Don t Fit the Profile

Don't Fit the Profile

I would just like to say that it is my conviction that longer hair and other flamboyant affectations of appearance are nothing more than the male's emergence from his drab camouflage into the gaudy plumage which is the birthright of his sex.

” Hair

The above was true when the hit musical Hair ran on Broadway. I know because I was a hippie! But in this era of elevated security alerts, it's unwise to draw attention to your appearance or behavior. I wish I could say that you should do your own thing, but if you look like a gang-banger, biker , skinhead, pimp, shoplifter, junkie, or whatever the current profile of a terrorist is, you will get hassled!

Computer profiling is standard operating procedure since 9/11, backed by the full authority of federal, state, and local law enforcement, by provisions under the USA Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act, and the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program ( renamed the Terrorism Information Awareness program by the Bush Administration after embarrassment over the spy-like sound of the original name ).

Bush was also forced to fire the TIA's controversial creator, Admiral John Poindexter, who was also fired as the Reagan Administration's National Security Advisor after being convicted of conspiracy , lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and destroying evidence in the Iran-Contra scandal. Just the kind of guy you want to have as our country's super-snoop!

Figure 14.1: Homeland Security Advisory System Web site