Affirmative Action (Police State Edition)

Jesse Walker | June 17, 2009

The Guardian reports:

Thousands of people are being stopped and searched by the police under counter-terrorism powers simply to provide a racial balance in official statistics, the [U.K.] government's official anti-terror law watchdog has revealed.

Comments

|6.17.09 @ 1:09PM|#

Whoa.

Warty|6.17.09 @ 1:10PM|#

It's pretty rare that a government's stupidity manages to surprise me. Kudos, UK.

Cabeza de Vaca|6.17.09 @ 1:13PM|#

This doesn't suprise me at all.

|6.17.09 @ 1:14PM|#

"None of the many thousands of searches had ever led to a conviction for a terrorist offence, he said. He noted, too, that the damage done to community relations was "undoubtedly considerable"."

That is right, none. They haven't found one blasted thing doing these searches. I would love to rip on Britian, but doesn't the TSA do the same thing here? Be sure to pick out the old lady from Kansas for special scrutiny so that no one will think we are racists.

Cabeza de Vaca|6.17.09 @ 1:16PM|#

"I would love to rip on Britian, but doesn't the TSA do the same thing here? Be sure to pick out the old lady from Kansas for special scrutiny so that no one will think we are racists."

Exactly.

Warty|6.17.09 @ 1:16PM|#

My grandma loves when she gets taken aside in the airport for special security, John. They're keeping us safe.

|6.17.09 @ 1:27PM|#

This actually demonstrates deeper thinking than the TSA strategy. Where the TSA picks obviously unthreatening individuals in order to avoid the appearance of profiling, the Brits realized they can keep checking all the brown people if they just check a few thousand more white people to balance things out. Whoever had this idea knows a thing or two about being a bureaucrat.

JB|6.17.09 @ 1:29PM|#

Britain is run by complete fucktards.

MNG|6.17.09 @ 1:30PM|#

"Britain is run by complete fucktards."

With bad teeth.

|6.17.09 @ 1:31PM|#

Wow. Orwell really was an optimist.

|6.17.09 @ 1:35PM|#

I realized that I had been co-opted when I saw that I had been pulled aside for special screening and, instead of thinking something that involved that Austrian fellow, I thought "good, I get to skip the line".

Cloner|6.17.09 @ 1:36PM|#

"Where the TSA picks obviously unthreatening individuals in order to avoid the appearance of profiling'

I love getting picked. I always tell them, make certain to check under the scrotum.

|6.17.09 @ 1:42PM|#

Inconvience and piss off the lawful to avoid inconviencing and offending the lawless. Nice. How did we get here again?

Julio|6.17.09 @ 2:00PM|#

Federal prosecutors have offered Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers a plea deal as part of their wide-ranging investigation of City Hall corruption, but she has not accepted it, the Free Press learned today.

The development comes a day after the U.S. Attorney's Office revealed that two key figures in a sludge-disposal deal admitted paying Conyers thousands of dollars in bribes to secure her support for a $1.2-billion city contract with Synagro Technologies. Conyers, who initially opposed the 2007 deal, switched her position as the council voted 5-4 to let Synagro dispose of wastewater sludge.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090616/NEWS01/90616057/Monica+Conyers+faces+deadline+for+plea+deal

Julio|6.17.09 @ 2:01PM|#

Earlier in the day, Conyers addressed the controversy during her weekly live television program on WHPR-TV (Channel 33), but gave no indication of what she would do.


"I just want to say that first and foremost publicly that I am a child of God," she said. "And that all these things that are going on right now that I believe in my heart that God will deliver me from them. And so I say to all of the people out there if you're not praying for me, then you're just adding to the problem.

Julio|6.17.09 @ 2:04PM|#

Why is God so hard on his brown children? They endure so much!

|6.17.09 @ 2:10PM|#

Actually Britain is getting it doubly wrong. See, the whole idea is to do RANDOM screening. If you do targeted screening (AKA 'profiling') then the bad guys can just recruit someone without the requisite characteristics and they'll skip right through. If the screening is truly random then it actually works.
But Britain is doing simulated random screening--screening 'brown people', then adding lots of non-browns to make it look as if they are not discriminating. If you really want to make planes safe (not that they are actually in any danger in the first place, but that's a different story) then you have to make the screening totally NON-predictable. But both the TSA and the British equivalent are doing security theater, not real security.
For real security, try flying into or out of Israel. There they conduct interviews that are likely to actually find the bad guys. I know--I experienced a couple several months ago.

|6.17.09 @ 2:12PM|#

"I just want to say that first and foremost publicly that I am a child of God,"

She ought to consider the possibility that God is about to send her to a long time-out in jail.

|6.17.09 @ 2:24PM|#

Be sure to pick out the old lady from Kansas for special scrutiny so that no one will think we are racists.

I do a lot of flying, and I've noticed that those getting the specialized wand treatment invariably fall into one of two categories: 1) The woman with large purse and gazillion bottles of liquids/gels/lotions she cannot live without; and 2) some harmless and bewildered old guy.

p.s. I'm flying out again this weekend, so I'll make sure to confirm my confirmation bias on this point.

|6.17.09 @ 2:34PM|#

This happened to me last year. The cop was pretty apologetic, straight forward with the reason for the stop, and chatted to me about rugby.

Some Guy|6.17.09 @ 2:41PM|#

That is right, none. They haven't found one blasted thing doing these searches. I would love to rip on Britian, but doesn't the TSA do the same thing here? Be sure to pick out the old lady from Kansas for special scrutiny so that no one will think we are racists.

How many terrorists were caught as a result of the non-white lady from Kansas searches?

Robert|6.17.09 @ 7:30PM|#

If the screening is truly random then it actually works.

How? By stopping a percentage of terrorists equal to the percentage of population screened?

Aaron Boyden|6.18.09 @ 3:26AM|#

Sounds good to me. If they're stopping everybody, then everybody knows what a nuisance the police are being, and can sensibly evaluate whether any possible added safety is worth the hassle. Otherwise, the whites will let the police get away with anything without a second glance if it's only being done to brown people, and obviously that'll produce a bit of justified resentment among the brown people.

Sean Healy|6.18.09 @ 6:59AM|#

I made it through Israeli pre-flight security drunk off my ass a few weeks ago. Let's just say the M16-toting 19 year old girl who interrogated me on the way out inspired emotions other than fear.

|6.18.09 @ 9:12AM|#

According to the article, these searches have nothing to do with airport screenings or even some other more questionable but security related procedure, like scrutiny and even bag searches on public transit.

These are random stops and searches of members of the public in the course of their daily lives. Even the most ardent security mom in America would be outraged if these kinds of searches were even contemplated by law enforcement here.

An example in the story, a middle aged diplomat, stopped over during his morning commute. No suspicious activity, no probable cause, no nothing. Just pulled over and random and interrogated and searched.

Instead of being outraged at the way this policy is being implemented, the Gruniad should be outraged that the policy exists at all in a country that once prized "English Liberties".