Blog of Rights

Reginald T.
Shuford

Even Michael Chertoff Says Racial and Ethnic Profiling Is "Problematic" and "Not Terribly Effective"

By Reginald T. Shuford, ACLU of Pennsylvania at 4:48pm

Calls for racial or religious profiling have run rampant since the attempted destruction of a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. Though given America’s history such calls do not come as a surprise, they are nevertheless unwise. Rarely do decisions made in haste or in the midst of hysteria result in sound public policy.

Indeed, we have been here before. Racial profiling on America’s streets and highways (PDF) has been shown over and over again to be an ineffective strategy, and the ACLU has long advocated against it.

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