In the 1930's, there was a baseball pitcher by the name of Dizzy Dean. He was from the deep south and was quite a character. He mangled words purposely, as well as having a way of making complicated things simple and maybe simple things complicated.
When he retired, he became a broadcaster on the radio for baseball games. In those days, announcers weren't permitted to say anything about the weather. In one game, the clouds burst out with a rainstorm. Dean was announcing the game and naturally, when the game is delayed, he has nothing to say because there is no game going on.
Wanting to inform his audience about the situation but unable to tell them it was raining, Dizzy said in his deep southern drawl, 'well, we have a delay of the game heah. I cain't tell ya'll why, but if you poke yer haid outta the winder, I'm sure ya'll will figgure it out.'
Today, the police, the feds, the TSA agents aren't permitted to profile anyone. This is partly what the Arizona law passed recently has been fought about with the liberals claiming it's racist because it targets hispanics.
We have tied our own hands to protect people's feelings. Unfortunately, we're protecting the wrong people. If a store is robbed and the call goes out over the police radio, it's gotten so ridiculous when it comes to profiling that I don't know how they know whom to look for. Suppose it's a white guy that robs the store. The calls goes out saying we're looking for someone wearing a light blue hooded jacket that zips up the front, blue jeans, tennis shoes and white socks and has a handgun. Are they not allowed to say he's a white guy?
Suppose it's a black guy. Same mode of dress. We're not allowed to say he's black? Suppose there are five people walking down the street all wearing the light blue hooded jacket, jeans, tennis shoes and white socks. One is white, another black, another a blonde hair blue eyed female, one hispanic and one is an old man with gray hair, stooped over from age and arthritis. When the police come up on these people, which do they look to as a suspect? They don't know the race of the perpetrator because nobody is allowed to say.
The gun is naturally concealed, so the only way to find the person is to stop them all and treat them all equally. Do we now need one officer of each gender and race and age to check out the like person in that crowd of five?
What is the problem with saying it's a white guy that robbed the store? Or saying he was black or hispanic if that's what they were. Are we afraid that if we single them out that we'll destroy their self esteem when they find out they are white? Black? Hispanic? Blue eyed blonde female? What white guy doesn't know he's white? What black guy doesn't know he's black?
How many more people are put in danger because we can't identify people by their race or gender along with the rest of the description?
What happens is that we now have 7 year old boys strip searched at airports or 23 year old white men having to say "Don't touch my junk" all because we're afraid that he could be a middle eastern man that is a terrorist. We have women that are possibly singled out for an agent to grab women in areas that only their husbands grab, but not because they fit the profile, but because they may be well endowed or in great shape.
In Arizona, the majority of those that are in this country illegally will have brown skin. It seems to me that the obvious place to be suspicious is when you have someone with brown skin pulled over for a traffic violation.
We're going so far to avoid even a hint of racism, that in nearly all aspects of law enforcement, not to mention day to day living in offices and factories we're getting to be afraid to call an apple an apple.
Back in the 30's and 40's, announcers couldn't tell you that there was a rain delay. They dumped that rule because it was silly. Banning profiling is silly in the same way. If we follow through to the nth degree with this profiling, fingerprints will not be allowed on criminals. Everyone has a unique fingerprint. If we fingerprint one, and it's not the same as the other, isn't that too profiling? Each fingerprint is an individuals. Just like each person is an individual.
The fact is that not everyone is same. Not everyone is the same color. Not everyone has the same color hair. Not everyone is a criminal and not everyone is honest. The laws should be enforced against the lawbreakers to protect the innocent, not enforced against the innocent to protect the lawbreakers.
If a criminal is surprised that he is the race he is, I think singling them out for breaking the law is the least of that criminals worries. To use Dizzy Deans vernacular, maybe he ought to look in a mirror with a color chart next to him so that he's not surprised by his race when he eventually is arrested.'
You're welcome to comment.
Brett
No comments:
Post a Comment