The New Style of Profiling
August 27th 2008 00:40
I was talking to some friends recently. (At the big party, as a matter of fact.) One of them told me that his son was a trucker who wanted to apply for a better paying job. He was told that he would have to get a "Haz-mat" endorsement on his license. That used to mean you were entitled to haul hazardous materials. It's not that way anymore.
The "Haz-mat" endorsement means you have to spend from several hundred to more than a thousand dollars to get the endorsement, just to fill out their forms and take their tests. It takes two days to complete and you also have to pay for your meals and lodging. O.K. It's not such a big deal for people who can afford it. But if you need to change jobs to make more money to support your family, it could seem overwhelming.
They ask very strange questions in order to approve the endorsement. "Have you ever been arrested and convicted of a felony?" "Has your wife?" "Has your father or your mother?" "Has your sister or brother?" "How about your cousins?" "Aunts and uncles?" The Haz-mat endorsement is being used as a means to identify anyone related to you who has ever been convicted of a felony, no matter how long ago it might have been.
It seems that the enthusiastic folks at Home Land Security have decided that if your uncle Joe was arrested at the age of 20 for stealing a car (40 years ago) you may be a security risk! Or if your grandmother was arrested for hit and run after knocking over a mail box and leaving the scene of the "crime", you could be a potential terrorist. I'm not sure if there are any questions concerning whether or not you're a Muslim.
Does anyone remember 9/11? The cause of the new regulations on truck drivers? The new Homeland Security rules and regulations designed to prevent another terrorist attack seem to have forgotten that date. Or maybe I'm wrong... How many of the high-jackers were forty year old American born Methodists who had a relative arrested and convicted for a felony? Oh, that's right. NONE OF THEM!!
Airports, train stations and bus lines are not allowed to "profile" passengers. If passengers board a public transportation unit, dressed like Muslims, speaking a foreign language, and muttering about Allah, they can't be bothered, because that would be "profiling." Well, we wouldn't want that, would we? Sure don't want to offend anyone, right? So let's just harrass natural-born American citizens who had no control over their relatives, instead, shall we?
This is going a teensy bit too far, don't ya think?
The "Haz-mat" endorsement means you have to spend from several hundred to more than a thousand dollars to get the endorsement, just to fill out their forms and take their tests. It takes two days to complete and you also have to pay for your meals and lodging. O.K. It's not such a big deal for people who can afford it. But if you need to change jobs to make more money to support your family, it could seem overwhelming.
They ask very strange questions in order to approve the endorsement. "Have you ever been arrested and convicted of a felony?" "Has your wife?" "Has your father or your mother?" "Has your sister or brother?" "How about your cousins?" "Aunts and uncles?" The Haz-mat endorsement is being used as a means to identify anyone related to you who has ever been convicted of a felony, no matter how long ago it might have been.
It seems that the enthusiastic folks at Home Land Security have decided that if your uncle Joe was arrested at the age of 20 for stealing a car (40 years ago) you may be a security risk! Or if your grandmother was arrested for hit and run after knocking over a mail box and leaving the scene of the "crime", you could be a potential terrorist. I'm not sure if there are any questions concerning whether or not you're a Muslim.
Does anyone remember 9/11? The cause of the new regulations on truck drivers? The new Homeland Security rules and regulations designed to prevent another terrorist attack seem to have forgotten that date. Or maybe I'm wrong... How many of the high-jackers were forty year old American born Methodists who had a relative arrested and convicted for a felony? Oh, that's right. NONE OF THEM!!
Airports, train stations and bus lines are not allowed to "profile" passengers. If passengers board a public transportation unit, dressed like Muslims, speaking a foreign language, and muttering about Allah, they can't be bothered, because that would be "profiling." Well, we wouldn't want that, would we? Sure don't want to offend anyone, right? So let's just harrass natural-born American citizens who had no control over their relatives, instead, shall we?
This is going a teensy bit too far, don't ya think?
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Comment by alt_ed
Alted Opinion
ArtCombat
The Inner Saintdom
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
The obvious point of this post (which you managed to miss, as usual) was that if you act like a terrorist, you should be treated like a terrorist. And it shouldn't matter a bit what any of your relatives have done... it's what you, yourself, personally have done that should count.
Since the Uni-Bomber, of course, maybe we should be targeting all the left wing liberal lunatics, right? Now there's a plan!
Comment by alt_ed
Alted Opinion
ArtCombat
The Inner Saintdom
I would also be interested in seeing exactly WHAT questions are asked...
You know, to work in a bank in Australia (even a bank's call centre) you are subjected to many questions of a similar nature-- and not because they suspect you of being a terrorist!
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by alt_ed
Alted Opinion
ArtCombat
The Inner Saintdom
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by alt_ed
Alted Opinion
ArtCombat
The Inner Saintdom
I think your missing the point somewhat here... and you are yet to state where you found this information;
I mean you've used quotation marks...
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by alt_ed
Alted Opinion
ArtCombat
The Inner Saintdom
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by alt_ed
Alted Opinion
ArtCombat
The Inner Saintdom
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by alt_ed
Alted Opinion
ArtCombat
The Inner Saintdom
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Don't come back to my blog. You'll be deleted.
Comment by Howard
Real Crash
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
That being said, it seems ridiculous to suspect people who were born here and have no terrorist connections. Most families have at least one member who has been in trouble at some point. It makes no sense to refuse to profile Arabs while over profiling Americans. Perhaps the head of Homeland Security could retire and let someone more reasonable fill the office. I wouldn't mind that a bit!
Comment by Steven Barrett's OpEd Blog
Background checks are necessary and I've done my share of them. (Ugly time consuming work. Nothing I hated more than filing out the post/pre sentence forms, especially the part where I had to ask the guilty one if his or her family members were contributing to a dubious "family tradition."
Guess what, some families do carry on such traditions
and wind up "profiling themselves" for law enforcement. That's something our liberal buddies don't want to admit, unless of course, the culprits are those "friends in low places," they like to sneer at, i.e., "Poh' white trash rednecks." In that case, the hoi poloi clinking their champagne glasses at Faculty Clubs across the country won't give a damn if they rot in hell or a trailer park on parole or probation. Nor will they care if they never committed a major crime in their lives, but if cousin Bubba did some five years back, well, "isn't THAT what homeland security's about?"
Of course we know it isn't. But apparently we're not smart enough to know that the games of chutes and ladders and all those circus hoops and flaming circles belong to those regular working folks who just want to take on jobs they deem below them in the first place.
Anytime the bloviators and commonsense-challenged in Denver want to start helping the middle class and national security -- they can start with dismantling the nitpicky bull crap rules thrown at people with little or no blemishes on their personal records and go after those with greater potential for committing greater damage to this country and even their loved ones.
Asking too much?
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief