Suspicious activity at California shooter's home not reported due to fear of racism.

[henryp]

I think that's the point, though. It would probably not have been suspicious to that man if they had been a group of white women coming in and out of that apartment all the time. It was the fact that it was Arab men that caught his attention and made him feel uneasy. This does seem extremely racist, which is why he did not report it to police. But then the problem is of course that 14 people are now dead and the shooters were the folks living in the house where the man saw what seemed suspicious to him.

Although we cannot be certain, I suspect even if he is telling the truth and he had called the police, nothing would have changed, because there was nothing to report.

Man. Hello, police? I'd like to report suspicious activity.
Police. Yes sir, please describe the activity.
Man. Ok. There are Arab looking men coming and going from this house nearby. The house is owned by an middle eastern family.
Police. I see. Are these men coming at unusual times of day? Have you heard them say anything suspicious? Any evidence of drugs or weapons?
Man. No. Just Arab looking men keep visiting this middle eastern family house.
Police. I see. Thank you for your report. ×hangs up×

My point is, I don't think police would have had reasonable cause to even look at this report, so it isn't as if him calling it in would have saved lives, which is the assumption being jumped straight to. Perhaps they would have, but we can't say that for sure, and logically, it seems most likely not.

Human intuition is underrated.  Things rub people the wrong way for reasons they don't even know.  The subconscious could be picking up on weird body language for all the person knows.  There's some wild kingdom shit still floating around in the backs of our brains.

And it's not about accusing.  Preface it with "I know it's probably nothing..."  It's not that you think they are a terrorist, it's that you don't know if they are a terrorist.  And most likely, the police/fbi/nsa/whatever can take a name, pop it into the computer, and see if it's relevant.  In this scenario, the guy went to saudi arabia and brought back a fiance recently, and I thought I read was in contact with a couple known entities.  Maybe they zero in, do their shady Patriot Act stuff, and prevent something.