Imagine you as a McCain supporter finally get in to an McCain rally after waiting for hours (I know, it's just McCain, but bear with me) and are sitting peacefully waiting for the event to begin. Suddenly, security asks you to leave. For no apparent reason. You're not being disruptive. You're not protesting. You're not even wearing offensive (read Obama) clothing. The reason you're being booted is simply because of the way you look. Unbelievable, right? WRONG! It happened in Iowa!
Seems that McCain staffers THOUGHT they might cause a problem, so they were promptly removed.
Zarifis said while the people who were taken out weren’t protesting or causing problems, McCain’s staff were worried they would during the speech.
"Apparently, they had been identified by those staffers as potential protesters within the event," Zarifis said. "The facility was rented by the RNC for the McCain campaign, so it’s really a private facility for them. We assisted in their desires to have those people removed."
A student, Lara Elborno, from the University of Iowa was one of the group asked to leave and was genuinely confused as to why she was asked to leave and the McCain staffers wouldn't tell her. Turns out all the people that were asked to leave were of a certain age group, not race. So while I can't call this racial profiling, it can certainly be called age profiling. It reminds me of how convenience stores don't let groups of kids of a certain age in the store at the same time.
Elborno said after seeing the people who were asked to leave, she was concerned that McCain’s staffers were profiling people on appearance to determine who might be a potential protester.
"When I started talking to them, it kind of became clear that they were kind of just telling people to leave that they thought maybe would be disruptive, but based on what? Based on how they looked," Elborno said. "It was pretty much all young people, the college demographic."
So, attention all you college aged McCain supporters, GET OFF HIS LAWN!!!. You're not welcome. Even if you've already voted for him!
"I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’" Elborno said. "They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked."
Way to win votes McCain.