The two halves of my brain

I'm pretty sure I saw my first instance of racial profiling t'other day.

I was sitting in a phone retailer and, as I waited for my thingy to be processed (hur hur), two Arabic-looking gentlemen came into the shop and started enquiring about plans for Blackberries and PDA/phones. They were there for a while, and then just sort of wandered off.

After they'd left, a mall security person turned up and the manager of the store chatted with her for a bit. She'd started the process of setting up the transaction and photocopied the credit cards and licenses of the two men in question (a legitimate practice for phone dealers, to be fair) and she gave the photocopies to the security lady. Apparently, the two men in question had been to a few mobile phone retailers that day asking about various plans (adding the fact that more than one store person thought it worthy of notice and a ring around). I didn't catch if they were just looking at "disposable" phones (pre-paid and the like), but the information given seemed to interest the security lady.

So, apparently just comparison-shopping is enough to mark you in certain eyes if you look a certain way.

And here is where the subject header comes in, because the part of my brain that understands what damage can be caused in assymetric warfare and is aware that noticing something like this could help prevent an event was suprised at how well the situation was handled. I'm not alarmed, nor particularly alert, but the fact is that more than one observant salesman (or woman) at a phone shop (or hardware store or camping store or whatever) has been instrumental in preventing a crime.

However, the part of my brain that despises Li'l Johnny and the Ghoul with a firey, firey passion wants to know just how alert is too alert? True, they didn't call the police or make a scene or treat the two men in question with anything less than the politeness I'd expect myself, but the event itself left me feeling... uneasy. Why should two guys looking for a phone attract attention of the "photocopy the license and credit card and give it to security" kind just 'cause they look a certain way? When my head was shaved and I was wearing camo pants, I wasn't being followed around by security guards. Well, not more than normal anyway.

Oh, and both parts of my brain agree that actual terrorists would probably not bother with comparison shopping, 'cause they'd most likely have the cash to just get a phone in the first shop they came to.

[Edit]And as an addendum, the first half of my brain just flashed a "should I really post this, 'cause it could warn them" message before the second half smacked it upside the head. What fun times we live in.[/Edit]