TSA Agents: Anti-Terrorist Program Targets Blacks and Latinos
from AlterNet:
TSA Agents: Anti-Terrorist Program Targets Blacks and Latinos
More than 30 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at Boston's Logan International airport report that a new anti-terrorist program has become a source of racial profiling targeting Black and Latino travelers for drug crimes.
According to the New York Times, interviews and complaints from officers at the TSA's "behavior detection" program claim passengers who fit certain racist stereotypes (for drug dealers) -- like Hispanics en route to Miami or Blacks wearing backwards baseball hats -- "are more likely to be stopped, searched, and questioned for 'suspicious' behavior." ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/tsa-agents-anti-terrorist-program-targets-blacks-and-latinos
= new reply since forum marked as read
numbers-cooking by stopping a bunch of random white guys... 
( 
)
Beyond the profiling, I was really bothered at the idea that TSA is using criminal and immigration referrals as any measure of success. That's not the mission of the agency at all, and I hate the notion of them using airports (and now bus, train stations, etc) as 'sieves' to seek out potential non-terror-related arrest possibilities.
I'm also pretty weirded-out by the whole notion of this 'behavior profiling' - it doesn't seem like particularly sound science, and I don't like the idea that it should be 'normal' for me to discuss my trip and my travel plans and who knows what else in a faux-casual conversation with a government agent. As a private, introverted, anti-police-state, nervous-flyer type traveler, I suspect my general demeanor might push the envelope in general as far as that kind of testing goes...