"Random" profiling at O'hare airport?
TriumphantAngel
Posts: 1,760
"Random'' profiling my ass.
Ali Abunimahs experience after his flight from London to Chicago. Ali is the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country, A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
All the way home on the flight from London to Chicago, I braced myself for whether I was going to sent to "secondary inspection" on arrival at Immigration as on my last return to the country. On principle, I had decided I was going to challenge it, having read carefully the Customs and Border Protection Inspector's Field Manual, released under FOIA in 2008. I think racial profiling needs to be challenged, quietly, confidently and with knowledge of one's rights. As it happens there was no problem and I was admitted without incident (arbitrariness, inconsistency and capriciousness are part of the system apparently).
But then there was still customs. I joined the queue to exit the baggage claim area, where you hand your customs declaration to an officer and are either waved straight through or sent to customs/agriculture inspection. I was sent to customs/agriculture for further inspection.
The officer at customs who then took your declaration shouted ahead to her colleagues further down the line, "PAKISTAN," (as she did for several people in front of me) or wherever it was the passenger had arrived from. When she took my card she shouted "JORDAN" and the following dialogue ensued:
Me: Excuse me, but I have just arrived from the United Kingdom, not from Jordan.
Officer: But you did write on your declaration that you were in Jordan.
Me: Yes, I did, but I was in Jordan more than a week ago, and my flight came from London, and I also wrote "United Kingdom," where I spent a week.
Officer: Well, it's a random inspection and we are looking for food and everyone eats.
Me: That means they also eat in the United Kingdom, but you didn't shout "United Kingdom," you only shouted "Jordan." That doesn't seem random to me, that seems like profiling, especially when everyone else here seems to be from Pakistan.
The officer gave me what I can only describe as a dirty look, but I put my bag through the x-ray machine and there was no further search. Between Jordan and the United Kingdom, the UK clearly represents a much greater threat to the agriculture of the United States (Foot and Mouth Disease anyone?). But that didn't interest Customs. I suspect these inspections have little to do with the search for contraband food and everything to do with profiling people from "dangerous" countries.
Tell me whatever you want, but please don't tell me its "random."
Ali Abunimahs experience after his flight from London to Chicago. Ali is the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country, A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
All the way home on the flight from London to Chicago, I braced myself for whether I was going to sent to "secondary inspection" on arrival at Immigration as on my last return to the country. On principle, I had decided I was going to challenge it, having read carefully the Customs and Border Protection Inspector's Field Manual, released under FOIA in 2008. I think racial profiling needs to be challenged, quietly, confidently and with knowledge of one's rights. As it happens there was no problem and I was admitted without incident (arbitrariness, inconsistency and capriciousness are part of the system apparently).
But then there was still customs. I joined the queue to exit the baggage claim area, where you hand your customs declaration to an officer and are either waved straight through or sent to customs/agriculture inspection. I was sent to customs/agriculture for further inspection.
The officer at customs who then took your declaration shouted ahead to her colleagues further down the line, "PAKISTAN," (as she did for several people in front of me) or wherever it was the passenger had arrived from. When she took my card she shouted "JORDAN" and the following dialogue ensued:
Me: Excuse me, but I have just arrived from the United Kingdom, not from Jordan.
Officer: But you did write on your declaration that you were in Jordan.
Me: Yes, I did, but I was in Jordan more than a week ago, and my flight came from London, and I also wrote "United Kingdom," where I spent a week.
Officer: Well, it's a random inspection and we are looking for food and everyone eats.
Me: That means they also eat in the United Kingdom, but you didn't shout "United Kingdom," you only shouted "Jordan." That doesn't seem random to me, that seems like profiling, especially when everyone else here seems to be from Pakistan.
The officer gave me what I can only describe as a dirty look, but I put my bag through the x-ray machine and there was no further search. Between Jordan and the United Kingdom, the UK clearly represents a much greater threat to the agriculture of the United States (Foot and Mouth Disease anyone?). But that didn't interest Customs. I suspect these inspections have little to do with the search for contraband food and everything to do with profiling people from "dangerous" countries.
Tell me whatever you want, but please don't tell me its "random."
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
The egocentric, racist, conceited, bigoted elite.
We have the ability to take that power back, and i believe it is a matter of when. Revolution is part of human history.
Godfather.
He says there were no issues (not sure what step this was at), and basically complained that "arbitrariness, inconsistency and capriciousness are part of the system apparently".
But then he complains that customs wasn't random and he was profiled...
If he wants it to be random, but doesn't like arbitrariness and inconsistency, then what exactly is he looking for?
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
you could just as easily be a "terrorist"
as could anyone else.
True. But I guess I should have put "if" in capital letters.
their country? he was returning to HIS country. he was born in Washington D.C
Duh,
and how fucking rude. yelling out at the top of their voices where you have travelled from. is that necessary? yelling out? herding people along like cattle and then yelling out at the top of your voices?
classy.
Here are my thoughts on profiling at airports:
I hope the FAA has compiled a huge database that takes into account patterns that captured terrorists have followed. It should take into account age, race, gender, criminal history, flight history and length of stay, country of origin, favorite color, pet's names, etc. If you happen to have a profile that closely resembles what is in this database (not just race, I'm talking 50% or more matching attributes), then be prepared for a secondary inspection. I don't think a plan like this is unreasonable. I'd even be willing to take race out of the database as a concession.
Combine this with the random searches and it will only be beneficial to making air travel more safe.
and I have been searched and baggage searched on more than one ocassion and yes I am white.
Godfather.
Stop profiling.
If I have misunderstood what you are trying to say then please explain.
As for the rest of us... we should all be fair game.
