# Political Correctness Overrides Law Enforcement in Suburban New Jersey **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 27, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373 "2016-03-27T17:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/21 "2016-03-27T19:54:11Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > I am not a criminal mastermind, but I imagine that if I were planning some terrible terror plot, or a grand criminal campaign, profiling would be excellent news for me. \*\*The police are primarily stopping a certain group of people? Great! I will make sure that all my agents will not fulfill the criteria they’re looking for, and so escape the greater scrutiny. \*\*My most deadly threat in this hypothetical will look exactly like “almost all of those people are going about their day to day business”, whose daily productivity the police should not interfere with. By your logic, why did al-Qaeda use 19 Arab men as hijackers for the 9/11 attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Paris attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Brussels attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. Etc. etc. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/22 "2016-03-27T19:59:36Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > By your logic, why did al-Qaeda use 19 Arab men as hijackers for the 9/11 attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. Was there profiling in place at the time and in the places where those people would have experienced it, and was “Arab male” the characteristics they were looking for? > [@](#): > > Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Paris attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. > > Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Brussels attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. Likewise for your further two. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/23 "2016-03-27T20:05:49Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > By your logic, why did al-Qaeda use 19 Arab men as hijackers for the 9/11 attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. > > Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Paris attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. > > Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Brussels attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. > Etc. etc. Why would “a different race or gender” have been more suitable? Seems the ones they used were perfectly suitable. And how about these “Arab men” [recently arrested in the US under terrorism laws and charges of supporting ISIS](http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/05/us/isis-us-arrests/)… look at all the scary Arab Muslim names: Michael Todd Wolfe, Shannon Maureen Conley, Christopher Cornell, Adam Dandach, Douglas McCain, Donald Ray Morgan … Etc. etc. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/24 "2016-03-27T20:29:53Z")
Good luck trying to pinpoint whether someone is “Middle Eastern” looking. There’s not a people on the face of the Earth who are more racially ambiguous. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/25 "2016-03-27T20:42:27Z")
Nm ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/26 "2016-03-27T21:21:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Police Chief Benjamin Fox: > > The public wants us to keep them safe and I’m confident that they want us to use our skills and knowledge to attain that goal. Ah, I can help here - no, I don’t want that. Please do not attempt to protect me by utilizing racial profiling. A black or white person doing nothing more than walking around a neighborhood in which he or she does not “belong” is no longer grounds for suspicion. You’re welcome, police. Please use the time productively. I’d suggest ignoring drivers who go a bit over the posted MPH and pulling over people who don’t use turn signals or drive slowly in the left lane. I think they’re far more dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/27 "2016-03-27T21:28:19Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > By your logic, why did al-Qaeda use 19 Arab men as hijackers for the 9/11 attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. Security wasn’t so tight back then. And recruiting people of different races isn’t easy. > [@](#): > > Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Paris attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. > > Why did ISIL use Arab men for the Brussels attacks? People of a different race and/or gender would have been more suitable. > > Etc. etc. No, because neither attack involved going through airport security, and that security doesn’t do racial profiling anyway, so it wouldn’t have helped. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/28 "2016-03-27T21:43:22Z")
I think this is a great idea. That’s why I think every white man should have to go through metal detectors before they enter a school, movie theater, and/or church. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/29 "2016-03-27T22:02:40Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > I think this is a great idea. That’s why I think every white man should have to go through metal detectors before they enter a school, movie theater, and/or church. And that should wrap this up. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/30 "2016-03-27T23:05:28Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > I think this is a great idea. That’s why I think every white man should have to go through metal detectors before they enter a school, movie theater, and/or church. White men do not commit a disproportionate number of homicides. The only reason why there are a lot of homicides committed by white men is because there are a lot of white men. If you want to discriminate on the basis of race, discriminate against black men: they are the ones responsible for 42% of homicides despite only being 6% of the population. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/31 "2016-03-27T23:25:27Z")
To tell you the truth, I’ve never understood the rationale we have to target those [insert minority here] for safety. If a given security measure is good/safe/non-invasive/respectful/effective enough to use towards people of race/religion A then its damn well good enough towards people of race/religion B/C/D/E/… Creating some sort of [my group] exceptionalism defeats your entire argument, if the state can’t be bothered to treat everyone under the same rules then it’s not serious about either the threat and/or the treatment. I mean really; what good is a dam that’s built 90% of the way across a river? This is elementary reasoning. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/32 "2016-03-27T23:30:25Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > White men do not commit a disproportionate number of homicides. The only reason why there are a lot of homicides committed by white men is because there are a lot of white men. If you want to discriminate on the basis of race, discriminate against black men: they are the ones responsible for 42% of homicides despite only being 6% of the population. All I know is I’ve never been afraid when a black guy walked into a movie theater or a school. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/33 "2016-03-27T23:41:13Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > White men do not commit a disproportionate number of homicides. They do, however, commit a disproportionate number of mass shootings, especially in places like movie theaters, schools and churches. I’m a lot less worried about being murdered by a black inner-city gang member than I am about getting caught in the bulletstorm of a middle-class white guy taking out his frustrations on a random crowd in a typically middle-class public place. (Although to be fair, as a statistics-conscious reasonable person I’m not seriously realistically worried about either of those alternatives.) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/34 "2016-03-28T02:16:45Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > White men do not commit a disproportionate number of homicides. They do commit a disproportionate number of mass killings in theaters, schools, and business offices. Any appearance-based profiling that does not rely on racism must focus on white males in those locations. > [@Grumman](#): > > If you want to discriminate on the basis of race, discriminate against black men: they are the ones responsible for 42% of homicides despite only being 6% of the population. We are already doing that–providing significant evidence that calls for appearance-based profiling are merely racist and not logical. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/35 "2016-03-28T04:39:04Z")
Are people in this thread really suggesting that profiling is binary? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/36 "2016-03-28T10:15:27Z")
Originally Posted by **Police Chief Benjamin Fox** I think that most police officers are finding the national rhetoric about police abuse and racial profiling quite upsetting. [FONT="]So the [FONT="]good C[FONT="]hief comments not that police are upset about police abuse and racial pro[FONT="]filing? They’re upset about the “national rhetoric”[FONT="]about it. Sounds like a more appropriate headline would be: [FONT="]Chief Takes Leave To Have [FONT="]His Head Removed From His Ass[/FONT] [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT] ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/37 "2016-03-28T10:24:07Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Are people in this thread really suggesting that profiling is binary? No. Chief Fox did. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/38 "2016-03-28T12:06:32Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > No you won’t, because if you try you won’t fulfill _your agents_’ criteria. A Muslim theocracy built on the persecution of non-Sunnis and women _can’t_ just wander down to HenchCorp and recruit a bunch of non-Sunni women to do their dirty work, because anyone who was not already sympathetic to ISIL’s goal of building an Islamic Nazi Germany will tell them to fuck right off. And yet ISIL successfully recruits young white kids by the score. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/39 "2016-03-28T12:31:29Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > There is nothing wrong in my opinion with allocating scarce police resources in an economical manner in accordance with common sense. Beating suspects until they confess is also an economical, common sense police tactic. Why don’t we do that too? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373/40 "2016-03-28T12:44:23Z")
If the chief needs a slogan, maybe he could use; **Racism. It works.** Short, snappy, to the point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-correctness-overrides-law-enforcement-in-suburban-new-jersey/750373.md?page=3)