Published on August 3, 2005 By Island Dog In Politics
Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind is not backing down from his controversial request that local law enforcement officials use ethnic profiling in their fight against terrorism.

Hikind is urging the New York Police Department to use terrorist profiling when it conducts subway bag searches.

In a statement released Sunday, Hikind said that "We have to give the NYPD every single tool in the war on terrorism. It's a fact of life that the London suicide bombers on July 7th and July 21st fit a very precise intelligence profile."

In response, the NYPD released a statement saying: "Racial profiling is illegal, of doubtful effectiveness, and against department policy."

But on Monday, Hikind reiterated his recommendation that authorities abandon the current policy of random searches in favor of a more targeted approach.

"Those responsible for the attacks on America, the 19 people involved in the World Trade Center dastardly act – and the London bombers – when we look at the list of the most-wanted people by the FBI in terms of terrorism, they fit a profile," Hikind said Monday. "They look a certain way, they are young, and they come from a certain part of the world."


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Comments
on Aug 03, 2005
Excellent point. If we refuse to profile, then the terrorists have succeeded in undermining our Constitutional liberties, at least, by subjecting the rest of us to what amounts to illegal search and seizure.

We need to deter terror threats as much as reasonably possible. But our current policies only serve to encourage them.