Here is what is confusing me about the Gates case. I have heard commentators say that Gates was "racially profiled" by the policeman who came to his home. Although Gates may have been profiled by the neighbor who made the initial call to police/911 that started this whole thing off, there certainly wasn't any racial profiling done on the part of the police officer that went to the house.
Why? Because "race" wasn't a consideration in determining whether Gates had committed an illegal act. The cop was already looking for a "black male", as described by the neighbor. Had a crime been committed and a black was stopped by a policeman on the street near where the crime was committed solely because of his skin color then, yes, this would have been racial profiling. But in this case ONLY blacks were suspected because that is what the identity of the suspect was described as. Here is the Wiki definition of "racial profiling": "Racial profiling is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a 'predictable' manner."
