[AdamLein]

So I had to do some catching up in this thread, but here I am... it seems that Craig is still going on with the same principle seen in other threads: "It was wrong when conservatives did it in the past, therefore they shouldn't complain / it's right / it's justifiable that liberals are doing it now," and, "You conservatives weren't against it when we were the victims," when he has no idea what "you conservatives" were for or against.

I.e. we've been the bad guys all along, regardless of what we said or did or supported... so long as we supported "right-wing" views.

Okay but I think this profiling discussion actually merits further examination, and has the potential to be a much more productive discussion than the back-and-forth about the Black Panthers and granola eaters.

So, does anybody here believe that profiling of one kind or another is morally acceptible, but that the recommendations of this DHS report are not? Why?

Personally I think recommending that certain groups be watched more than other groups is justifiable if statistics show that those groups are more likely to commit crimes than other groups. I also think that, if only for efficiency's sake, the "group" in question should be narrowed down as much as possible. If you can say that a certain conservative Christian church has produced more abortion clinic bombers than any other with statistical significance, that's better than saying "sometimes conservative Christians bomb abortion clinics." I've only scanned the DHS report, but it looks like they primarily rely on anecdotal evidence, which is useless in determining statistical trends; therefore I think they've failed to justify profiling in this case.

edit:
OTOH, reading a little deeper I can't find where profiling actually takes place. It looks like all statements are of the form, "Historically, right wing extremists have attempted to recruit X" or "have been motivated by X", which is different from recommending that law enforcement officials allocate manpower to keeping an eye on X. Political scare tactic? Yes, definitely. Implementation of profiling in law enforcement? Maybe not.