Anti-Climacus

LINK: Jay Nordinger, in his latest column, reprints verbatim an e-mail he received from a police officer on racial profiling, and it's well worth reading. It seems to bring up what, inasfar as I've observed, is the forgotten point in all of the 'racial profiling' hype: sometimes the realities of crime enforcement tilt in less than appealing directions. But it's hard to argue that police should be less vigilant so as not to offend anyone. Let's face facts: black people might speed more than white people, or Jews more than Hispanics. It may be the case that blacks who are pulled over are more likely to have committed offenses requiring more severe police responses. And, of course, not unrelated: the vast majority of terrorists may be of Semitic descent. No one is arguing that police ought to pull over or detain every black/arab/male/whatever-looking person. But they should be stopping whoever's suspicious-looking. That's their job. Let them do it!