SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Logan Airport (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
Boston's Logan Airport 'Rife' with Racial Profiling: Report
Aug 12, 2012
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has opened an investigation into claims that racial profiling by security staff is a widespread and often encouraged practice at Boston's Logan airport, according to a new report by the New York Times. The agency came under fire this month after 32 officers filed written complaints at a Logan TSA meeting -- some of them anonymous.
According to the complaints, the officers said their co-workers increasingly target minorities in a "behavior detection program" instituted in Logan after 9/11. The behavior detection program in place in Boston uses specially trained behavioral "assessors" to scan the lines of passengers and interact with them to assess unusual activity; however, according to the complaints, the operation has become a magnet for racial profiling, targeting not only Middle Easterners but also blacks, Hispanics and other minorities, the Times reports.
In response to pressure from managers who push for high numbers of stops, searches and criminal referrals, "passengers who fit certain profiles -- Hispanics traveling to Miami, for instance, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward -- are much more likely to be stopped, searched and questioned for 'suspicious' behavior," reports the Times.
"They just pull aside anyone who they don't like the way they look -- if they are black and have expensive clothes or jewelry, or if they are Hispanic," said one of four officers who spoke with the Times on a condition of anonymity.
The TSA said on Friday that it had opened an investigation into the claims.
"The behavior detection program is no longer a behavior-based program, but it is a racial profiling program," one officer wrote in an anonymous complaint obtained by the Times.
The officers identified nearly two dozen co-workers who they said consistently focused on stopping minority members due to pressure from managers to meet arrest and detention threshold numbers.
The program has been billed as a model for roughly 161 airports across the country.
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has opened an investigation into claims that racial profiling by security staff is a widespread and often encouraged practice at Boston's Logan airport, according to a new report by the New York Times. The agency came under fire this month after 32 officers filed written complaints at a Logan TSA meeting -- some of them anonymous.
According to the complaints, the officers said their co-workers increasingly target minorities in a "behavior detection program" instituted in Logan after 9/11. The behavior detection program in place in Boston uses specially trained behavioral "assessors" to scan the lines of passengers and interact with them to assess unusual activity; however, according to the complaints, the operation has become a magnet for racial profiling, targeting not only Middle Easterners but also blacks, Hispanics and other minorities, the Times reports.
In response to pressure from managers who push for high numbers of stops, searches and criminal referrals, "passengers who fit certain profiles -- Hispanics traveling to Miami, for instance, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward -- are much more likely to be stopped, searched and questioned for 'suspicious' behavior," reports the Times.
"They just pull aside anyone who they don't like the way they look -- if they are black and have expensive clothes or jewelry, or if they are Hispanic," said one of four officers who spoke with the Times on a condition of anonymity.
The TSA said on Friday that it had opened an investigation into the claims.
"The behavior detection program is no longer a behavior-based program, but it is a racial profiling program," one officer wrote in an anonymous complaint obtained by the Times.
The officers identified nearly two dozen co-workers who they said consistently focused on stopping minority members due to pressure from managers to meet arrest and detention threshold numbers.
The program has been billed as a model for roughly 161 airports across the country.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has opened an investigation into claims that racial profiling by security staff is a widespread and often encouraged practice at Boston's Logan airport, according to a new report by the New York Times. The agency came under fire this month after 32 officers filed written complaints at a Logan TSA meeting -- some of them anonymous.
According to the complaints, the officers said their co-workers increasingly target minorities in a "behavior detection program" instituted in Logan after 9/11. The behavior detection program in place in Boston uses specially trained behavioral "assessors" to scan the lines of passengers and interact with them to assess unusual activity; however, according to the complaints, the operation has become a magnet for racial profiling, targeting not only Middle Easterners but also blacks, Hispanics and other minorities, the Times reports.
In response to pressure from managers who push for high numbers of stops, searches and criminal referrals, "passengers who fit certain profiles -- Hispanics traveling to Miami, for instance, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward -- are much more likely to be stopped, searched and questioned for 'suspicious' behavior," reports the Times.
"They just pull aside anyone who they don't like the way they look -- if they are black and have expensive clothes or jewelry, or if they are Hispanic," said one of four officers who spoke with the Times on a condition of anonymity.
The TSA said on Friday that it had opened an investigation into the claims.
"The behavior detection program is no longer a behavior-based program, but it is a racial profiling program," one officer wrote in an anonymous complaint obtained by the Times.
The officers identified nearly two dozen co-workers who they said consistently focused on stopping minority members due to pressure from managers to meet arrest and detention threshold numbers.
The program has been billed as a model for roughly 161 airports across the country.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.