A Bush-appointed member of the US Civil Rights Commission cited the mass detention of Japanese Americans during World War II at a Detroit hearing last week and declared that in the event of another terrorist attack on the US,
“[N]ot too many people will be crying in their beer if there are more detentions, more stops, more profiling.”
The commission member, Peter Kirsanow, continued: “There will be a groundswell of public opinion to banish civil rights. So the best thing we can do to preserve them is by keeping the country safe.”
Kirsanow was speaking at a public meeting called to hear testimony from Arab-American leaders, who said the Bush administration had violated the civil rights of Arab and Muslim residents since September 11. Witnesses denounced closed-door immigration hearings, secret detentions, racial profiling and coerced interviews of tens of thousands of Arab men as affronts to the democratic rights of Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants.
“[N]ot too many people will be crying in their beer if there are more detentions, more stops, more profiling.”
The commission member, Peter Kirsanow, continued: “There will be a groundswell of public opinion to banish civil rights. So the best thing we can do to preserve them is by keeping the country safe.”
Kirsanow was speaking at a public meeting called to hear testimony from Arab-American leaders, who said the Bush administration had violated the civil rights of Arab and Muslim residents since September 11. Witnesses denounced closed-door immigration hearings, secret detentions, racial profiling and coerced interviews of tens of thousands of Arab men as affronts to the democratic rights of Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants.