So many of the media believe profiling is a four letter word. by Kevin Roeten
(conservative)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The morning of 2/3/11, Good Morning America (GMA) ran a "profiling" piece from John Quinones, a seven-time Emmy Awards winner with "Primetime Live" and "20/20" work. He attempted to demonstrate firsthand profiling cases in Arizona against illegal Mexicans. He thought his case was made when he was fingered himself for portraying an illegal alien in an Arizona bar. His credentials quickly discredited any 'illegal' possibilities however, but ABC ran with the story.
Actually, 'profiling' is used everywhere. On a Muslim flying on a jet, a mussed customer entering a store, anyone entering a federal building, a man trying to enter a woman's bathroom, an intoxicated car driver who gets stopped, or a job applicant--all are profiled with proper intentions. Racial dislikes are many times inferred, even though race usually has nothing to do with it.
The act of 'profiling' is directly due to people fitting the profile description that possibly commit a crime, and possibly put others in mortal danger. 'Profiling' is a known method for discerning a culprit more quickly than is normally accomplished. Anyone who is in law enforcement knows this, and must use it in their duties. The World Book Dictionary's definition of 'profiling' gives "a diagram showing a person's abilities or traits." Unfortunately, the media always seem to attach a racial connotation to 'profiling'.
An easy way to eliminate any possible unwarranted 'profile' arrest is to show proper identification. In America, you won't be arrested, detained, or handcuffed if this is done. Any rancor at being unreasonably 'profiled' should be vented at the persons who have caused undue profiling to occur, not the law enforcement people doing their job.
The writer used to work in a Mexican border town (Matamoros) as an engineer 20-30 years ago. After work, several Mexican engineers usually wanted to ride back in his jeep to their houses in Matamoros. They even enjoyed riding close to the Mexican/American border along the Rio Grande just to see if there might be any bodies in the river of illegal Mexicans who tried to make it across the river in the dark of night.
No riders ever asked to be stealthily whisked to the American side of the border. As the writer approached and crossed the border every day for work, he always had to show two items: his license, and his passport. It was obvious to be checked closely by American border guards for these items before crossing an innocuous 'profiling' case for getting to American soil every day. Of course, the blond hair, American looks and accent, smoothed the 'profiling' out quite easily.
Today, likely some of those Mexican engineers have become legal US citizens and live in America. After going though the correct procedures to obtain US citizenship, one normally can expect citizenship within ~6 months. If not willing to go through the wait, or if some other reason is making one enter illegally, the experience can be eventful.
As is readily available from Impacts of Illegal Immigration: Crime Summary(1), and FAIR: Illegal Immigration is a Crime(2), over 25% of today's federal prison population are illegal aliens. About 80,000-100,000 illegal aliens convicted of serious crimes are free on the streets, and each has committed an average of 13 serious crimes. In 2003, around 267,000 illegal aliens were in US correctional facilities at a cost of approximately $6.8 billion/yr. On just a straight line basis, 2011 should mean at least 350,000 illegal aliens will be incarcerated.
Bottom line, legal immigration is not only 'legal', but necessary in the melting-pot called America. All those citizens who underwent the trial of time, language, and history should be lauded for their desire to come to the most powerful country in the world. Anyone who enters illegally denigrates the time, effort, and intentions of legal immigrants, and sends a very bad message to the world.
Any Democrat or Republican favoring allowing an illegal alien into America has warped the process, and degraded the act of immigration. As The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration(above link) puts it, "In tolerating illegal immigration, how many Americans do YOU accept being molested, raped, and murdered each year to save several cents on a head of lettuce?
Unfortunately most Democrats care less about the illegal population, than the extra boost in the polls they will get from illegal aliens voting for Democrats to be the party in power. In many cases, Democrats seem to pander to the illegal sector of the population.
The views expressed
in this article are those of Kevin Roeten only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Kevin Roeten is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
