Boston Airport Accused Of Racially Profiling Minority Passengers

Boston Airport Accused Of Racially Profiling Minority Passengers

A heavily traveled Boston airport is facing accusations of racial profiling after implementing a “behavioral detection” program that flags potentially threatening minority passengers based on where they are traveling to and what they are wearing.

Transportation Security Administration officers at Boston’s Logan International Airport are alleging that a program intended to help flag possible terrorists based on passengers’ mannerisms has led to rampant racial profiling, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The New York Times reported on its website that in interviews and internal complaints it has obtained, more than 30 officers involved in the “behavior detection” program at Logan contend that the operation targets not only Middle Easterners, but also passengers who fit certain profiles — such as Hispanics traveling to Miami, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward.

The officers said their co-workers were increasingly targeting minorities, believing the stops would lead to the discovery of drugs, outstanding arrest warrants and immigration problems, in response to pressure from managers who wanted high numbers of stops, searches and criminal referrals, The Times reported.

“The behavior detection program is no longer a behavior-based program, but it is a racial profiling program,” one officer wrote in an anonymous complaint The Times obtained.

Utterly ridiculous. If your own TSA officers are the ones making the accusations….well….

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