Politically Correct Profiling
by Tom Buchanan

The greatest instinct is for survival. In order to survive we must use our judgment in everyday situations. As we scan our environment we make a judgment based on any information we have at our disposal and decide weather or not it is safe for us. This is a basic survival method used throughout the animal kingdom.

An antelope, for instance, will not normally let a human within four hundred yards of him. He has learned from experience that a human may be a predator and he may be prey. A favorite saying that we use while hunting is we just want one dumb one to come along. Most times we get close enough because an animal didn’t bother to check us out well enough.

If there is a warning out that a rabid dog is in the neighborhood we get suspicious of all dogs. If, however, there is a report of a rabid brown cocker spaniel we pay much closer attention to little brown dogs. We do this because we are relying on information we have. It takes too much energy to pay too close attention to all dogs. When we gather information on our immediate surroundings and process what we see with any other information we have and make decisions based on our best intelligent judgment, we are in fact profiling.

Over the past few decades most of the terror activity directed at the United States has been perpetrated by people of middle eastern descent. We have also been threatened by them with our very lives. This fact alone should make us more wary, if we have any sense. For sure there have been others that have used terror tactics, but right now we are on the lookout for a brown cocker spaniel.

We have hampered our policeman and others in authority by demanding they do not use any sort of ethnic or racial profiling while looking for terrorists or criminals of any kind. In other words we are instructing them not to use their best judgment in their effort to make us safe. We fill their heads with politically correct limitations on the natural ability to judge their surroundings.

In today’s world terror and other criminal activity can happen with split second timing. Someone entrusted with our safety may be mentally distracted by thinking of the consequences that he may face for not employing politically correct filters and acting on his or her basic instincts. This distraction may be all it takes for someone to slip past security while the officers are trying their best to play nice and not notice them.

Profiling, or using our best judgment in life threatening situations is natural. In the final analysis if we do not entrust our first line of defense with the ability to use their best judgment while trying to notice terrorists or criminals it will be left up to us to employ our own faculties for survival. You may either choose to filter your better judgment and overlook the obvious, or use profiling like your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it. It is your choice.

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© 2002 Tom Buchanan.
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