Racial Profiling - Nein!

From Deutsche Welle:
"Court bans police racial profiling"

A court in Germany had told the police they may not carry out identity checks on people on the basis of their skin color. There's disagreement among the police as to whether they welcome the ruling.

Back in December 2010, a 25-year-old black German architecture student was sitting in a train from Kassel to Frankfurt when two policemen asked to see his ID. He felt that their request was discriminatory and refused. He told them that he felt their behavior was reminiscent of "Nazi methods." The police charged him with insulting behavior. One of the policemen has admitted that it was because the man was black that he wanted to check his papers - he said it was quite usual. When he heard that, the student brought charges of discrimination against the police.  The judges at a higher administrative court in Koblenz ruled that skin color cannot be the decisive factor leading to an identity check. This was a clear violation of the ban on discrimination included in Article 3 of the German constitution, which states, "No person shall be favored or disfavored because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith, or religious or political opinions." The police can't agree on how they see the judgment. "The courts deal with the law in an esthetically pleasing way, but they don't make sure their judgments match practical requirements," said Rainer Wendt, chair of the German Police Union. The ruling will make the work of the police more difficult.

^ I wrote about this a few months ago and it seems now a high court in Germany has said the German police can't do racial profiling. No matter what the courts anywhere say people always profile others. It is human nature.  It should be noted that the Israelis racially profile people in all aspects of their life - at airports, bus stations, the entrance of restaurants and shopping malls, etc. If you are Arab-looking then they check you more and that's because history has taught the Israelis that the majority of terrorists in their country are Arabs. I remember when I went to the Bahamas and every white person was treated as Gods everywhere while black people (even Black Americans) were taken aside and searched more and this was done by Black Bahamians. Someone can say that racial profiling is bad and shouldn't be used and then you look at crime stats or terrorist attacks and see there's a high percentage of one group of people that are criminals/terrorists than any other group and so you make the argument to pay special attention to that one group to protect everyone. ^

http://www.dw.de/court-bans-police-racial-profiling/a-16347425