BigDavyG

Not if they're trigger happy yanks I wouldn't, no.
Look at their army after all the training they get.

Besides guns on planes are daft full stop in my opinion. If you want to ensure safety station Bruce Lee in front of the cockpit on all planes or issue air marshalls with tazers - this is actually a serious point I'm making by the way.

BigDavyG

To be fair, with the odd exception like that belgian bird last year most islamic terrorists will have a certain look about them. This isn't racist, just commonsense.

Angry White Pyjamas

Theres nothing in a CCW "course" no. You simply have to prove proficiency with a firearm amongst other things. However, there are plenty of people that have military/LEO etc training that are also civilian CCW holders.

anotherlimey

It's not a race issue.

If I know you're profiling, I'll go out of my way to not fit the profile.

Plus Timothy McVeigh (sp?) wasn't from the Middle East, and there's been a few others; and of course not all people who want to kill you are from the ME.

ironporer

Yeah thats right. Of all the 9/11 terrorists, the Madrid train bombings, the London tube/bus bombings, the Morocco bombings etc there were exactly ZERO who were not Young Middle Eastern Males between the ages of 18-45.

So why do we continue to strip search 68 year old american black men and 45 year old Japanese men and so on? For no reason other than to be PC.

Is profiling popular or PC? NO. Does it work: Yes.

Angry White Pyjamas

Unarmed combat Vs several armed people in a confined space. Interesting. I think we saw the results of that in the 4th plane that crashed.

I'd love to see the effect 50,000 volts would have on a planes systems should the tazer contact hit the wrong part.

You could say armoured doors to the cockpit are a good deterent, except all the terrorists do then is threaten to pop off the passengers if the flight crew dont open up.

anotherlimey

See the post above; profiling does work sometimes, but against an educated enemy it doesn't.

Angry White Pyjamas

In the UK the police got lambasted for focusing stop/searches on certain ethinc groups....the fact that 80%+ of all crime was being commited by those groups seemed irrelevant to certain people.

In the same way during the 70's/80's Irish accented people would be more likely to get stopped and searched due to the IRA etc

BigDavyG

McVeigh was not on a plane, nor was he a suicide bomber.
Surely you have to admit that the overwhelming majority of suicide bombers are males of middle eastern extraction, therefore there is nothing wrong with focusing searches on members of this group.
If middle eastern men don't like it then they should vent their anger against the terrorists from their own communities instead of turning a blind eye to them and accusing the rest of us of being racist.

Is it racist to point out that the fastest people in the world are black men, or to also note that the same group generally can't swim for sh*t ???

Angry White Pyjamas

Profiling does work if
A) Certain traits are unable to be covered up
B) You are open to the fact it isnt 100%

britontour

Not sure Bruce Lee would be any good in his current state.

anotherlimey

I'm not disagreeing with it, nor the fact that most suicide bombers (in the West) fitted the typical Middle Eastern profile.

It's not a race issue.

But if the terrorist knows you are doing it he will go out of his way not to fit the profile. That's the problem.

Plus, Chechens (sp?) look Russian, some of them would probably love to blow you up too, as well as other White skinned Muslims.

BigDavyG

The pilot could use him to beat potential attackers round the head with. I mentioned him as he is quite small and so you would have room to give him a good swing within the confines of a cabin.

anotherlimey

I agree with you to a point, certainly if I was looking for some guy that smashed up a phone box on a UK council estate it would probably work; but international terrorism is a different kettle of fish.

BigDavyG

I agree about Chechens, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak - middle eastern types are a good group to focus on in the present climate, though whether this actually represents profiling is extremely debateable in my opinion.
Still, regardless of your opinion of profiling surely it must be better than random searches given that law enforcement bodies have limited resources.