2 ms·

I refuse to be ashamed of thinking that profiling based on visual appearance works, since it obviously does. What can be called into question though is the men

I refuse to be ashamed of thinking that profiling based on visual appearance works, since it obviously does. What can be called into question though is the mentality of US police: "Shoot first, ask questions later." They should learn from European police in this regard.

DrScump 11y ago
'...the mentality of US police: "Shoot first, ask questions later."' That's a ridiculous and unfair generalization, especially for the present day. Police collectively have hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of encounters with civilians every day, in contrast with how many unjustified officer-involved shootings there are. This isn't the Jim Crow era South... or Hollywood.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  I agree, they don't tend to bother with the questions anymore.
wan23 11y ago
I'd like to question your assertion that such profiling obviously does work. A quick google search finds plenty of material claiming the opposite, but since you said it I was wondering if you could back this up at all.
- johansch 11y ago
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/what-israeli-airport-secu_b_4978149.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/what-israeli-air...
  - wan23 11y ago
    If I'm reading this correctly, the security methodology is to screen all people who arrive at the airport with trained agents using "age, race, religion and destination" to determine how the interview should go. This is somewhat different from the kind of profiling we are talking about because a) they screen everyone who passes through and b) their assumption has to be that nearly 100% of people passing through the airport are innocent vs this kind of "that guy looks guilty" profiling. I have some links: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/07/profiling.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/07/profiling.htm... - a blog post by someone respected by many here on when profiling can be effective vs the risks http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/racial-profiling-terrorism-statistics/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/racial-profiling-t... - discussion of when it might be appropriate statistically based on a study I haven't found anything that implies that it would be effective in this sort of case.

DrScump 11y ago

'...the mentality of US police: "Shoot first, ask questions later."' That's a ridiculous and unfair generalization, especially for the present day. Police collectively have hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of encounters with civilians every day, in contrast with how many unjustified officer-involved shootings there are. This isn't the Jim Crow era South... or Hollywood.

GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
I agree, they don't tend to bother with the questions anymore.

wan23 11y ago

I'd like to question your assertion that such profiling obviously does work. A quick google search finds plenty of material claiming the opposite, but since you said it I was wondering if you could back this up at all.

johansch 11y ago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/what-israeli-airport-secu_b_4978149.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/what-israeli-air...
- wan23 11y ago
  If I'm reading this correctly, the security methodology is to screen all people who arrive at the airport with trained agents using "age, race, religion and destination" to determine how the interview should go. This is somewhat different from the kind of profiling we are talking about because a) they screen everyone who passes through and b) their assumption has to be that nearly 100% of people passing through the airport are innocent vs this kind of "that guy looks guilty" profiling. I have some links: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/07/profiling.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/07/profiling.htm... - a blog post by someone respected by many here on when profiling can be effective vs the risks http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/racial-profiling-terrorism-statistics/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/racial-profiling-t... - discussion of when it might be appropriate statistically based on a study I haven't found anything that implies that it would be effective in this sort of case.