Republican candidate says ‘common sense’ beats ‘political correctness’ in quest for security after Orlando massacre
Donald Trump said Sunday he was open to racial profiling, citing Israel as an example of success for the controversial practice.
In the age of international terrorism, it was a matter of choosing “common sense” over “political correctness,” the free-talking presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS.
His comments came in a discussion on the Orlando nightclub massacre by shooter Omar Mateen, who was Muslim, and past comments by Trump to the effect that if elected president in November, he “respectfully” would place mosques under surveillance.
African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims and other minorities in the United States have complained bitterly for decades about the practice, in which police use a person’s race, religion, national origin or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting them of committing a crime.
Trump was asked point-blank if he was talking about increasing profiling of Muslims in America.
“Well, I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” Trump said.
“Other countries do it, you look at Israel and you look at others, they do it and they do it successfully. And I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense and we have to use our heads,” he added.
Trump, who also cited France as a country where racial profiling is practiced, was presumably referring to Israeli security measures, notably at Ben Gurion International Airport.
“They’re doing it in France. In fact, in some instances, they’re closing down mosques. People don’t want to talk about it. People aren’t talking about it. But look at what they’re doing in France. They’re actually closing down mosques,” Trump asserted.
Trump has already infuriated many in America by calling for a ban on Muslims entering the country and by saying Mexico sends rapists and drug dealers across the border into the United States.
As reported by The Times of Israel