Court OKs DNA collection from parolees, Panel reverses itself

[Rose Siding]

This is the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco

snip>
Under the court's rationale, "all Americans will be at risk, sooner rather than later, of having our DNA samples permanently placed on file in federal cyberspace,'' where it could someday be used "to repress dissent, or, quite literally, to eliminate political opposition,'' said dissenting Judge Stephen Reinhardt, author of the panel's October ruling.

Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, who wrote the lead opinion Wednesday, said Reinhardt was invoking "dramatic Hollywood fantasies'' and using an "alarmist tone'' to greatly exaggerate the scope of the ruling. O'Scannlain noted that the federal law applies only to convicted criminals and said courts were capable of protecting the privacy of law-abiding citizens.

The law requires federal inmates convicted of serious crimes, and those on parole after serving sentences for serious crimes, to give blood for a DNA databank maintained by the FBI to compare with evidence found during criminal investigations. The court said more than 1.6 million samples have been collected.

In the October ruling, the court majority said the law violates the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches because it requires extraction of blood from parolees who are not suspected of committing new crimes. But the court said Wednesday that no such suspicion is required to justify a search of a parolee.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/19/MNG428ADC31.DTL

[Massacure]

1. As long as non-felons don't have to give DNA

I'm happy.

[Caution]

2. yeh good call...then when you are arrested during a protest

and your DNA is sampled, or when your kid gets mixed up with the wrong crowd, or when your best friend is wrongly convicted, you'll be very happy to know that your DNA is permanently housed within the coffers of the federal government.

the important thing about the word ex-felon is the "ex" part. Once someone has completed his/her sentence and paid his/her debt to society, there is no reason to maintain this type of evidence permanently. It's a violation of privacy, plain and simple.

[Rose Siding]

3. Suppose it were attatched to sentencing...

in cases like rape/molestation or murder? The law could read that the samples must be destroyed if the conviction is overturned.

I tend to agree with you and thought of cracking they could swap samples for voting rights, but crimes with extreme rates of recitivism cause me to want to at least consider if there's any solution short of the slippery slope.

[Caution]

4. Just wait until they have a large DNA database

and start "profiling" the DNA looking for DNA that is common for rapists for example. How do you argue against it?

DOJ: We are only searching the DNA of those already convicted, looking for a correlation to crime.


What happens if they think they have discovered a gene that they think they can link to rape? How long before they then start testing newborns and immigrants for the "rape" gene? What do they do when they find it?

This is a scary road to go down. There isn't anything much more personal than one's own DNA.

[Zhade]

5. You must protect the rights of the worst to ensure them for the best.

Say hello to the "E-Z Frame-Up Kit"!

[tom_paine]

6. Exactly, Zhade, and under Bushler, law ewnforcement is considerably

Nazified and Sovietized.

You could ask the Anthrax Assassin, but as a Good Bushevik, the investigation in him just seems sort of...stalled.

Like so many others.

There is NO DOUBT that the Bushevik Zombies from Bushevik Heidelberg University (Home of the Nazis "Scholarship"), which is grotesquely named "Patrick Henry University", will carry on the tradition of Soviet-style Law Enforcement (Loyal Bushevik Party member = Go Free)

http://www.phc.edu/news/docs/200403300.asp

"For Christ and Liberty"? You think these Nazi Fucks would hesitate a second in framing the "Godless" or Burning a Wicth, for that matter?

Not only are all the tools for the EZ Frame coming on line, butthe halls of law enforcement are being filled with the Mindless Nazi Automatons who will ruin lives, murder and defraud with a smile on their medeval faces.

"Big darkness, come soon."
--Hunter S. Thompson

[Zhade]

7. What really worries me is the "as long as it's not me" attitude.

To say that some should have their rights removed, simply because they've done wrong in the past, is to open the possibility of taking away your own rights.

And yet, many Americans don't realize this dangerous precedent. It's the "if you have nothing to hide, why are you worried?" crowd that really gives these guys their power.

No offense meant to the guy upthread, but it's true: we either protect everyone's rights, or no one will have them. Don't give these traitors an inch!

[tom_paine]

8. Sure. Rev Neimoller said it best, but of course that was long ago

and most Imperial Subjects of Amerika have little memory of history let alone how it relates to today.

'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.'

Unfortunately, it seems there's better than a 70% chance Imperial Amerikan Subjects will have to re-learn the things which cost Germany so much before they learned it.

[TahitiNut]

9. Wait until DNA is tested as a prerequisite for health insurance.

Insurance "physicals" have been common for a long time. The democratic principle of shared risks AND rewards has been dead in this country for a long time. Economically, the "ownership class" shares the rewards and the "working class" shares only the costs. The American Way is now "Fuck You! I Got Mine!" and "Who Cares What You Think?"

We can see it on DU. Behavior control and blame the victims. Fat? Then "don't sit next to me" and "pay more." After all, it's not enough that those who're obese have less active and rewarding lives, and that they die younger; we gotta persecute 'em, too. Same thing with those who smoke. Despite the fact that someone who smokes pays more in taxes and receives less in benefits - and die earlier - it's just not enough; they deserve to be persecuted and publicly excoriated. Puritanism isn't just a right-wing trait. Never mind that they may have been heroes. Never mind that they may have horrors in their lives that'd leave most with nightmares. Ignorance is bliss and self-righteousness is more addictive than heroin.

What happens when DNA testing shows probable diabetics, cancer susceptibility, probable Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's propensity?

I shudder to think about it.

Oh. Wait. I don't have to think about it. I can just swill some alcohol and kill off a few more brain cells. (Never mind that I'm dessicating my brain and pickling my liver.)