Profiling has its dangers
Reader comment on item: Does the Police Department Profile? Should It?

Submitted by Michael Fox (Israel), Aug 16, 2006 at 03:05

The danger with profiling is that it diverts attention from non-obvious targets--such as blond Americans or Englishmen who have converted to Islam. One of the would-be suicide bombers on the British Air flights was a pregnant woman; another was a mother of a 1 1/2 year old child. She was apparently going to use her child as a diversionary device. (A new form of shahid: fetuses and toddlers.) Laila Haled is still associated with the Palestinian movements and might come out of retirement. Who would profile a 65 year old grandmother?

Somehow there has to be an attitude toward profiling that has coincentric circles of suspicion and does not neglect the wider circles.

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