Profiling 101

Woody Woodpecker's Work - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman

Not having gone to an Ivy League School like many of my masters, profiling confuses me.  Singling out a particular religious group for its penchant to blow themselves to smithereens in hopes of spending the Here After with 72 virgins is profiling–a very bad thing to do.  But when the IRS places a wary eye on the Tea Party, the process is termed enhanced scrutiny but certainly not profiling.  How do they see matters so clearly?

A year ago an article appeared in FIYE noting the unparalleled success of the NYPD in reducing all types of violent crime.  The results are mainly due to profiling suspicious characters most likely to commit crimes.  The majority of the targeted would-be-perpetrators are Blacks and Hispanics who viciously prey upon their own.  The over whelming beneficiaries of the department’s increased vigilance are Blacks and Hispanics who routinely are murdered, raped, robbed, and assaulted by Black and Hispanic thugs.

Some social activists and progressive attorneys are challenging the New York’s Police Department’s program in court.  They insist New York should be run more like Chicago, a combat zone where carnage is preferable to profiling.  Some bleeding heart judge surely will agree to eviscerate the program and up New York’s body count.  Better to fill the Big Apple’s morgue than concentrate resources to keep the streets safe.

As Mark Steyn recently pointed out, by refusing to profile high risk groups and choosing to treat every citizen as a potential terrorist, the NSA must covertly gather data on every American.  Despite the unlikelihood that the vast majority of Americans harbor terrorist intentions, the NSA's extraordinary encroachment into our personal freedoms are made in hopes of interdicting all acts of terrorism.  Rather than profile a group known to engage in these activities, the government suspects we are all would-be martyrs.  As preposterous and inane as this logic may seem, I have come to understand that without exception everybody should be treated the same.

This epiphany will serve my medical practice well.  If a 70 year old man presents for surgery and complains of cramping and nausea and hasn’t had a period, I’ll order a pregnancy test.  If a 3 year old girl tells me her chest hurts, I’ll order a cardiac work up just like I would with an obese, chain smoking 60 year old man with high blood pressure and diabetes.  Associating Tay-Sachs, cystic fibrosis, or sickle cell disease with a particular ethnic group is racial profiling plain and simple. Big Brother is right.  Profiling is never acceptable, unless, of course, a conservative is the person of interest.