9/11 Attack: Racial Profiling In America
Racism according to American Civil Liberties Union is practiced by law implementation officers targeting individuals based on their racial group, religion, ethnicity and their place of origin and not their personal crimes. Racialism in America, according to a socialist by the name Robert Staples, is not for personal crimes but a phenomenon in America since the 1950s era of slavery when it was included in the law. Firstly, the paper will look at the racial profiling in America since September 11 particularly government official and TSA point of view. Secondly, the paper will focus on itemizing the advantages that it has for the society at large. Finally, samples of case studies on different terrorist raids that have happened and the preventive measures that were taken.
According to a study by Domestic Human Rights Program of Amnesty International USA, since the 11TH September 2001 terrorist attack, ethnic profiling has increased tremendously. These attacks were four and they followed one another. The mastermind behind the attack was al-Qaeda an Islamic terrorist group targeting the United States. The attack targeted the following places: The World Trade Center, The Pentagon and The White House. The types of attack that they used were aircraft hijackings, suicide attacks, mass murder and terrorism. The attacks lead to the death of 2,996 people, injured more than 6,000 and caused destruction of property worth more than $10 billion. In addition, people died later due to cancer and respiratory diseases following the attack.
After this attack, the America government responded by forming a Transportation Security Administration to control airport security because before the 9/11 some terrorists had been allowed to board since they were on domestic aircraft and yet they did not have legit identification documents. After 9/11, all the passengers above the age of 18 years were supposed to have valid identification issued by the government for them to be allowed to fly. Since 9/11, there has been increase in racial profiling specifically on people of Muslim or Middle Eastern origin. A 2009 study, shows that because the innocent people are more than the terrorists, racial profiling is fruitful that random profiling. The Obama administration resolution to increase airport security for people travelling from some 14 specific countries activated criticism from Muslim groups which articulated that he based his decision on racial grounds. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, talks were made to ease the rules at the airport, but since then, nothing has changed.
According to the TSA, racial profiling has a number of benefits to the society and the whole country at large. Some of the benefits or advantages are listed and well explained below. Firstly, passenger profiling can prevent terrorism in the sense that, officers that use behavior patterns for identifying terrorists have officially stopped people with crimes like, fake identity documents, drug possession and other offences. In this case of behavior patterns, the officer identifies a person based on the suspicious look of the person. Lastly, passenger profiling is a neutral technique that is not based on the race as long as people are profiled according to how they act and not their skin color. Those that support racial profiling say that this crime control model is good since it utilizes probability in determining the criminality of a person. Those is support argue that these sacrifices have to be made in order to maintain the safety. In fact, a majority of Americans support profiling because of their own safety and that of their county and families. They don’t mind the long queues in airport, so long as they travel safe.
Since the September 11th attack, a series of attacks have been witnessed in America. A compilation of three acts of terrorism have been outlined below and some few important details like the location, date and the perpetrators. In September 18th to November 2001, there was a bioterrorism attack the led to the death of 5 people and left 17 injured. It happened in the United States. Letters having anthrax were used with the target being politicians and media people although the perpetrators of this actors were not known. In the following year, 2002, in the month of July, there was an airport shooting attack that happened in Los Angeles California that left 3 people dead and 4 injured. The perpetrator was a 41 year old Egyptian by the name Hesham Mohamed Hadayet although the FBI did not find evidence that he belonged to a terror group. In the same year, in February 16th and October 24th there were Beltway sniper attacks that lead to the death of 17 people and 10 injured. The attacks took place in Montgomery County, Maryland Beltway, Virginia and Washington D.C. The perpetrators were two, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo and evidence presented showed affinity to the cause of the Islamic Jihad.
Fifteen years after the 9/11 attack, terrorism has continued to grow around the world and spread like bushfire. The policies that have been put in place by the past administrators (republican and democratic) have managed to hunt them down. Despite this, new and stronger movements have come up using new technology, the media and many other avenues to sell their ideas. There measures that have been put in place to prevent terror attacks in the United States of America include: restricting the number of people entering America from around the world and putting up strict travel rules, coming up with more strict punishment for those people found committing those terrorism crimes, improving security procedures in airports and also hardening and expanding barriers around important buildings. Government organizations like the homeland security were created to help in the implementation of these new measures.
In conclusion, the 9/11 terror attack was an eye opener to the Americans for them to know that attacks can happen anytime, they therefore put strict preventative measures to deal with the terrorism. Racial profiling is important for the security of the country and the TSA and the government officials have a very big role that they play. Some of the other terror attacks that have occurred after the 9/11, some of them have been countered and that is great achievement.
References
Hoffman, Bruce. 'Rethinking terrorism and counterterrorism since 9/11.' Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 25.5 (2002): 303-316.
Weitzer, Ronald, and Steven A. Tuch. 'Perceptions of racial profiling: Race, class, and personal experience.' Criminology40.2 (2002): 435-456.
Glaser, Jack. Suspect race: Causes and consequences of racial profiling. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015. Sauter, Mark, and James Jay Carafano. Homeland security: A complete guide to understanding, preventing, and surviving terrorism. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
