Lawmaker Wants Ethnic Profiling of Terror Suspects

MYFOXNY.COM - A local member of the New York Assembly will be reintroducing legislation that would allow law enforcement officials to use ethnic profiling among other techniques to spot potential terrorism suspects.

"There is no question that the government has a compelling interest in protecting the lives and safety of its citizenry from terrorist attacks," says Assemblyman Dov Hikind , a Democrat of Brooklyn. "The history of modern terrorism has taught us that these attacks are repeatedly executed by young Muslim men of Arab or South Asian origin. This is not a time for political correctness."

He says that using ethnic profiling is not unconstitutional, because he says a "compelling governmental interest" in using it to save lives.

Hikind says that police officers should be allowed to consider a person's race and ethnicity among other factors when deciding who to stop, question and search, including "wearing heavy clothing in warm weather; carrying a briefcase, duffle bag or backpack with protrusions or visible wires; displaying nervousness and/or inappropriate sweating; an inability or unwillingness to make eye contact; and chemical burns on clothing or stains on hands."

He plans to reintroduce the legislation, which he first proposed in 2005, when the legislative session reconvenes in Albany in January.