Originally posted by Parallax Of all of the people who smoked in THAT bathroom, on THAT, flight, at THAT moment, and then made jokes about bombs, they only detained the Arab. Clear case of profiling.
He or those who would defend him say that people of European descent (example given was a Swede) get caught smoking and they get a fine or a warning, but no alert from the air marshals or the pilot. I'm with you, here. There is a lot more to it.
Frankly the stupidity of this guy trumps everything. Thirty-five years ago, when I was a student in Vienna, I got a visa and took a short trip to see Budapest--a beautiful city, but a bit of an adventure given the cold war. I remember having a brief bit of trouble with some transportation official. The last thing I was going to do in that situation is make a dumb joke that I'm taking photos so that our missiles can target you. Profiling or not, you do have to realize that where you come from may affect how someone in another country interprets your actions.
---------- Post added 04-09-2010 at 05:52 AM ----------
Originally posted by Green_Manelishi So we shoot down an airliner cuz some daft arab is smoking?
Obviously, we didn't. After 9/11, no one wants to take any chances about what a possible terrorist might be up to. Perhaps he wants to bring down a plane over downtown Denver and kill as many people on the ground as possible. Who knows?