-I’m for racial profiling (as long as the presumption of innocence remains intact).

I do want to respect your wish not to argue the points you have laid out as example, but, among the many, this is one that I feel a need to comment on.

Basically, i don't think this works this way. i've spent some time working around police and I will generalize by saying that they suffer from a collective us vs. them social inbreeding that often takes a racist form. I don't know *that* many black men but know some mostly through work and I can't think of one who doesn't have stops for "driving while black" in their past. The whole term of racial profiling wouldn't have made it into the popular lexicon if it weren't for (bad) police behavior.

That being said, I won't say that I completely disagree with you in pure principle, based almost solely on the ridiculous spectacle of watching airport security guards search 85 year-old grandmas.

One other reason I replied to this point specifically is that I think there are some parallels to the main thread of the thread. I expect that some of the troops in Iraq are very likely developing a hardened cop mindset... some serious profiling there....