An Excellent Question

Tip of the hat to Number 80 who pointed me at this op-ed by Muriel Gray in the British paper The Sunday Herald. She's talking about police profiling - and wants to know who's at fault for it.

The difficulty is that it is the police’s job to discriminate, to act on hunches and preconceptions, and sometimes to judge quickly on appearances or tip-offs to try and bring their suspect before court. They are paid to be suspicious. Then it becomes the judiciary’s job to be blind to anything except hard evidence. One cannot police effectively with political correctness. If young religious fanatics are the ones who blow us up, then young religious fanatics who have no intention of blowing anyone up will nevertheless continue to be of more interest to the police than young farmers from Fife.

Read the whole thing - it's thought-provoking.