetime,” said Hikind, noting that he has voted against racial profiling in the past.

Mr. Hikind hopes that Muslims will support his proposal because they, after all, are New Yorkers, too, and benefit from a safe city just as much as non-Muslims. The above-linked NY Post article contains quotes from NYPD spokesmen rebuffing the proposal, but at least part of that is simply public relations policy. Another part may be a failure to communicate. The NYPD rejected racial profiling, but the assemblyman has proposed terrorist profiling.

Posted on August 2, 2005 09:06 AM. Permalink