Racial Profiling Is Not Just Morally Reprehensible

"There are constitutional arguments against stopping people based on the fact that they “look Muslim”, but there are also practical arguments—namely that terrorist organizations are quite aware of the lure of racial bias as policy for some Americans, and as far back as 2005 were “looking to create cells of so-called white al Qaeda, non-Arab members who can evade racial profiling used by police forces.” … It’s impossible to get good human intelligence if people see you as the enemy. Were the government to adopt a policy of racial profiling as [Michelle] Malkin suggests, it would alienate the population we’re depending on to feed us information about potential attacks. Also, if you’re worrying about ethnicity rather than evidence, you’re going to waste a lot of resources chasing innocent people. So not only is racial profiling morally reprehensible, it’s also just a bad policy. Unless of course, you see all Muslims as the enemy and you want to punish them for simply existing."

A. Serwer, “Racial Profiling Is Bad Policy,” The American Prospect (via thesmarttart)