Quote:
Originally Posted by epchick
WOW. First of all, how do you know there are "terrorist cells" within a 10 minute drive? Why do you constitute "terrorist cell" as? Just because they people are Arabs or Muslims? If you come from the "most Arab populated city in the country" shouldn't you be a little more open-minded?
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We know because some of them have been arrested, including the owner of a very popular and high profile local restaurant chain who even had a relative working for the government (some of whom have been arrested and some of whom have left the country). It is a fact that there are terror cells within 10 minutes of where PM_Mama lives.
Air Tran has assigned seating, unlike SouthWest.
A lot of people have been deeply affected by 9/11 and are much more nervous about getting on a plane. Have you seriously never been uncomfortable with a stranger on an elevator because they gave you a bad vibe? When we had the big blackout of 2003, the first thing people thought was "terrorism". Before 9/11, we would have assumed "mechanical failure". We are in a different reality than we were on 9/10/01.
While I don't agree with racial profiling in general, the reality is, most Al Qaeda members are not little old white ladies. Profiling is a reality. It's a reality when you're crossing the border between Detroit and Windsor. Young white men who don't look clean cut almost always get stopped and have their cars searched for drugs. I've never had my car searched when crossing the border. Some people are under more scrutiny because of their appearance and demeanor. My brother had friends who were troublemakers and often got labeled as a troublemaker as a kid even though he never did anything wrong himself. He got blamed for stuff anyway because he hung out with suspect kids. This is human nature.
If something similar to 9/11 happened again and one of the terrorists were wearing a t-shirt like that, there would be outcries that nobody checked out the person who was wearing that shirt. We have been encouraged to keep our eyes out for anybody/anything that looks suspicious. This is the result of that. It takes one small thing to completely change how airport security looks at things. The "shoe bomber" led to everybody taking off their shoes and having them x-rayed, even flip flops which obviously have nowhere to hide a bomb. The liquid explosive scare has us unable to bring a large bottle of shampoo in our carry ons. They pretty much HAVE to check out anybody who is making others suspicious. It doesn't mean they'll catch the next terrorist, but if it means they miss one, there would be hell to pay for them.