Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Good Police Work


In Goose Creek, S.C., near the site of the Naval Weapons Station, two college kids were stopped for speeding. The student’s demeanor caused the police officer to ask further questions. The students admitted to having fireworks in the car.

Seems like a normal scene, re-played over and over again during the summer months. Except this time, the fireworks turned out to be pipe bombs, and the two students, Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed of Kuwait and Yousef Samir Megahed of Egypt were arrested for possession of an explosive device.

I found this story buried on page 5 of my local paper, and the only reason it caught my eye at all was it was next to a sporting goods ad with a pretty good sale on running shoes.

The PC thing to say is that just because these two young men were Muslims, and they had bombs, and they were near a military base (this naval station is also the site of a brig where enemy combatants had been held), doesn’t mean that they were engaged in any terrorist activity. GIVE ME A BREAK I have already heard this crap on the radio as well as one talk show host wondering if the search of the car was a case of racial profiling .
I’m sure that thousands of kids speed down US 176 every summer on their way to the beach. But how many of those kids are Arabs, carrying home-made pipe bombs?

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18 comments:

lime said...

ya know...if 75 yr old WASP grandmothers were strapping bombs to themselves before getting on public buses in NYC i'd expect them to be top of the suspicious list and scrutinized a bit more.

i certainly don't want to go back to japanese internment camps like we had during WW2, that was an egregious violation of the rights of honest US citizens. but i do think it stands to reason that if one group is perpetrating violence then they need to be watched mroe closely. perhaps the more honest and upright among this population would then bring pressure to bear upon the more militant segments.

Anonymous said...

PROFILING

This is NOT a sea story, happened to me a couple of years ago at one of our East Coast airports. I was traveling under military orders. I had my paperwork handy. I had my US passport. I had my active duty military ID card. But I had my suspicious flight deck boots and I had changed the flight the night before. All engines stop. I was checked from top to bottom. A few minutes later I saw a group of Middle Easterners go through security with no problems. I brought this to the attention of an airport security officer. I was told by the officer: Sir, you don't want to go there ....

v/r cfs aka tlrb

Paul Champagne said...

lime ... no one wants to go back to the Japanese internment camps. But I see nothing wrong with a little extra scrutiny of a group that is the most likely to be terrorists.

tlrb ... they may not want to go there ... but I sure do!

Anonymous said...

awww thats scary!!
i feel sorry for them.
but 74 yo wasp granma is very funnyyy lol

Mona said...

possession of arms and ammunition under ANY circumstances should be the treated as the higest risk & should not be let off so lightly. I am surprised at the report!

snowelf said...

Holy Crap.

I went to High School in Goose Creek and it's like one of the least violent places EVER!

Er--maybe Besides where I live now. Cause once, I was at the grocery store next to a car that was
a) running,
b) had no one inside,
and c) had a beer keg in the front passenger seat.
I had to call Pitty Pat and tell her because it was so funny.

Anyway, gads...

--snow

Keshi said...

**doesn’t mean that they were engaged in any terrorist activity

but they had bombs right? anyone who carries dangerous weapons is a criminal.

Keshi.

David said...

They did a good job. They buried it in the Richmond paper as well.

The Morning Talk Show Host on talk radio here talked about it. He had a guest who DID want to go back to Japanese Internment Camps. The very conservative host almost blew a gasket telling Nathan Bedford Forrest (reincarnate) off! He cited such examples as Einstein, et. al. during WWII. Were we supposed to lock them up?

I think the police did the right thing. If someone is suspicious check it out-regardless of who they are or what they look like- Regardless of whether they are a 75 year old WASP granny or a 23 year old Iranian.

-eve- said...

It DOES look suspicious, I admit. But then again, that's because so far, the Arabs have been the ones doing the bombing. If it'd been white kids we'd have thought less of it, would we not? So sometimes I guess it's because of what's gone before - so one can't blame people for being racially prejudiced; it's not really prejudice, it's just learning from experience...

buffalodick said...

Well, if they can talk their way out of that one, they would probably be good candidates for political offices....

Blancodeviosa said...

i think it might warrant some racial profiling. sometimes P.c. is overrated.

Sarah said...

hmm, if the report is true and they were speeding, then seemed nervous then admitted to having items that are illegal, I dont see a problem?

Sarah said...

Ok, so i am feeling a little conflicted!

i feel like I have to ask that the image of Muhammed be taken down. I realize by the captiion that it could be just an arab man but I have seen that image before and it is supposed to be Muhammed. While I do not mind offending terrorists I do mind offending peaceful and devout Muslims.

Jenny! said...

Well if it was racial profiling...it worked perfectly!

Mike Minzes said...

A bomb is a bomb is a bomb. HAd it been anyone else, they would have been aressed too. It's not profiling if you find something bad and you arrest them.

Hot down in TX, Paul? It is up here in DC!

Paul Champagne said...

niki ... it is funny ... till you start wondering who they are letting on the plane while they strip search grandma. I bet a guy could put a monkey under his hat and fly all over the place (Oh ... that's already happened)

mona ... unfortunately, nothing surprizes me anymore.

snow ... was there a guy on the roof, trying to slip a straw through the sunroof so he could get at the beer? That Was Me!

keshi ... maybe they had a perfectly good explanation for having bombs (maybe they had been hired to demolish a building ... or take out a tree stump. Maybe they are terrorists or just too stupid to live.

david ... all the cops have to say is the suspects were acting nervous and suspicious. I think that after 9/11 most juries will give the police the benefit of the doubt ... It's a shame most Democrats won't.

eve ... I think it would be suspicious if anyone did this ... the fact that they were Arabs is just the icing on the cake.

buffalo ... be prepared to see their names on the ballot then ... already the media seems to be getting on their side.

blanco ... PC is always overrated ... unless it's short for Paul Champagne

sarah ... since you had to ask me to take down the cartoon ... I have to answer NO . First off, it is not a depiction of the Prophet, it is a cartoon of a terrorist. Secondly, I am tired of worrying about offending Muslims. I was offended when the National Endowment for the Arts spent our tax money helping artists to create works of art that depicted the Virgin Mary covered in dung or Jesus and the Crucifix in a vat of Urine. But no body cares what Christians feel. Maybe it's because Christians don't riot and start burning buildings and killing people when they are upset (it wouldn't be very Christian of them).

jenny ... They talk about racial profiling as if it were a bad thing.

mike ... Yes it is hot in Texas, it's the hot Santa Ana winds. Down on the Beltway it's the hot wind blowing down from Capital Hill.

Superstar said...

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me want to just NUC the crap out of the Middle east. Just blast them back to the age of sticks and stones and tell any survivors, that if they want to, they can rebuild in the waste land God intended....~shakes head~
Damn it people. 9-11 was just the begining of the end.
*sigh*

Paul Champagne said...

bambi ... Can't bomb them back to the stone age ... most of them are still living in that age. But I am all for sending all the terrorists to meet Allah.

Hope they enjoy the trip.