WELCOME TO AO, MORTAL!! ![]() You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
| racial profiling | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Jul 27 2009, 12:43 PM (207 Views) | |
| Kenny | Jul 27 2009, 12:43 PM Post #1 |
|
King of California
![]()
|
"I don’t know – not having been there and not seeing all the facts – what role race played in that, but I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two that he Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.... Separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-American and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact." --Barack Obama |
![]() |
|
| The Evil Smurfs | Jul 27 2009, 07:57 PM Post #2 |
|
Blue Nazi Devil
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
"I don’t know – not having been there and not seeing all the facts..." should only ever be followed by, "Therefore I do not have a comment at this time". |
![]() |
|
| qumkent | Jul 28 2009, 05:06 AM Post #3 |
|
NOT AN AO MEMBER!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Is it normal in those circumstances for the police to ask the caller if the housebreakers are "black, white or hispanic" ? I mean I have no idea so I'm just intrigued. |
![]() |
|
| Iron Felix | Jul 28 2009, 07:32 AM Post #4 |
|
Time Magazine's Person of the Year
![]()
|
911 operators will normally ask for a physical description of the subject if the caller doesn't voluntarily state a description. |
![]() |
|
| qumkent | Jul 28 2009, 08:09 AM Post #5 |
|
NOT AN AO MEMBER!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
It's just that the discriptions requested by the 911 operator were racial, it's striking because that wouldn't happen here, they'd just ask you what they looked like. What's also interesting is the actual menu of descriptions the caller is given. |
![]() |
|
| Cobdenia | Jul 28 2009, 08:15 AM Post #6 |
![]()
1953 is the new 1932 for 2008
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yes, rather interesting really. The one thing I find strange is the "hispanic" bit. I don't know about you, but in all honesty if I were reporting a crime I doubt I'd be able to say for certain if someone was either hispanic, white, south asian, Arabic or Persian (depending on complexion)...not really a go at America, just a curiousity |
![]() |
|
| Kenny | Jul 28 2009, 08:46 AM Post #7 |
|
King of California
![]()
|
The main difference being that the UK is maybe 90% white. Maybe in Iowa or Oregon they don't have to ask the race of the suspect, but in the Northeast, Southwest and Florida, it's helpful for police to know what race the person is. |
![]() |
|
| qumkent | Jul 28 2009, 09:01 AM Post #8 |
|
NOT AN AO MEMBER!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yeah but even in London, even Manchester and Birmingham which are easily as ethnically diverse as any part of America, the operator would still just ask you what they looked like. Partly because people's assumptions about what races look like, what's actually black or hispanic looking ( as Cob pointed out ) can radically differ and can completely mislead the police as to who to be looking for. It's more useful to obtain info like height, age, weight and clothing. Certainly callers might specify race themselves without prompting and somtimes I'm sure it is useful that they did, but the police are aware that as much as it might be helpful it might just as easily put them on to the wrong track. |
![]() |
|
| Kenny | Jul 28 2009, 09:40 AM Post #9 |
|
King of California
![]()
|
"Hispanic" in the U.S. more often than naught means "Latino" (i.e., Latin America) and Latinos have a very distinctive appearance. Occasionally an Arab American or an American Indian can be confused for Hispanic, but 90% of the time that's what they are. They lady only said that he "looked" Hispanic, which gave the police a more or less accurate description. I don't understand why profiling a suspect has to be so politically correct. I myself look white, even though I'm part Latino. But if someone called the police on me and told them a white guy was [doing something illegal], I wouldn't care. I look white, so if the police were on the search for a white guy, they'd probably find me. (Even though I'm totally innocent!) edit: getting a little off-topic here, so split. |
![]() |
|
| Iron Felix | Jul 28 2009, 09:44 AM Post #10 |
|
Time Magazine's Person of the Year
![]()
|
Depending on the circumstances racial descriptions can be helpful, or they can lead to even greater confusion. For instance, a caller might mistakenly identify an Asian subject as Hispanic, then the police enter the situation looking for a Hispanic person. Descriptions of clothing, height, build and soforth are probably more helpful and descriptions of "color" should be kept to light complexion, medium complexion or dark complexion unless the caller is absolutely certain about the subject's race. |
![]() |
|
| Kenny | Jul 28 2009, 09:46 AM Post #11 |
|
King of California
![]()
|
Did you move that post, Felix? I tried to but the forum suddenly broke. I am so confused. :wacko: |
![]() |
|
| Iron Felix | Jul 28 2009, 09:47 AM Post #12 |
|
Time Magazine's Person of the Year
![]()
|
