The Annoyed Man wrote:This. People who think that profiling is wrong also think that the world is populated with unicorns that fart rainbows.
We use all sorts of physical characteristics to make judgments. It's automatic. We shouldn't do it solely based on skin color (which wasn't referenced in this thread), but when somebody is dressed and adorned in an attempt to broadcast a message or profile to you, you are doing nothing wrong when you pay attention to what they are trying to communicate.
The best example of naive mentality of those who decry all types of profiling (not referring to LEO profiling) is the documentary "Grizzly Man". It's about a guy who thinks all of nature is innocent and pure - and we've done an injustice to these wild beasts by mischaracterizing them as brutally savage and dangerous. He spends a few summers in the remote Alaskan wilderness to be around grizzly bears. Spoiler alert: he gets eaten by a grizzly bear.