Post by RS Davis on Nov 20, 2003 17:41:12 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]James Harris Wrote:[/glow]
A bill quietly moving through Congress would let the FBI collect DNA samples from persons merely arrested -- not convicted -- of crimes. These samples would be used to create DNA profiles, which would be permanently stored in the FBI's national DNA database.
The FBI's national DNA database was created in 1992 to collect DNA from convicted criminals. But critics have long worried that the government would inevitably try to expand the DNA database to include adults not convicted of crimes -- and possibly even all citizens.
This new proposal, backed by the Bush administration, would be the biggest expansion yet. The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives, and there is strong support for the Senate version, to be taken up early next year.
ACLU spokesperson Jesselyn McCurdy argues that collecting DNA from persons not convicted of a crime "removes the presumption of innocence" and violates fundamental privacy rights.
Timothy Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, warned of the dangers of DNA collection in a prescient USA TODAY article in 2000.
"The federal government is constantly trying to expand its purview over every aspect of American life," Cato's Lynch wrote. "And wherever the feds go -- whether it be health care or education -- they inevitably demand information about people. Sooner than you think, the feds will want your DNA to be stored in an FBI database..."
"There is, of course, cause for concern," Lynch continued. "Federal officials have abused their powers in the past, such as by throwing Japanese-Americans into detention camps, by conducting barbaric experiments on black men in Tuskegee, Ala., and by deliberately exposing GIs to atomic blasts, to name just a few.
"If we believe that tomorrow's political leaders will somehow be incapable of abusing their power over a fully centralized DNA database, the next generation will never forgive us -- and rightly so."
(Sources:
USA Today:
www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-16-fbi-juvenile-dna_x.htm
Cato Institute:
www.cato.org/dispatch/11-17-03d.html )
A bill quietly moving through Congress would let the FBI collect DNA samples from persons merely arrested -- not convicted -- of crimes. These samples would be used to create DNA profiles, which would be permanently stored in the FBI's national DNA database.
The FBI's national DNA database was created in 1992 to collect DNA from convicted criminals. But critics have long worried that the government would inevitably try to expand the DNA database to include adults not convicted of crimes -- and possibly even all citizens.
This new proposal, backed by the Bush administration, would be the biggest expansion yet. The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives, and there is strong support for the Senate version, to be taken up early next year.
ACLU spokesperson Jesselyn McCurdy argues that collecting DNA from persons not convicted of a crime "removes the presumption of innocence" and violates fundamental privacy rights.
Timothy Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, warned of the dangers of DNA collection in a prescient USA TODAY article in 2000.
"The federal government is constantly trying to expand its purview over every aspect of American life," Cato's Lynch wrote. "And wherever the feds go -- whether it be health care or education -- they inevitably demand information about people. Sooner than you think, the feds will want your DNA to be stored in an FBI database..."
"There is, of course, cause for concern," Lynch continued. "Federal officials have abused their powers in the past, such as by throwing Japanese-Americans into detention camps, by conducting barbaric experiments on black men in Tuskegee, Ala., and by deliberately exposing GIs to atomic blasts, to name just a few.
"If we believe that tomorrow's political leaders will somehow be incapable of abusing their power over a fully centralized DNA database, the next generation will never forgive us -- and rightly so."
(Sources:
USA Today:
www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-16-fbi-juvenile-dna_x.htm
Cato Institute:
www.cato.org/dispatch/11-17-03d.html )
