Green Bay...

[TN al]

...liberal or conservative?

[LiberalFighter]

1. If the police wanting to fingerprint everyone is any indication

[BrainRants]

2. Tough call but I say leaning conservative.

Here's the fingerprinting story in today's newspaper

Welcome to Fascist central I guess.

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http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_19328428.shtml
If you think you have to be a suspect in a burglary or murder to have your fingerprints taken … think again. Now in Green Bay, driving a little fast or playing your music too loudly will also qualify you.

Since Dec. 30, Green Bay police have been fingerprinting traffic and ordinance violators, so that even the homeowner who lets his dog run loose one too many times could get his fingerprints put on file.

The practice is voluntary, according to Green Bay police. The purpose, they say, is to reduce the number of identity thefts. Too many people busted for minor offenses have been giving false names, and fingerprinting can help prevent the innocent from being held accountable for someone else’s misdeeds.

“We are doing this to protect your identity,” said Capt. Greg Urban, public information officer for the Green Bay Police Department.The practice isn’t winning fans among those in the business of safeguarding privacy issues.

“It’s unfortunate ID theft goes on,” said Christopher Ahmuty, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, “but if they stop thousands of people each year that are innocent except for tailgating or jaywalking, to treat them as if they are committing identity theft without any particularized suspicion, it doesn’t make a lot of sense in terms of resources or fairness.”

The net effect of the practice is to make the driver’s license into a mandatory ID card, Ahmuty said.

“If a person has no ID or driver’s license, and refuses the voluntary fingerprint, why should they be taken downtown and treated like a criminal?” he said. “Do people always need identification on them in Green Bay if they don’t want to get taken downtown to the police station?”

Urban stressed the fingerprinting is voluntary.

“By state law we can’t force anyone to comply,” he said. “There will be no coercion and no threats. If you don’t want to give fingerprints, you don’t have to.”

But in cases where an officer can’t verify a suspect’s identity, that person may be taken to the Brown County Jail — where everyone is fingerprinted and photographed. The voluntary fingerprinting at the scene of the offense just adds an instant protection for the innocent in cases of false identification, Urban said.

The fingerprints won’t make their way into any data base of criminal suspects, won’t be used in unrelated investigations and will remain on file with the citation, Urban said.

[bobthedrummer]

3. Conservative cultural backwater and the third largest city in our state.

I've been living here since 1988, ready to move on this spring.