Unusual suspects merely exhibit ethnicity
by Mary Barrera, south news editor

    Are you a suspect and don’t even know it?

   People are suspicious, more than ever, about other people.

   Profiling isn’t a thing that only law enforcement does any more; the public has jumped on the you’re-not-from-here profiling wagon.

   Two days after the first anniversary of Sept. 11, Interstate Highway 75 in Florida was shut down because three terrorist suspects in two cars were on their way to Miami.

   Eunice Stone, a woman sitting in the booth next to them at a restaurant in Georgia, had called authorities after overhearing part of the men’s conversation claiming that they intended to go to Miami and blow something up.

   (By the way, the men were Middle Eastern. Not that that should matter … but it did.)

   The men turned out to be third-year medical students, Ayman Gheith, Kambiz Butt and Omer Choudhary, heading to Miami for the beginning of their internships.

   Stone said she overheard a conversation that went something like this:

   “Do you think that will bring it down? If that doesn’t bring it down, I have contacts. I’ll get enough to bring it down.”

   She said it sounded like they were going to blow something up.

   So, that sounds like about 30 seconds of conversation. I say if you’re going to listen in on someone’s conspiracy, at least listen for a solid five minutes.

   She would have found that they were talking about bringing a car down from Kansas for Choudhary to use for school.

   “Bring it down.”

   I’ve heard that phrase before. Aren’t rap stars always saying people should “bring it down, y’all?” You have a neighbor upstairs with a case of beer … maybe he should bring it down. I brought a fever down once.
The men were detained and their cars searched for explosives, which were never found.

   However, the television footage of the bomb squad blowing open a suitcase containing t-shirts and underwear was somewhat entertaining.

   After all that, the hospital where they were going to intern cancelled their internships.

   Why? Are they afraid of bad publicity? Do hospitals even get publicity?

   It doesn’t seem fair.

   So if you resemble a known terrorist, watch your back. You’re probably a suspect and don’t even know it.

   On the other hand, I don’t recall any freeways being shut down by anyone who looks like members of the IRA, a middle-class veteran like Timothy McVeigh or a scholarly loner like Ted Kaczynski.

   It’s probably just an oversight.