Heather McDonald is awesome. She is also featured in a Frontpagemagazine.com interview about the Patriot Act you can read here :http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13430

Don't these dunderheads understand the unintended consequences of these efforts? Police will stop fewer cars and avoid patrolling in high crime areas where minority populations are concentrated. Who wants the hassle or being subject to cries of racism. And who suffers, the same minorities who will find themselves the victims.

It's not that the dunderheads don't know what's going to happen, they just don't care the about disproportionate number of future victims of crime who will be minorities. Sounds a bit racist, doesn't it?

Matt, on this one you're coming into it with an agenda similar to the agenda in todays article in the Times. You know I respect the hell out of you, but it isn't "either/or". I may speak out against playing the race card, and have been doing so longer, than most regardless of race in these parts. On the other hand, I am not so wed to a specific agenda that it colors (no pun intended) my vision. I am 46 years old and happen to be African American. There are quite a few things in life that give me cause to stop and shake my head. One of these is experiencing black people blindly using race or racism as an excuse. Another is when white people systemically dismiss race as a factor. Both are done from a perspective of wishful thinking and ignorance. In neither case do you know what internal beliefs or thoughts motivate an individual to make a series of decisions resulting in a police stop, school security check, or decision to move one's purse from one shoulder to the other. Simply because you have a view of the world that you are wed to, means nothing except that you may forego factual truth in favor of wishful thinking. If I could request one thing of white people it would be for them to STOP saying that an incident was not racially motivated when you have no clue whether it was or not. The article in question took place in Boston of all places. I know, as do many other black people, that Boston is one of the most racist cities in America. Of course, I wouldn't expect you to believe this simply because it isn't in line with your belief system. After retiring from the Boston Celtics, Bill Russell refused to set foot in the city for decades and he was a so-called icon there. A white man killed his pregnant wife, shot or stabbed himself, and said a black man did it. The police conducted the ultimate in racial profiling by stopping many black men - I'm assuming because of the color of their skin - and actually arrested and charged a gentleman until Mr. Smith's brother stepped forward and said, "You guys might want to look at my brother which is something I thought you automatically did to begin with." Turns out Mr. Smith killed his own wife. Maybe he realized something some of you are committed to not even entertaining. Come on, you all. America was built on race. For centuries your rights had a direct correlation to the color of your skin. 90% of our history, up until my lifetime, had laws in place based on the color of ones skin. How do we go from that to you summarily dismissing any and all charges of bias in 35 short years? As a black man, I have been stopped by police at times when they should have stopped me. Did race play any factor? Not being mind readers like you all, I can't say. I do know that I was driving too fast or committing some other violation. There have also been times when I have been stopped NOT for the reason the officer stated. Did race play a factor? I think so in a few of the incidents, but again, I can't say for sure. What I am sure of is that the officers lied. Studies have shown that we are all socialized to make certain split decisions about others based on a variety of factors, race being one of the primary ones. Apparently, Mr. Smith isn't the only one who is aware of some issues many of you refuse to entertain. Conclusion: When I hear a charge of racism, I intentionally check myself from going into the programmed thinking all of us are prone to. To be honest, my tendency is to roll my eyes as many whites do. Not because I don't believe these incidents take place but because I have seen too many instances when people - not just blacks - are jumping at the ready to deal "the race card" and our society supports this in some ways. Besides, these individuals are not mind readers. On the other hand, when I see whites and others roll their eyes, shake their heads, and deny that an incident they didn't witness and only heard about second-hand was not racial, I experience a different form of irritation. An ignorance, a denial, and a blind wishful thinking not too dis-similar to those who justified slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, and other traditional, historic practices of American "freedom." Only difference is, your white privilege which I'm sure you also don't believe in, enforces this denial and has since Columbus and his raping, murdering psychopaths "discovered" America and began "civilizing" the savages who ensured the survival of him and his crew. Get a clue, people. If a lie is told long enough it becomes someone's truth. Maybe the white version of the race card should be called the anti-race card. It has been dealt far more often than its counterpart, and is blatantly contradicted by history. It raises the question, in the home of the brave it appears that cowardice rules, but not in the way many think.

Larry, first of all, thanks for adding your viewpoint on this item, and the Cosby item above. It's especially valuable to have an African-American viewpoint here, not to mention from someone one I happen to know and respect greatly.

You're certainly right that Boston has a lot of racism in its past - I don't know about the present, altho I did live there from 80 to 83. I'm familiar with the incident about the black man falsely accused of killing a white woman when it was really her white husband that did it. Pretty discouraging, I agree.

There's a also a history in Boston of some remarkable community-based work by a guy named Rev. Eugene Rivers, who pulled together a lot of black church parish members to address a really bad black-on-black violence problem. Folks like Rivers should be closely tracked, and hailed nationally in the media, but are pratically unheard of outside graduate school programs in urban public policy. Which to me, is another form of racism.

I think you raise a point that bears repeating: whites should not automatically reject an assertion that minorities - and blacks in particular - have been dealt racism in a particular modern-day situation. (I'd add) we should not do that despite how many times the race card is played automatically, and ultimately without merit.

Yet the whole, present-day racial profiling debate has been hurt, in my estimation, by poor, often heinously flawed statistical analysis and faulty logic. And so I'll admit to have a pretty critical perspective

Regarding Heather McDonald's op-ed in the Boston Globe about Northeastern University's study on alleged racial profiling by the Mass. State Patrol, I think she raises some very valid criticsms about the methodology...the way such studies are done really matters.

And like many others, I've always had real trouble seeing how anyone can buy the starting assumption of such studies - that if blacks comprise, say 8 percent of the local population, "disproportionality" and thus racism are in play if they get 12 or 25 or 33 percent of traffic tickets or traffic stops, or arrests for this or that crime. This kind of thinking boils down to de facto racial quotas for law enforcement, something I can't imagine anyone really supporting if they stop to think about it.

Anyway, keep it coming.