Re: WARNING: Seriously OT Re: Michael Holding on "Double Standards"


"R. Bharat Rao" <rao2_noread@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1156790412.973673.253000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
yudever wrote:
R. Bharat Rao wrote:
yudever wrote:
You could not find a more committed libertarian than Alan Berkowitz

Sorry for the typo; I meant Alan Dershowitz.

My concern is that if there is a card, it could
be used to harass "funny looking" people -- to go ask people who look
like they are from some part of the world for a card, to routinely
track
people of a certain ethnicity, etc. That, I do have a problem with.

Why do you have problem with 'tracking' people of certain ethnicity?

Assuming that is a serious question, because from there to "lets stick
all
Jews/Japanese/Arabs into a camp," is a very short step.



And then chinese and indians too later.




All the terrorists have been Moslem men in the age group of 18 to 40.
Is it really that unreasonable to say that Moslem men in the age group
of 18 to 40 deserve special scrutiny?

Because, I fundamentally don't believe you can do that to random people
on the street in a democracy. By all means do it when people fly -- I
have
no real issues with that, as you know that going in, you will be
searched -
but I have real issues with randomly questioning people of a certain
ethnic/racial profile, as they walk down the street, drink a cup of
coffee, etc.

For instance, many drug dealers are black/Hispanic -- I know, lets stop
every
car driven by black/Hispanic men, and search it thoroughly. We will
find some
drug dealers for sure, and that will reduce the # of drug dealers.
Sounds like
a good deal doesn't it?

Except it isn't. For good reason, a police officer needs either a
warrant or
reasonable suspicion that a crime is being committed to stop or
question
people, let alone search someone.

Frisking them a bit more
carefully would be a lot more efficient than strip-searching 70 year
old grannies and 4 year old toddlers.

Let me give you an extreme analogy. Let us say the cops know of a
secret
society of people who carry dangerous explosives in body orifices, that
could
blow up a city. They also know that all these people have a first name
that begins
with "San". So in a protective measure -- after all several million
people in the
city are at risk, they round up everyone whose first name begins with
"San" --
including you -- and perform forcible cavity searches.

Doesn't sound like fun. And yes, that is a ridiculous analogy.

But your connection with others whose first name begins with "San" is
not
to different from the connections of millions of Moslems who have
nothing
to do with the bombings; and frisking them for no reason on the street,
is
humiliating and discriminatory..

All IMO, of course. It is always interesting to argue with someone who
can
frame their thoughts cogently. Lets stick to the fundamental issue if
we can --
not ID cards -- but whether it is OK to routinely target some minority,
in the
interests of national security...

Bharat
PS: You said you agreed with my quote by Ben Franklin. It seems to me
that
this selective targeting of certain races/minorities, was exactly what
old Ben was
talking about...





Benjamin Franklin was also talking about GOVTS taking away FREEDOMS and
LIBERTIES of citizens by MANIPULATING them to become PARANOID.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

.

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