A day after yammering in anger about how President Barack Obama indulges in racial profiling, to the benefit of black people, Representative Steve "The Alvin Greene Of Iowa" King (R-Iowa) is back to extol the virtues of racial profiling -- so long as we're talking about law enforcement roundin' up the browns!
It all went down in a speech last night in the House of Representatives in which King defended the new Arizona immigration law. In his oration, King said that racial profiling is okay as long as it isn't being used in a discriminatory fashion -- yes, he seems to be a wee bit confused on the concept of "racial profiling" -- and went on to suggest that law enforcement officials are only making use of "common sense indicators." One of those common sense indicators? Footwear! And that was the more "common sense" of the "common sense indicators," actually! Apparently, cops can use their "sixth sense" to single out illegal immigrants.
Also, Steve King took the most magical cab ride in the history of livery, which "informs" his "opinion."
WATCH:
KING: Some claim that the Arizona law will bring about racial discrimination profiling. First let me say, Mr. Speaker, that profiling has always been an important component of legitimate law enforcement. If you can't profile someone, you can't use those common sense indicators that are before your very eyes. Now, I think it's wrong to use racial profiling for the reasons of discriminating against people, but it's not wrong to use race or other indicators for the sake of identifying that are violating the law.
Now we all get profiled, Mr. Speaker. I had a moment of irony this morning when I stepped out of the USDA building down here, several blocks west of the Capitol, wearing a suit. And I had just stepped out to the sidewalk, I hadn't even looked for a cab, I started to walk down the sidewalk thinking I would go to the corner. There was a cab going the other direction on the other side of the street, tapped his horn, I looked up and he swung around and picked me up. I said, "How did you identify me as someone who needed a cab ride, I hadn't indicated I wanted one, I was walking down the street." And he said, "Well, you were wearing a suit and you stepped out of the USDA office, there wasn't a car there to pick you up, I knew you needed a cab." He profiled me. He said, "I don't stop for people who are wearing shorts and sneakers, because they're not looking for a ride. People wearing suits coming out of this building are." I was profiled because I was a guy in a suit at a time of the day where it would be logical I'd be looking for a ride somewhere.
It's just a common sense thing. Law enforcement needs to use common sense indicators. Those common sense indicators are all kinds of things, from what kind of clothes people wear - my suit in my case - what kind of shoes people wear, what kind of accident [sic] they have, um, the, the type of grooming they might have, there're, there're all kinds of indicators there and sometimes it's just a sixth sense and they can't put their finger on it. But these law enforcement officers, if they were going to be discriminating against people on the sole basis of race, singling people out, that'd be going on already.
Of course, King is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so he misses the fact that his story of that time he took an ironic cab ride through the streets of Washington DC wasn't the story of "racial profiling." Rather, he was profiled because of habits and behaviors he was exhibiting. And, as it turns out, people who are not complete simpletons and who work in law enforcement recognize the distinction between behavioral profiling and racial profiling, and understand that only the former has any "common sense" value.
Anyway, I am definitely going to try to summon the psychic cabdrivers of Washington, DC with telepathy the next time I need a ride!
RELATED:
Rep. Steve King Suggests Illegal Immigrants Can Be Spotted By Their Shoes Or A "Sixth Sense" [Political Correction]
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