I deleted it then reposted it here. You were probably splitting the topic while I was posting/deleting. |
![]() |
|
| Cobdenia | Jul 28 2009, 11:30 AM Post #13 |
![]()
1953 is the new 1932 for 2008
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I think asking for ethnicity is probably wise, though complexion is perhaps better for "medium" complexions - it's more suprising to me that there appeared to be only three options - though I suppose, of the non-whites in the UK, there is a greater diversity of peoples of medium complexion then in the US (we have a lot of Arabic and Subcontinentals, and even southern Europeans, which, if they're robbing a house, I would have problems with telling apart). That said, if I did see someone robbing a house and I did report it, the first thing I'd tell the police would be a racially based description, as it is perhaps the most obvious thing, followed by build and age, height would come last as I'd have to use a reference to work it out. But even then, there are cases wear perhaps religion would be the first thing I'd report (if he has a pugareed turban and a beard, I'd describe him as sikh, or if it's a woman in a hijab). I suppose the added confusion can stem from what people use to describe different ethnicities. If you describe someone as, say, Asian, meaning subcontinental, the police may end up chasing some poor Chinese immigrant by mistake - and not everone would know that I tend to use subcontinental or south Asian to mean "India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Sri Lankan origin", and may mistake South Asian to mean "Vietnamese/Malaysian/Cambodian", then one has to factor in possible telephone confusions (South Asian or Caucasian could be confused, for example). Perhaps we should use derogatory terms...at least they tend to be specific
|
![]() |
|
| Snefaldia | Jul 28 2009, 12:19 PM Post #14 |
|
No one's hotter than Bea.
![]()
|
A boy I went out with once or twice with is Filipino, and sometimes he would say "Sometimes I don't know if I'm Asian or Pacific Islander. There's a difference. Or maybe there isn't." Much of the time I imagine it's a difference in understanding. Without tooting my own horn (which I imagine would be difficult and likely illegal, as I'm in public) I'm pretty good at differentiating between ethnic background- I can typically tell what geographical area or ethnic group someone's from by looking and listening. Maybe that's because I'm a liberal arts person. Many Americans don't have a wide ethnic experience, so it's easier to lump "brown people" "black people" and "asians" into the same categories. For example- what if Gates were Maori? Or Indonesian? There are so many grey areas... it's not just the US, either. My chinese history professor is a white American and when she was in China, students in rural areas, once they realized she spoke Chinese, thought she was a Uighur- because even though they're Muslims and technically "chinese," they're basically white. Race doesn't exist, just ethnicity. Everything else is a construct! |
![]() |
|
| qumkent | Jul 28 2009, 02:34 PM Post #15 |
|
NOT AN AO MEMBER!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I'm not saying that I think political correctness should apply in this situation or that American police forces are being less correct politically speaking. I'm more interested that they ask about race when it's known that eye witness reports can be highly unreliable especially when it comes to attributing a race to someone they've seen normally not very clearly, it just leads to confusions more often than not. As Snef points out the whole business of race can be so complicated and subjective that its a poor way to get someone to describe someone else by. For instance in some Latin American countries the distinction between "Hispanic" and other ethnicities is one that is pretty clear to locals, in that they would define certain differences in physical appearance between Hispanics and Native groups ( rightly or wrongly so ). So lets say that woman on the phone had been a recent immigrant from Bolivia or Peru, asked if she thought someone of a Latin American extraction but of a "Native American" appearance as her culture defines it looked Hispanic she would likely say no because as far as she was concerned he looked Native Latin American but not Hispanic. To the police the distinction in appearance between Hispanic and Native Latin American might not be one they would recognise but as a consequence all they know is that the suspect does not look Hispanic and so because of the question they asked during the 911 call they are not looking for the suspect in question. If they had simply asked the woman what the suspect looked like she would likely have said, something about age, height, clothing and might well have said he looked like someone ( of a Native Latin American appearance ) from Ecuador or Colombia or whatever and the police would not have been put off the scent by asking a question which was bound to illicit a misleading answer. |
![]() |
|
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · General Discussion · Next Topic » |
- Pages:
- 1
- 2

WELCOME TO AO, MORTAL!! 






![]](http://z5.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)


11:15 AM Jul 11