KNUV 1190 AM

How do you define "racial profiling"?

I don't consider law enforcement putting out a complete description of a suspect to be an instance of "racial profiling."

Anyone who would doesn't understand the meaning of the term.

Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as indicators of the likelihood of an individual committing a crime.

It has nothing to do with a manhunt to apprehend a known suspect.

KNUV 1190 AM, a talk radio station in Phoenix, is playing the racial profiling card to obstruct law enforcement's ability to get a child rapist in custody.

From FOX News:

An Arizona Spanish-language radio station is blasting a local police department for what it says is racial profiling: describing the suspect in a series of child rapes as "Hispanic."

Police are offering $25,000 for any information leading to an arrest in the case of the "Chandler Rapist," who began assaulting victims in Chandler, Ariz., in June 2006.

The suspect is described as Hispanic, 28 to 40 years old, short with a muscular build, dark hair and hazel or brown eyes.

Phoenix news talk radio station, KNUV 1190 AM, has complained to the police department about the description, claiming that "Hispanic" refers to an ethnicity, not a race.

"Hispanic could be white, it could be black, it could be dark-skinned complexion," said Mayra Nieves, vice president of programming. "We Hispanics see it that way."

Police won't budge. They say they are following normal procedures for releasing information based on victims' descriptions. Five victims between the ages of 12 and 14 have described their assailant as Hispanic.

The rapist usually strikes in the morning, when his victims' parents, usually a single mother or father, leave for work. The rapist attacks when he knows the parent won't be home, threatening his victims with a weapon before he sexually assaults them, said police spokesman Sgt. Rick Griner.

"We are not racially profiling anybody or anything," said Griner. "For us to change or alter or omit, that is irresponsible on our part. The common goal is to catch this predator and get him off the street."

Thankfully, police are not being intimidated by KNUV.

Griner is right. It would be irresponsible to omit information about the suspect's appearance.

...The American Civil Liberties Union said the the suspect's description is not racial profiling. It said if police used race as the sole factor in describing the suspect, that could be racial profiling.

"They are using concrete information to follow up leads," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, a spokeswoman for the ACLU Phoenix chapter.

KNUV is picking the wrong battle here.

When an organization as fringe and Leftist as the ACLU takes the stand that this isn't a case of racial profiling, it's not a case of racial profiling.

The station should show more concern for the victims of this animal, and his possible next victim, rather than focusing on something as ridiculous as using "Hispanic" to describe him.