Is specifing a suspect's race racial profiling?

[UnyieldingHierophant]

Chandler police will not alter their description of the Chandler Rapist despite complaints from a Valley radio station about the department’s use of the word “Hispanic” to describe the attacker.

“I think this is racial profiling,” said Mayra Nieves, vice president of programming for KMYL (1190 AM).

Nieves said Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race -- and many Hispanics are white or black. She said ethnicity should not be used when describing an attacker. Instead she said she would describe the Chandler Rapist as having “dark skin.”

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/101714

[buzzard]

1. I sometimes get fed up of politically correct crap when it comes to identifying individuals

who are known and wanted for specific crimes. If a rapist/home invader/ murderer/child molester in my neighbourhood was known to be of a certain age, sex, race/colour or build I see no problem in identifying them as such.

[angstlessk]

2. they only use it when 'dark skined' people are involved, you seldom

see an article in the news that says the alledged offender was a blonde haired blue eyed white boy! Or a red headed freckled faced white boy! when one says black or hispanic you know the color of his eyes and the color of his hair immediately(with few exceptions)!

[Arkansas Granny]

11. The local news I watch specifies when the suspect is white. It's

not something that they only do with minorities. I've even heard them describe the skin tone along with the ethnicity.

[angstlessk]

15. I am not refering to 'suspects' for which their race is an important factor in apprehension

I am talking about people already arrested and facing trial. I can tell you when, in our newspaper their is no picture of the allgeed perp...I can guarentee he is white and I have never been wrong!

[NorthernSpy]

23. here in Maine, the news once urged everyone to look out for "A white man with brownish hair"...

And everyone was like, WTF? Because that describes about half the people in the state.

:silly:

[ecstatic]

3. WTF? Dark skin implies black

I guess her outrage is only geared towards latinos being slandered.

[woodsprite]

4. Actually, I think you could say 'tan' complexion and that should be OK.

brown-tan-creme - those colors should work. My kids will be the first ones to tell you that whites aren't really white and blacks aren't really black anyhow - it just brings out two total extremes. If kids know it, then adults should be able to figure it out.

I absolutely hate it when we have an alert on campus and they refuse to fully describe the suspect - whether it's rape, breaking/entering, ripping people off, etc. Sure, you can bet most of the time if they say it's a fair haired person that they're fair complected, but "dark haired and tall wearing a sweatjacket", just doesn't cut it. Nothing mentioned about complexion. I know they're being politically correct, but it doesn't help the community at large to NOT know what type of person to keep a lookout for. It makes the published description basically worthless.

[seabeyond]

5. hispanic works for me as a description. using white to describe

any number of origins works for me too.

[ButterflyBlood]

6. Uh, no. Not for a specific offender

In that case all the info available should be revealed.

[Beerboy]

7. What's "specifing"?

[ButterflyBlood]

8. Saying that the suspect is a white/black/Hispanic male/female

n/t

[Beerboy]

14. Really? That's not even a word.

"Specifing".
Or is it now?

[Arkansas Granny]

9. Dark skin could cover a lot of ethnicities. Hispanic, Asian, Native

American to name a few. If the police are looking for a crime suspect I don't believe it is racial profiling to give as complete a description as possible even if it involves the suspects etnicity.

[XemaSab]

16. I've seen some very dark Europeans...

Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Greeks... :shrug:

[slackmaster]

20. When he's tanned, an Indian man I work with is darker than our darkest African-American

Describing him as an Indian (from India) would be appropriate if he was a criminal suspect.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

10. No !

[sam sarrha]

12. perhaps the perp spoke to the victim with an identifiable accent

[Zywiec]

13. I don't think so. n/t

[XemaSab]

17. I think it's that "Hispanic," for better or for worse

has become a catchall term in the larger culture for people of a certain appearance and cultural descent.

I've met Hispanic people of a variety of "races," Black, Japanese, and white with blonde hair and blue eyes... but the Black, Japanese, and blonde-haired blue eyed Hispanic people are in the minority, at least in California. :shrug:

[treestar]

18. That's true

Though I don't think "dark skin" would help much. May as well go with race and describe the person as white, black, or Native American (which is probably what they were getting at - that's the race most Mexicans and South Americans are, for the most part.)

[slackmaster]

19. No - Profiling refers to selective scrutiny of a group, not of an individual

As far as I'm concerned, any identifying information that can help stop a dangerous criminal suspect is OK.

Nieves said Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race -- and many Hispanics are white or black.

That's true. However, the point is to convey information to the public that will help find one particular individual. If describing the suspect as Hispanic helps because people have a preconceived notion of what a Hispanic person looks like, the communication is successful. That all that really matters.

[stirlingsliver]

21. Of Course It Is.

Of course specifying a suspect's race is racial profiling.

It is exactly what racial profiling is.

Duh!

[MrCoffee]

22. wow, is that an incorrect definition

http://www.aclu.org/images/asset_upload_file956_27323.pdf

Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement uses race/ethnicity as a basis for targeting criminal behavior (i.e., searching the cars of black drivers on the assumption that they have drugs/guns, with no other probable cause to do so)

Identifying a known suspect by their race/ethnicity is not even close to racial profiling.

[NorthernSpy]

24. "short", "muscular", "hazel/brown eyes", "dark hair" -- NOTHING about "dark skin"...

So what exactly is this Mayra Nieves trying to do in getting the police to describe the suspect as "dark-skinned" rather than "Hispanic"? "Dark" -- compared to what, exactly? And why is that "better"?

Maybe SHE's the one adding a nasty racial dimension to this.


:eyes: