Question: Is racial profiling appropriate? If so, in what context?
Answer: The issue of racial profiling carries a long history of debate, and although the nation was gaining momentum against the use of racial profiling in criminal investigations, 9-11 just about brought it to a screeching halt.
Opponents of racial profiling claim that it violates the Constitution's guarantee of equal legal protection, as it causes officers to target individuals based on skin color or other racial identifiers.
9-11 however, raised a unique challenge. How are we going to identify the new terrorists hidden among us if we don't target and investigate the group specifically associated with this tragedy? In other words, how do we capture the terrorists among us if we don't employ racial profiling?
Post 9-11, judges reportedly threw out appeals citing racial profiling, and Gallup Polls showed that even Black Americans were in support of tight airport security checks and profiling of Arabs.
Now being called "Ethnic profiling" or "Country of origin profiling," it's being defended as appropriate and necessary to ongoing investigation.