Racial Profiling

From a recent email to a friend sent 5/1/04 ...

Dear A,

I have an Arab-American friend who was recently in Prague. While there he set up his camera on a tripod in his hotel room to take some scenic photos out the window. He'd left it set up while out and the maid saw it. She reported it to the police or someone in Prague and they tracked my friend back to his home city here in the USA. Lo and behold this past Monday the local PD Joint Terrorism Task Force paid him a visit and asked him why he'd been taking photos of the American Embassy??!!

It turns out the embassy was in the camera's field of view. They came with a file on him with pictures of his father, a well known local business man. The family is originally from an Arab country having come to the states in the early seventies and are now naturalized American citizens.

They asked him if he contributes to any charities. He said he did, The United Way, The City of Hope and other mainstream charities. Then they asked him about Islamic charities and received a negative reply. It's shaken him up quite a bit as you can imagine but at the same time he's very calm about it as he has absolutely no cause for concern.

I've known this fellow for 30 years. This is what's known as profiling. A well dressed Arab-American staying in a luxury hotel innocently taking photos out his window ends up on a watch list. I hope it stops with this. I hope there isn't any more to it. The government can make someone's life a living hell regardless of guilt or innocence. If it were you or I would we be subject to the same questioning? Would anyone have bothered to report a middle aged European-American taking photos out the window?

To their credit, according to my friend, the police were somewhat sheepish and very polite. He invited them in, congratulated them on their vigilance and thanked them for their efforts in keeping us safe. Talk about grace under pressure.

What a trip!

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