Florida highway closed...3 possible terrorists arrested

Point taken. Supposedly they were getting suspicious looks and then decided to play the jokes. I don't find it hard to believe, but it's not automatically true.

I will say that if I heard what the woman heard I would call the authorities too. I don't think she was wrong in doing that. And if they weren't actually receiving suspicious looks then I'll take back what I said. However, there have been numerous examples of prejudice against middle easterners since 9/11. Remember a few days after 9/11 passengers on one plane refused to fly on the plane because people from the mideast were also passengers? The plane actually didn't take off until the people from the mideast were removed.

I guess incidents like that make it too easy for me to automatically accept the story that they were receiving suspicious looks. If they were getting those looks, then I'll stand by my post. If it turns out they didn't reveive those posts, then I apologize to anyone who was accused of bigotry.

 

Bigotry?

 

That's true. I look suspiciously at ALL caucasians ever since that idiot McVeigh committed his stupid acts.



justification of potential bigotry? i don't think so.

edit: and its just not middle easterners...

a former coworker of mine, a middle aged Indian man was driving to work last October and was pulled over, demanded to get out of the car and lay on the street (face down), the cops demanded to see his passport, which naturally he didn't have... and he was taken into jail.

his crime? nothing except being brown and running a little late for work.

more edit:
if this was a joke, than these people are plain morons. In the world we live in, brown people have to take extra precaution about what they say for their own safety. is it fair? No. But if they want to keep out of trouble, thats the way it is. So these alleged med students just ain't too bright.

 

I wonder how many Americans think Code Orange is a Vietnam era defoliant. Ridge is just brilliant.

 

Even if they were getting weird looks, it was a stupid joke to play and they deserve all the inconviences they are getting.

Racism sucks....but scaring people about a possible terrorist attack is not the way to address that problem.

What a bunch of idiots.

 

Yeah, and the cops would just laugh at my reasoning. I think I'll pass.

I'm just saying that if the woman was purposefully eavesdropping and giving them looks, than yes its bigotry, not a civic duty. Invading the privacy of other people to get information isn't right, even in the sensitive times in which we live.

On the other hand, the three men were plain stupid for saying the joke, because they know they're a target, especially if they are visibly Muslim (headdress, and what not).

If the aforementioned scenarios are true, than both parties are guily, in my opinion. Of course what the men did was more wrong because muslims just can't talk like that and expect to get off scot free.

i'm not defending the three men, i'm just saying that the woman, if this is true, also had a hand by baiting the idiots.

 

Of course she did the right thing by reporting what she heard. That's a no brainer. I would hope anyone, no matter race or religion would report such type of talk...

But to purposefully pick these people out to "spy" on just isn't right. She may have baited them into making their comments. No justification for their comments, but if she hadn't eavesdropped and given "looks" (we don't know if this is true or not, just speculation), they never would have played their idiotic prank.

Sorta like that Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George are accidentally reported as a homosexual couple in the newspaper b/c of an eavesdropping woman.

 

If thats the way its gonna be, than what can I do to avoid it? Nothing? I have to accept having my civil liberties taken away b/c of the color of my skin? Isn't that, in essence, racism/bigotry.

But brown people should learn to live with the "minor inconvenience" ?

edit. I'll delete what I wrote b/c I'm getting a little heated for no reason. I apologize.

 

Well, bigotry does offend me, and it should offend all Americans. I'm not complaining about a woman who overheard their comments and called the authorities. I already said that if I overheard those comments I would call the authorities too.

I was referring to anyone who was suspicious of these people because of where their ancestors were born, and stared at them suspiciously.

Let's look at a couple of examples of what we miss if we only are suspicious of people from the mideast. The Shoebomber who's from England, has one black parent, and one White parent gets away with his ploy. Jose Padilla, who's hispanic carries whatever plans he supposedly had and helps terrorists execute them. A white woman who was found to be carrying explosives secretly placed on her by her Palestinian boyfriend gets away. The Jewish man in Flordia who was going to blow up an Islamic education center gets away with his terrorist action.

Drug smugglers beat profiling all the time by planting drugs on others, setting up sacrifices with people carrying only a small amount of the drug draw attention away from others with larger amounts of contraband. There are ways to get around profiling, and it's not only bigoted, but unsafe to rely on racial profiling.

 

Thank you sir for better communicating my thoughts.

 

agreed. It is unfortunate that the actions of a few effect (or is it affect) so many. But that is the way it is and it must be accepted for the time being. I apologize if I got a tad too snippy. Its just that I hear/see so many Muslims and nonmuslims people getting crappy treatment since last year for the color of their skin. ... People like me who consider themselves American first, before their true heritage. People who were born and raised in the United States and have basically lost many ties to their parents homeland (India, in my case). Such cases just anger me b/c I feel conflicted... I find myself being suspicious of Muslims as well, as a proud American... but I know the exact situation they're in b/c I've been "profiled" in the past as well (due to skin color)... Its just an inner strife that isn't fun to deal with.

 

NOt only are they idiots for joking about such things, but it also shows they could give a rat's ass about this country. They should move.