Not *That* Kind Of Profiling
I am for "profiling" in the search for terrorists (details on that below) -- but not the absolutely idiotic sort witnessed on a plane at Detroit Metro Airport on 9/11.
A woman and her two seatmates were yanked off the plane by the authorities. The woman, Shoshana Hebshi describes the trio on her blog:
The three of us, two Indian men living in the Detroit metro area, and me, a half-Arab, half-Jewish housewife living in suburban Ohio, were being detained.
Niraj Warikoo writes in the Freep:
A woman who is half-Jewish and half-Arab says that she and two Indian Americans were detained Sunday by armed officers on an airplane at Detroit Metro Airport and then jailed and strip-searched -- an incident that civil rights leaders say was one of many cases of law enforcement targeting minorities on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.But federal officials say they were told that some passengers on board were acting suspiciously and responded accordingly.
After landing in Detroit, the Ohio woman, Shoshana Hebshi, wrote on a blog that has received national attention that she and the men were handcuffed, jailed, strip-searched and interrogated because of their ethnicities.
"They ... needed to make sure all my orifices were free and clear," Hebshi wrote.
From the Huffington Post, from an AP story by David N. Goodman and James Anderson:
Frontier Flight 623, with 116 passengers on board, landed without incident in Detroit at 3:30 p.m. EDT after the crew reported that two people were spending "an extraordinarily long time" in a bathroom, Frontier spokesman Peter Kowalchuck said.
Re-fucking-diculous.
Again, I'm all for profiling. Not for profiling anybody who looks tan.
Real, meaningful profiling doesn't start with hiring every unskilled worker who decided that the airport job beats the one standing over the fry vat. It takes bringing in highly trained officers who use highly targeted intelligence and actual probable cause: evidence that shows people to have been in touch with Al Qaeda or to have shown that they're likely to mass murder for a cause.
What's truly asinine is what we are doing, which is searching every one of eleventy bajillion passengers traveling on airplanes throughout the U.S. This is like picking up every piece of hay in a hay field and licking it to see what it's made of-- instead of picking up directions and metal detector in order to have some reasonable possibility of finding the needle.
The current method -- think "carpet-searching," as in, the cousin to carpet-boming -- is a waste of the time of every traveler, a vast waste of taxpayer dollars, and it's eating the airline industry. And once you give civil liberties up like so many travelers do daily at airports across America...well, it's not like they're going to apologize and hand them back to you.
Having read several articles about this incident, let me add a few clarifications. First, the flight was apparently shadowed by a pair of fighters along the last part of its journey. Hence, the alert was given during the flight - which means that the flight crew called in the security alert.
The reason for suspicion are apparently the restroom visits. Of course, no one on a flight could ever be constipated, or airsick, or anything else that might require frequent or long trips to the restroom.
The ridiculousness of it all is capped by the fact that the flight landed safely - nothing happened. It is at this point, the flight safely on the ground, that the SWAT team storms the airplane and hauls three people off for questioning.
Finally, the woman was never formally arrested, and hence never read her rights. Despite this, she was detained, strip- and cavity-searched and interrogated.
Police-state tactics at their best.
a_random_guy at September 14, 2011 12:34 AM
The United states of Saudi Arabia....to protect people from muslims, adopt the same tactics that muslim countries use.
Redrajesh at September 14, 2011 12:51 AM
$20 bucks says the 'inordinatly long time' was multipule people watching the bathroom and unable to see the difference between the two indian guys
lujlp at September 14, 2011 2:19 AM
The woman who it happened to:
http://shebshi.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/some-real-shock-and-awe-racially-profiled-and-cuffed-in-detroit/
"He [an FBI agent] apologized for what had happened and thanked me for understanding and cooperating. He said, “It’s 9/11 and people are seeing ghosts. They are seeing things that aren’t there.” He said they had to act on a report of suspicious behavior, and this is what the reaction looks like."
Oh, well he apologized. That makes being detained for hours/interrogated/strip searched all right.
Probable cause? Who needs it? Brought to you by Fatherland Security™
DrCos at September 14, 2011 4:26 AM
(Oh, shit....)
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at September 14, 2011 5:19 AM
Dang - I tend to spend a lot of time in the bathroom on flights, too, because I get airsick easily and my back seizes up in the seats, so I go lean against the bathroom wall.
Better dye my hair blond for my next plane trip!
Choika at September 14, 2011 5:38 AM
Detroit
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at September 14, 2011 6:00 AM
It's not even clear that the two Indian passengers did spend lots of time in the bathroom.
This is an ugly story.
Astra at September 14, 2011 6:53 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/09/14/not_that_kind_o.html#comment-2479671">comment from Astra(Oh, shit....)
We still have free speech here that is freer than that of any other country. Witness "hate speech" trials for those who've criticized Islam in Canada.
Amy Alkon
at September 14, 2011 6:59 AM
Could not this have been avoided with some questions and some common-sense.
"Excuse me sir, is their a problem you are spending a lot of time in the bathroom."
If the person does not give a good answer or refuses, then get a little paranoid. I bet a little push from a flight attendant or pilot or even air marshal could get things done.
Also - if the plane lands no problem then I would like say a false alarm. Would it not be better to solve things in the air or before.
John Paulson at September 14, 2011 8:24 AM
Saying she was not formally arrested is in itself outrageous. Being cuffed, moved and detained against your will is the very definition of arrest -- as has just been confirmed to me by an FBI veteran with broad experience in homeland security.
modestproposal at September 14, 2011 9:08 AM
>> Being cuffed, moved and detained against your will is the very definition of arrest.
But if you are not informed you are under arrest, or they even deny you were ever under arrest, wouldn't that be false imprisonment and\or kidnapping? I don't know, but being a Law and Order junkie, they always say "you are under arrest for..." as they slap the cuffs on.
Eric at September 14, 2011 9:15 AM
> they always say "you are under arrest for..."
That's TV. A few years ago, I was bitter bachelor staring out at the unforgiving moonlight bouncing off the Pacific waves of this beach. It was about 10:20 at night, and the cops came up and demanded my ID. Because I'm a white guy (and extremely good-looking), I decided to comply. I asked if I was under arrest, and the more timid of the two cops explained that no, I was merely being "detained" while they confirmed that I wasn't wanted for any of the recent robberies of nearby oceanside properties.
Two minutes later I was on my way.
But one minute and fifty seconds later, it presumably would have been a problem if I'd decided to go home.
Listen, Amy's not wrong for citing this, but those of us who insist that the TSA is a shitfuck enterprise need to explain how things will go down when all the other white passengers on the plane decide that too many swarthies are sitting next to each other.
I'm not saying it could go any worse than it does already. Fuck the TSA
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at September 14, 2011 4:14 PM
If you're going to be profiled, it's important to have a wife with improbably white teeth.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at September 14, 2011 4:21 PM
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