Word: mistakenness
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...seems no one is listening. The stories contained, though, are quite shocking. One man who crashed his car onto the side of the road after suffering an epileptic seizure was tased repeatedly for struggling with an officer pulling him from his vehicle. Another gentleman was tased when he was mistaken for a drunk driver by the side of the road, when in fact he had simply become hypoglycemic. The list goes...
There is a rational concern behind these irrational, defensive reactions to these cases of mistaken identity. I suspect what really frightens people is the perception of stereotyping—the failure to recognize the distinct phenotypes and personalities of two people of the same race. This instinct is an admirable one. But it seems dangerous to conflate the two problems: the lack of an attuned eye with the lack of character discernment and open-mindedness. One flaw is innocuous; the other is absolutely...
...practice known as rendition. Unfortunately, some of those snatched by CIA officers were innocent. German citizen Khaled el-Masri was one such victim. El-Masri was vacationing in Macedonia in December 2003 when authorities arrested him on wrongful suspicions that his passport was fake. A tragic case of mistaken identity then played out. El-Masri has the same name as an al-Qaeda operative being hunted at the time by CIA officials, and they took custody of el-Masri in Macedonia. Operatives from the agency beat and drugged el-Masri before whisking him to a secret prison in Afghanistan known...
...Plaza Hotel (Fifth Avenue and Central Park South; 212-759-3000) in New York City has just reopened. But with indifferent waitstaff and loud new-age lounge music, it's hardly been improved - this is no longer the classic old Oak Bar in which Cary Grant was mistaken for a spy and kidnapped in North by Northwest. If you're looking for the quintessential old New York boîte, try Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle (35 East 76th Street, at Madison Avenue; 212-744-1600). The murals on the walls were drawn by Ludwig Bemelmans, the illustrator...
...find a winning strategy in a fight whose cost in both blood and treasure continues to mount even as security disintegrates. Coalition soldiers are dying in greater numbers now than in any year since 2001. So are Afghan civilians - who are victims of the insurgency as well as mistaken aerial bombardments made necessary by a shortage of troops. The Bush Administration, in its assessment due in December, will recommend a doubling of the Afghan military, yet it neglects to say how that impoverished country can support an army of 160,000 or more. Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell...