Profiling

I'd glad that Canadian officials caught 17 terror-planning men and arrested them. Now I'm hearing two criticisms of this event from a left-leaning, ACLU promoting friend:

1. The police were using profiling strategies unfairly to single out these men.
2. No one is talking about the details of the case, and there's only enough information to make a news headline.

My thoughts:

1. I support the profiling work done that gave extra attention to Arab men. I think it is rational and right to allocate resources (time, attention, scrutiny, money) differentially when there is good reason to believe some individuals with specific ethnic or country origins or religious beliefs are much more likely to be terrorists than others.

Can profiling efforts be abused or miss individuals -- absolutely. We live in a fallen world. If you want fair, you may need to get a different universe. (Side note: give this some thought, you really don't want fair. You and I benefit tremendously by unfair treatment from our Lord.)

Here's another person who says hoorah for profiling.

2. Whatever information is trumpeted on the news gets to our enemies, as well. So less news about what happened is appropriate.

We must remain vigilant. This is going to be a long war.