The logic (if you can call it that) of racial profiling is that you can tell law-breakers and terrorists by their appearance. This week, a terrorism indictment was unsealed for Colleen LaRose, 46, a blond-haired, green-eyed, resident of the suburbs outside Philadelphia. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania had this to say on the case: "It shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance."
Here in Maine, our own taskforce on bias-based profiling got under way last week (featuring my colleague Alysia Melnick, who helped pass the statute creating the group). The LaRose case reminds us that racial profiling isn't just a human rights problem (even though that should be enough)--it is also a threat to public safety.