This is the time Asians should united together, be it Pakistani, Indian, Chinese or even Japanese, to counter arrogant Americans.
When I was young and was travelling from Canada to USA, I had an "Indefinit USA Visa" and therefore I attached my passport when I renew. The immigration check point of USA was located at the airport in Canada and the officer who checked my visa was very impatient to find the valid visa. I turned the pages showing him where the visa was. AFter he stamped my passport, suddenly he said "Beat it". My English was not so good to understand this kind of English at that time and I did not know what to say and what to do. Then a South Asian (May be Indian, pakistani or others) challanged the officer and complained to his boss of his languange. The officer said sorry to me later and telling me he had hard time with his kid that morning. I was very impress of Asians helping each other.
I was growing up with heavy influnece by Hollywood movies and musics and consider Americans are fair, justice, rich and nice. That was not the case when I stayed there for some time.
One day, I drove along the main street in DC and I saw policemen arrest a Black lady for fast driving and tighted both her hands to the lamp pole in the broad day light. Many drivers could see the lady crying. If you were living under British law, you know that when the police arrest you, you are only a suspect and being invited to the police for further investigation. You are not a criminal, at least not yet. It is the court who has the power to judge whether you are gilty or not. In America, the police are the law enforcer, the judge and sometimes the executioner of punishment. Human rights, my foot.
These are the kinds of posts that make me laugh.
When I was 9 years old in Malaysia me and another Indian classmate got pulled over riding pillion on a bicycle. the cop who pulled us over handcuffed both of us to the bicycle and made us push the bike all the way to the police station a mile away.
We were 9 year old kids !! All the way to the station he had his hand on his revolver, and i heard him say that he would have shot us if we tried run. He was a dumb old Malay idiot.....nothing more to it. When we got to the station, there was an Indian inspector who promptly released us and had a stern word with the policeman and told us that the other guy was a nut.
You cannot extrapolate things about a country based on a few personal experiences. If you lived in the US long enough and you know anything about the crime rate in predominantly black heighbourhoods - then you would probably understand why the cop did what he did. No cop is going to turn his back on any suspect(black or white) in a black neighbourhood, and especially the black areas of DC which is one of the worst.
Black folks in America get treated a lot worse by the police than other races - its true. But understand the reasons; its not so much about race. It is simply because the crime-rate among in black america is simply ridiculous. A full 20% to 30% of young black males between the ages of 18 and 35 are in prison at any given time. So the cops respond accordingly based on their survival instincts. Sometimes they overeact, but if you were a DC police officer - who knows what you would do.
As a police officer you are trained to be safe rather than sorry. Guns are a fact of life in the US, and the police respond acoordingly. Also the more belligerent you are, the worse it gets.
Likewise Pakistanis are being profiled especially in the Western countries because Pakistan has made a world-class reputation for itself as a cottage industry for nurturing psychopathic killers in the name of religion, jihad or whatever.
The entire Pakistani society has contributed to this current state of affairs and they fully deserve the outcome of their decisions.
If I was boarding a plane in the US with a group of middle-class looking educated Pakistanis and a bunch of white people - I would rather that the security people focus their limited resources on the Pakistanis than a bunch of white folks. Even if I myself come under increased scrutiny because of my brown skin - it still wouldnt bother me.
BTW: Pakistanis are under increased scrutiny everywhere in the world and even in Muslim countries.
Maybe when the whole world starts treating Pakistanis like crap when they try go go abroad - then these upper middle-class Pakistanis who run the country will finally get the message.