But, really... The Arab guys really need to be pissed at the other Arab guys for making their lives shit... especailly the 19-39 Arab guys that just want to catch a flight home to Minneapolis from that horrid business trip in God-awful, Georgia. Those fucking guy on the Internet websites calling for a goddamn Fatwa on America and the West are making their lives shit when it comes to airport travel.
...
Now, when little old hunched over ladies start trying to light their shoes or... ugh... their underwear on fire... then, yeah... put them on the list.
Hail, Hail!!!
"actually, white americans have the luxury of not having to go through airports to blow shit up in other countries."
the point of this sentence is, in simpler terms, americans blow shit up in other countries. the person I was responding to seemed to infer as if there is a distinction between the people blowing shit up in America and the US soldiers doing so in other countries. the emphasis was NOT on the race, ie. white. the reason i wrote "white americans" rather than just "americans" was because it was a direct response to what he wrote.
really, what are you doing on an internet forum where reading (and writing) is the only method of communication if your reading comprehension is so terrible.
anyway, leaving aside the argument that profiling is unethical, the point is it just doesn't work and it only serves a purpose to bother people who just happened to be born a certain race, most of the time that falls under the category of "not white"
don't even come back to me with the argument that the terrorists tied up with the September 11 attacks were of Arab ancestry. think about Al-Qaeda. aren't they considered a threat by the US? they operate in around 45 different countries don't they, so how does targeting only people of Arab ethnecticity assure that other future attacks against the US will not occur? it doesn't.
what about tim mcveigh? why don't you profile all white 20-30 year old males?
and like i've already mentioned, i've entered and exited the US plenty of times and never once been targeted. i am very outspoken about US foreign policy and loudly condemn the US and show my disgust often at their funding of two wars and supporting the illegal occupation of another. who's to say i'm not a threat? clearly i'm not, but i think i've made my point.
In a thread speaking about racial profiling I figured your white American line was trying to make a valid point. I can now see that you really weren't.
im thinking that if tim mcveighs MO matched that of the terrorists were screening for(or vice versa), then yes white males 20-30 years old would be pulled aside and probed.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
I knew my opinion would draw the ire of others... even though that is merely what it is... one person's opinion.
I said screen everyone... after profiling out the ones least likely to blow shit up... the 70 year old grannies and the big fat guys that can barely fit in the aisles. Eveyone else... and YES, including the 19-55 year old white guys, Mexican guys, Asian guys, black guys and... Arab guys have to pass through the 'See Naked Me' X-Ray tube to make sure we don't have a bundle of M-80s duct taped to our scrot. That just becomes part of the drill when you go to the airport.... security, dealt out equally.
When the ladies start blowing up shit... then, y'all get the upskirt treatment. When the big fat guys start blowing up shit... put them on the list.
...
Now... I take it... you all fly airliners, right? So does your Mom and sister and son and daughter. There needs to be security... right? Part of the reason WHY we were hit... was because we were easy to hit. You never saw M-16s at the airport on September 10, 2001. Our openness was an opportunity for violence against us. I'm pretty sure that if you leave your doors unlocked and your windows open at night today... they will all be locked up tomorrow if you are beaten and raped in your home tonight.
Hail, Hail!!!
Wait a second... isn't this a preconcieved judgement upon my character?
Hail, Hail!!!
Legitimate and reasoned authority is a good thing. Illegitimate, unjust and abused authority is a very bad thing. But the bad part is that it's illegitimate and abused, not authority per se.
As for an american revolution against the rule of the elite, meaning the rule of money, is unlikely since it is generally seen as very legitimate. There is a deep-seated sympathy for anyone to make as much money as he/she wants, and spend it on whatever they please. They are entitled to the power the money brings. True there are some undercurrents that show when the elite get a bit too greedy and too many regular joes are hit by job losses etc, but as long as they then scale back to regular greed and power everything's ok. Sadly.
(edit) not saying this isn't the case elsewhere as well, but I can think of few places where the amassment of wealth and power into the hands of relatively few individuals is as legitimized by the general populace as in the US.
Peace
Dan
"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
the reason I say that your view was one dimensional because it only entertained one dimension of the idea. you said:
"But, really... The Arab guys really need to be pissed at the other Arab guys for making their lives shit..." - Cosmo the Wise
just like "the black guys" in LA should be pissed at "the other black guys" when a policeman fucks with them, or when theyre treated unfavorably due solely to the race they were born into? but that's not even the main issue with this - it's one dimensional because you don't take into account any American involvement in this issue such as - why the fuck 9 years after 9/11 is "another 9/11" still a possibility as the US has always tried to shove down our throats??? if anything, maybe it's because of the fucking horrible way the US handled things! the arab guys should not be pissed at the other arab guys, they should be pissed at the US who first of all has always alienated its arab-muslim community, since before 9/11, and it has only increased at fucking uncharted rates since then, the US who has only helped breed islamic fundamentalism which if anything is a threat to muslims just as much as it is a threat to the US especially because of the horrible backlash it causes american muslims. the US by profiling and targeting and alienating american arabs and muslims will not help this problem. they need to instead bring in their arab-muslim counterparts.
"Those fucking guy on the Internet websites calling for a goddamn Fatwa on America and the West are making their lives shit when it comes to airport travel." - Cosmo the Enlightened One
and the US is making every American's life shit with their continued presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. This has a direct relation to these phony ass internet websites, and I hope I don't have to spell it out for you. instead of being so concerned with ourselves, perhaps we should take into account most of all how our actions elsewhere affect us here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQcJ9tPvy-4
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
Oh yeah... I forgot about all of your equal amounts of Pro-Israeli arguements in those zillions of Israel/Palestine debates you post here.
My bad.
Hail, Hail!!!