X-Sender: vin@dali.lvrj.com Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 21:25:21 -0700 To: Foxbat2974@aol.com From: Vin Suprynowicz <Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com> Subject: Re: Question>I'd like to ask you a question and I would really like an honest to = God
>answer and I am aware that there are more important things going on = right
>now but I just have to know. In your Sept. 19th column in describing
>racial profiling, I understand and I am sure any moron understands the
>reasoning for a person boarding an airliner and who
>looks to be a person of Mideast decent being profiled or eyed a little
>more closely. in your analogy of profiling you said "young black men = being
>stopped by police when they are somewhere where they seem out place" I
>would like to know if you really think that is what "profiling" is? Or = is
>that something you have convinced yourself of? A young Black person
>stopped on the street at 2am in the morning is profiling and simply = good
>police work MAYBE, depending which street and where. I have been = across
>this country by car many times and so have some of my friends yet we = have
>been stopped numerous times and the story is all the same,"you were
>crossing over the line a bit" or some other silly reason. And then = they
>always want to search your car, And I have never given permission for
>that. So by your definition me and many other Black Americans are out = of
>place by being on an interstate highway and also when they are in = numerous
>suburbs on the main streets going to malls Or the gentleman Who was
>stopped reasonbly along with his family while driving a u-haul van by
>Metro and Henderson Police and detained for hours, was he out of place = or
>is he different than
>any other Americans who move in a u-haul? I wonder since a large = number of
>young whites purchase and use drugs, are they being stopped and
>interrogated as much when they are in u-hauls.
>If we have a certain place that we are supposed to be relegated to or = if
>we are not subject to the forth amendment like any other American then = why
>not just tell us but in the mean time stop pretending that racial
>profiling is something that is innocent and good police work when it = is
>and always will be in many cases,harrassment.
>No, your profiling is not my reality. I belong anywhere I wish to be = in my
>car or on foot as long as I am not breaking any laws, yes there are = some
>places that I will raise an eye brow and living in this country = everyone
>knows there are areas like that but being on the highways and on wide = open
>streets is not.
>Sincerely,
>D. Marks
Hi --
My example was indeed that a security agent had three minutes to = interview a black American man, an Asian American woman, and a Saudi visitor = named Mahmood before deciding whether they'd be allowed to board a = cross-country airtliner, and my question was whether he should (in order to be politically correct) spend exactly one minute with each, or concentrate = on Mr. Mahmood.
To concentrate on the Saudi is "racial profiling" (you'll notice that = in this case the black man does NOT fit the profile of the "likely = criminal") and I will stand by my position that when lives depend on it, the = secureity officer should certainly sacrifice "political correctness" for common sense, and spend most of his time quizzing Mr. Mahmood. (Which is not = to say that law-abiding Arab-Americans should be rounded up or = systematically harassed, which I continue to oppose most strenuously)
As to the question of police either profiling or harassing young black = men, I was raised a hand-wringing, guilt-wracked liberal; i've wept my tears = and cursed the wind about How Terrible Things Are, and I'm thoroughly sick = of it.
What I'm especially sick of is promoting "solutions" that don't work -- "sticking with the program" rather than facing criticism from the = smugly supercilious arbiters of Political Correctness for speaking the plain truth. Life is too short for bullshit, or for continuing to endorse = Things That Don't Work.
Let me tell you what happens when a police department is told to stop "racial profiling." The cops go, "What, we're not supposed to pull over = a car with three or four young black or Hispanic men in it, which appears = to be driving slowly through a wealthy neigborhood, casing homes for a burglary?" The cops are told, "No, no one has told you to stop doing = police work. We just can't use racial profiling. You have to stop EVERY car = that's doing that, no matter who's in it."
For a few days, the cops pull over wealthy white women who are driving slowly through suburban neighborhoods because they can't read the house numbers while looking for their friend's baby shower. Then one of the = women pulled over turns out to be the mayor's wife, and the police chief gets called in and read the riot act.
"OK, cut the crap; Stop pulling over middle-class white people," the = men are told.
"But that's what you told us to do, so we wouldn't be 'racial = profiling,' " the men complain. "What do we do now?"
We all know the answer. They go back to racial profiling, but they lie about it. The politicians have told them in no uncertain terms they = still want protection from black and Hispanic punks stealing their cars and stereos, but when asked whether they're profiling, the cops are to lie = and say "Of course not."
Is my above summary of criminal types a "stereotype"? My own Chevys and Oldmobiles were stolen on several occasions while I lived in Phoenix. = Cops do better work than they get credit for: they caught the thieves EACH = TIME. In EVERY CASE, the thieves were second-generation Mexican teen-agers. = When the script-writers were ordered to use real NYPD case files to prepare = the scripts for the TV show "Law & Order," the producers were shocked to = find that ALL the scripts for the pilot first six (seven?) episodes involved black felons. Asked why, the scriptwriters said all the most = interesting real-life crimes they'd found in the NYPD police files involved black perpetrators -- black perpetrators SWAMP the New York legal system. Needless to say, many of these scripts were rewritten to create a more acceptable racial blend of perpatrators (just as Warner Brothers, all = the way back to the 1960s, were successfully pressured to portray the Capone/Nitti gang as including many NON-Italians, for the Robert Stack = TV series "The Untouchables.") Truth is always sacrificed to Political Correctness.
