tough choice
Reader comment on item: To Profile or Not to Profile?

Submitted by John W McGinley (United States), Sep 21, 2004 at 22:56

As per your article, I am more concerned with mega-terrorism than with the possibility/reality that innocent people will be detained and spend some time in jail. They say that a "dirty bomb" in NYC could conceivably kill up to a million people in a very short period of time; maim many more others for the rest of their lives, and cause generational problems of varying magnitudes for millions more. so, all in all, it's a fair trade off.

However, I don't understand why those two Indian Muslims had to be detained for so long. It might takes weeks to clear someone of suspicion. Why would it take months, even a year? That's wrong. Yet again, sometimes where there is smoke, there's fire. Maybe there was not enough evidence to bring an indictment, but there may well have been reason to remain suspicious. I don't know.

I do know that I would rather err on the side of safety for millions even if such involves an infringment on the civil rights of others, and if I had to have my civil rights infringed upon, I would rather have them infringed upon in the USA than in almost any other country in the world. Infringing on rights is not the same as abrogating rights.

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