Well, after all the criticism logical pointers to police officers is getting, I think we just need to go back to the tried and true method of terrorist identification....
SKIN COLOR [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img]
[Edit] Let me elaborate a bit. Racial profiling is wrong, mkay. But, so is making any presumption based on circumstances and facts. Single man travelling alone, PFLP keychain and wierdly annotated almanac in hand -- but, no factors to look at. Nope, nothing to see here. Wierd fuse sticking out of his shoe -- must be a fashion thing. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Any such investigation to develop probable cause, such as a visual "look" at someone, needs to take in a number of factors to make a decision. This IS a helpful hint for law enforcement -- it's one more factor to look for. No factor is determinative, but what some of you seem to be advocating is NO factors may be used at all.
Which relegates us to waiting until the next tragedy happens rather than acting to prevent it. The over-PC-ness of this is silly. And the Ben Franklin photoshop was not even funny, because it relies on a misinterpretation of the situation rather than on the reality -- which is a reasonable alert as to a relevant factor.
Um.... skywalker, now that the Old Man in the Mountain fell apart, I don't think there are ANY targets north of Mass.
[ 12-30-2003, 11:23 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]