Letter: Pilot in racial profiling made good judgment

Friday, Jan. 4, 2002 | 4:52 a.m.

An American Airlines' pilot had a passenger/Secret Service agent removed from his plane. The pilot claimed he was confronted with a passenger carrying a gun aboard his plane whose documentation to do so was not satisfactory. The agent claims it was his name and ethnic appearance that caused his removal. It was probably a combination of both.

It's understandable why the agent would feel insulted and embarrassed. He was on the receiving end of racial profiling. However, while his civil rights must be protected, there is something we cannot forget. There is a specific group of people who have publicly threatened us, and who have trained hard, with one goal in mind. Our destruction! To forget this is to deny reality. It's like asking us to ignore the elephant in our living room.

The pilot made a good judgment call backed by the airline. And, considering the multiple security breaches at our airports every day, who could blame him. If the agent turned out to be a terrorist, we would be faulting the pilot for not being as vigilant as he should have been.

The pilot acted in the best interest of the other passengers and crew whose lives he was responsible for. To accuse him of acting improperly is to unfairly second-guess him and every other pilot and law enforcement officer faced with a similar situation. We cannot so strive for political correctness that we ignore common sense. Not when the security of our nation is at stake.

JOYCE SEGAL