Looking at the Question of Race in Airport Drug Search

Re “I’d Done Nothing Wrong and Yet I Felt Criminal” (Aug. 13): I understand Rhonda McClain’s anger at being searched by Drug Enforcement Administration agents at LAX. In 1986, I was detained in the Fort Lauderdale [Fla.] airport by two local undercover narcotics agents. In full view of other passengers, my baggage was searched and I was patted down.

McClain’s article implies that race was the reason she was stopped and searched. While this is certainly possible, my experience indicates other factors predominate.

As a white male, I was subjected to the same indignities. Officers often look for predetermined “drug trafficker profile” factors to determine who to approach in airports. Drug dealing is the domain of no one race. To automatically ascribe racism to the DEA officers is unfair.

JARED D. MOSES

Pasadena

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I appreciate your story that may in some small way change policies or perhaps even attitudes in the DEA.

As a white man whose fiancee is a black woman, my heart reached out to Rhonda McClain, whose story chronicled being detained at LAX. My fiancee and members of her family have experienced many instances over the years of being detained by various law enforcement agencies in Southern California simply because of the color of their skin. Having never experienced anything like this personally, it has been illuminating for me to accept another reality.

Among the strong points that keep me in Los Angeles are the multi-ethnicity and racial harmony I find in places of work and worship. Perhaps those in law enforcement need to look at biases that lead to actions that produce fear and shame in the hearts of innocent people.

HAL GRISHAM

North Hollywood