Racial profiling

[spartan]

Okay so in your opinion do you think that it is fair to profile criminals racially?

They way i see it is if a violent crime has been commited and the criminal commiting the crime was say an Asian male then you have to have that in the description of the criminal as otherwise the public wont know who they are to potentially look out for and beware of especially if they are a threat to the public in anyway.

I am also of the opinion that racial profiling should work both ways (i.e. not just the racial profiling of non-white people).

So what are your views on this divisive matter?

[Black Dagger]

They way i see it is if a violent crime has been commited and the criminal commiting the crime was say an Asian male then you have to have that in the description of the criminal as otherwise the public wont know who they are to potentially look out for and beware of especially if they are a threat to the public in anyway.

Okay so in your opinion do you think that it is fair to profile criminals racially?

I think you are confusing the police practice of 'racial profiling' with the police practice of providing descriptions of ethnicity to the public when discussing their 'suspects' (though i spose there is overlap to some degree).

But usually, racial profiling refers to the practice of treating someone as being guilty, suspicious or 'likely' to commit a crime because of their perceived race - regardless of any actual evidence [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_profiling - might be an alright place to find a working definition of the term]

So for example, in a documentary produced in oz in the early 1990s on policing in an Aboriginal community in Sydney - a pig interviewed remarked something to the effect of... 'if you see of them [an Aboriginal person] in a car like that... you know he's stolen it'.

As far as your example goes:


[i]Originally posted by spartan

They way i see it is if a violent crime has been commited and the criminal commiting the crime was say an Asian male then you have to have that in the description of the criminal as otherwise the public wont know who they are to potentially look out for and beware of especially if they are a threat to the public in anyway.

Unless there is more to it, 'Asian' is a meager description.

Describing a suspect as of 'Asian appearance' is not really providing 'the public' with any useful information. The suspect is 'asian' (or at least, a witness thinks they are asian)... what of it? That shortens the lists of suspects to... the entire 'asian' population of a given area, hardly a useful description.

'Asian' [or any other racial descriptor] encapsulates a myriad of groups; to the point that describing a suspect as 'asian' provides as much help as describing them as 'human'.

[spartan]

Unless there is more to it, 'Asian' is a meager description.

Describing a suspect as of 'Asian appearance' is not really providing 'the public' with any useful information. The suspect is 'asian' (or at least, a witness thinks they are asian)... what of it? That shortens the lists of suspects to... the entire 'asian' population of a given area, hardly a useful description.

'Asian' [or any other racial descriptor] encapsulates a myriad of groups; to the point that describing a suspect as 'asian' provides as much help as describing them as 'human'.
I see where you atre coming from but oif there are previously convicted Asian criminals in the local area would it not help to know that a recent crime was commited by someone of Asian ethnicity?

I think people need to potentially know who to look and watch out for as say if the racial profiling of a criminal is a white man with brown hair and brown eyes with long hair and a civilian sees someone of that description acting in a bizzare fashion then they should be careful or even report their findings to the police (if the criminal is of a violent nature).

So in those circumstances i think that racial profiling if criminals can be useful to a degree.

I think physical descriptions are probably more useful though (but is'nt racial profiling apart of a physical description?).

[Black Dagger]

but if there are previously convicted Asian criminals in the local area would it not help to know that a recent crime was commited by someone of Asian ethnicity?

First, how would the filth know when there are 'previously convicted Asian criminals' in an area? It's not like previously convicted 'criminals' (also what do you mean by that term? Someone who broke/breaks bourgeois law? I don't agree that all law-breakers = bad, which seems to be implied here...) are GPS-tagged... yet.

But like i said, 'asian' is such a vague term it's useless as a beginning and an end of a 'suspects description' - it's not useful - you can't find a suspect with a description that simply reads 'asian' - there's no hypothetical or otherwise way around that fact.


I think people need to potentially know who to look and watch out for as say if the racial profiling of a criminal is a white man with brown hair and brown eyes with long hair and a civilian sees someone of that description acting in a bizzare fashion then they should be careful or even report their findings to the police (if the criminal is of a violent nature).

Again, as i said in my first response - you're confusing racial profiling with a physical description that includes ethnicity - they're not the same thing. A physical description isn't inherently racist, racial profiling is.



So in those circumstances i think that racial profiling if criminals can be useful to a degree.

You're not talking about racial profiling though, you're talking about a physical description that includes a 'suspects' ethnicity - those are two completely different things.



but is'nt racial profiling apart of a physical description?

No; although pigs may use an existing physical description to racially profile people.

Please read the link i posted, or re-read my first post - i explained what racial profiling is and gave an example.