The problem is, cops who are living a lie become increasingly insular. = They see the world as "us against them" and won't even SOCIALIZE with = non-cops, for fear a chance remark will betray the lies they're forced to live = with. They become increasingly surly, hostile, and dismissive to any = "civilian," since "civilians" not only doesn't UNDERSTAND "the way things are on = the street," but actually demand that the cops LIE to them about "the way things are on the street."
This is very unhealthy for any society.
Here's what might work: Repeal all the drug and gun laws. Not only are = they ENFORCED in a racist manner, they were originally CONCEIVED AND = AUTHORED with racist intent. (Who carried "cheap Saturday night specials"? Urban black folk, of course. Ban 'em. The far more deadly long guns favored = by white people? No problem. Who consumed marijuana, cocaine and opium? Mexicans, blacks, and Asians, of course. Ban 'em. The drug that causes = the most deaths in this country -- violent deaths as well as traffic fatalities? Alcohol, favored by white people. No problem.)
When a cop sees a young black man walking down the street sucking on a reefer and sporting a gun in a hip holster, nothing any more crminial = is taking place than if a cop sees a fat white guy sucking on a stogie = while loading his deer rifles into the car for a hunting trip. In each case, = a subject is consuming a consciousness-altering drug while handling = firearms. Yet -- in a nation where the 2nd and 14th amendments guarantee EVERYONE = the right to bear arms, and where the 9th Amendment guarantees every adult = the right to consume any drug he pleases -- no crime is committed unless or until either of these fellows brandishies his weapon at someone else in = a threatening manner.
Yet which of these two men is going to get arrested -- hell, = drop-kicked and shot on sight if he refuses to "kiss the ground and spread 'em"?
Many of my readers will recoil in horror at the prospect of a cop = smiling, tipping his hat, and driving peacefully past a young black or Hispanic = man walking down the street, smoking a marijuana cigarette and sporting a loaded pistol on his hip.
"Why, he could be on his way to murder an enemy gang member!" they will shriek.
That's because they're racists, and they should admit it. When a cop = straps on his gun in the morning, do we worry "He might be planning to murder someone today"? (Statistically, cops kill LOTS of innocent bystanders = -- far more than are killed by "civilians" with concealed-carry permits.) = When only the police have guns, we live in a police state. Folks who seek = the "safety" of a police state are free to move somewhere where there is no = 2nd or 14th Amendment -- America's remain fully in effect, thank God.
Yet will "the leaders of the black community" and so-called "civil libertarians" JOIN with me in calling for an end to the very laws which lead police to figure they may "get a good bust" if they pull over and search a car containing young black or Hispanic men who may possess "illegal" drugs and weapons?
Nooooo. These "leaders of the black community" whine that they want = MORE of a police-state presence in their neighborhoods, to "clean out the gang = and drug problems."
I've been rousted by cops for standing on the street corner talking to = my friends, and I didn't like it a bit. I was accosted by a Metro cop out = in the desert last year -- even though the cop admitted the = target-shooting I was doing was perfectly legal -- and "patted down" and called a = "wise-ass" when I refused to grant permission for him to search my car.
I didn't like it a bit (though at least I got to write a column about = it.)
Many of my readers who are cops contend I HATE cops, because I write so often about the way they murder our fellow citizens with impunity (go = back and read my columns about Officer Bruce Gentner shooting Ron Perrin, = who armed only with a basketball -- and getting the standard "walk" from = the coroner's inquest.)
But we're not going to solve this by implying someone is a racist when = he points out that young black and Hispanic men commit crimes out of proportion to their numbers in the population. We only solve this by speaking the truth, no matter who whines and covers their ears and = orders us to stop saying such unpleasant, inconvenient things.
The answer is to change the LAWS, so we could thin out our existing = police force to about 1/3rd of its current strength -- enough to respond to = "armed robberies in progress" but getting rid of ALL the plainclothes (and = other) units who are doing nothing but spying on us, trying to "catch us" participating in any number of forms of non-violent consensual = commerce, including prostitution and buying guns and drugs, all of which = activities are protected by the 9th (and other) amendments to the Constitution.
Legalize drugs, and our current inner city drug gangs will go out of business just as quickly as did the rum-runners and Speakeasies of the 1920s when we ended Prohibition.
Will you join me in pushing to get thousands of these racist drug and = gun laws stricken from the books -- meantime teaching our fellow citizens = that they have a moral duty NOT to enforce thse racist and unconstitutional laws when they're on a jury, so we can ALL walk around armed -- and = conduct ourselves as we see fit in the privacy of our homes -- without fear of = some cop breaking down our door in the middle of the night in this "free = nation"?
Do you really want to SOLVE the problem ... or just keep complaining = about The Injustice Of It All?
Best Wishes, -- Vin Suprynowicz
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Feel free to subscribe to the existing "Vinsends" e-mail list -- which remains free of charge -- by sending a message to subscribe@thespiritof76.com, including the word "subscribe" (with no quotation marks) in the "Subject" line. The web sites for the = Suprynowicz column are at http://www.TheLibertarian.net and http://www.nguworld.com/vindex.
Copies of my book, "Send in the Waco Killers" can be ordered by mailing check or money order for $21.95 for each copy plus $3 shipping to = Mountain, Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127. Orders can also be = placed -- credit card orders welcome -- by dialing Huntington Press at 1-800-244-2224. Or, go to = http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are = involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- = and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless = series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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