Profiling of Caucasion Middle American Senior Citizens

Submitted by Russell Poole (United States), Jan 1, 2004 at 13:04

Dear Mr. Pipes,
I believe my wife and I were profiled on our recent trip to Texas for Christmas with family.
We are both well into our seventies (I'm soon to be 77), lived in Indiana all our lives
and paid for our fare on Northwest with a VISA card. When departing from O' Hare
we both were pulled aside to remove our shoes and gone over with the wand bit, though neither of us had set off the magnetic alarm. On the way back, upon departing
Austin, the same thing happened. I complained to the TSA personnel that they must
make sure to pick out elderly grandparents. The screener then showed me a string of
4 S' on my boarding pass that she said were put on by the airline (Northwest) as the reason we were singled out.
If this is their CAPPS, then they are sure wasting taxpayer funds by the thorough
exam we got (including our carryon items).

I believed that we were profiled as the most unlikely suspects to terror, so that the
screeners or airline could show that they were not being in any sense discriminatory.
I am sure being politically correct must be deemed of more importance then actually
determining who the possible terrorists might be.
Sincerely,
Russ

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