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toxiczen
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Big Brother tightens the grip...
Police DNA database 'risks criminalising non-offenders'
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
Published: 02 August 2007
People are being added to the Government's national DNA database at the rate of more than one a minute, figures from the Liberal Democrats have revealed.
Their research showed that 547,020 profiles were added last year, the equivalent of 62 an hour, leading to claims that ministers were taking Britain into a "headlong rush" towards a surveillance state as numbers on the controversial police record topped four million.
Yesterday the Human Genetics Commission, a government-backed watchdog, launched a major inquiry into the use of DNA records by police. Due to report in the spring, it will look at the size of the DNA database, the large number of black men whose samples are recorded, and the difficulties in removing samples once they are entered into the system.
It emerged that senior police officers have warned the database might criminalise law-abiding people. Alex Marshall, Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley, said in a response to the Home Office's review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act that "extending the taking of samples to all offences may be perceived as indicative of the increasing criminalisation of the generally law-abiding citizen".
A spokeswoman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: "Statistics paint a frightening picture. Black men are four times more likely than white men to have their DNA profiles stored in the police national DNA database. In the interests of fairness we would like to call for DNA profiles to be limited to those that are convicted only."
The Home Office insists that the DNA database - the largest in the world - is a vital tool in the fight against crime. But critics warn that the system could lead to discrimination against ethnic minorities. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, who obtained the figures, said: "The Government's onward march towards a surveillance state has now become a headlong rush. They seem determined to hoover up the DNA details of as many people as they can, regardless of guilt or innocence."
Last revised by toxiczen, 9/1/2007, 6:28 pm
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"Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet! it is the humblest imaginable."
~Gandhi
"it is easier to tell the truth: you don't have to remember anything"
~Mark Twain
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9/1/2007, 6:26 pm
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
As much as I hate the government trampling on our privacy and other rights like they do, I don't quite see how collecting DNA samples automatically criminalizes law-abiding citizens.
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9/2/2007, 12:07 am
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toxiczen
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
yea it would be nice to hear Alex elaborate on that point...
maybe he is suggesting that the act of collecting DNA and compiling it into a database (even if your determined to not be a criminal) will lead to unfair profiling?
but regardless you SHOULD be able to refuse the collection of a DNA sample... 
Last revised by toxiczen, 9/2/2007, 12:34 am
---
"Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet! it is the humblest imaginable."
~Gandhi
"it is easier to tell the truth: you don't have to remember anything"
~Mark Twain
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9/2/2007, 12:31 am
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
On the one hand, it would be nice to be able to take blood or hair from the scene of a crime and find the perpetrator immediately. On the other hand, authorities might find a hair sample from someone who walked by before the crime ever happened and go after the wrong person because of it.
If it weren't for the other hand, I wouldn't mind authorities having my DNA along with everyone else's. But they've been known to screw up too much in the past, and I wouldn't want to be falsely accused and sentenced for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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9/2/2007, 2:04 pm
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OrbitusVode
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
In any non-democratic nation, this kind of information compiling would be acceptable.
But America is supposed to set the standard of freedom. Its citizens are supposed to determine their own laws to guard against state corruption and classism. It's therefore to be assumed that the law will sway liberal in good times and conservative in bad times; a perfectly modifiable system of government, not like antiquated Europe, where a law's long history is its own justification for employment.
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9/8/2007, 12:30 am
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MaximusDementis
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
Um. I believe this particular item is happening in Britain. I know of no place in America with a
Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley
. 
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9/9/2007, 10:54 am
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toxiczen
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
the article mentions Britain as well, but just the same the mentality of "more security" at the expense of freedom is rampant here as well...
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"Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet! it is the humblest imaginable."
~Gandhi
"it is easier to tell the truth: you don't have to remember anything"
~Mark Twain
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9/9/2007, 1:25 pm
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
It got by me as well somehow, but Mark us right.
The Independent.
Their research showed that 547,020 profiles were added last year, the equivalent of 62 an hour, leading to claims that ministers were taking Britain into a "headlong rush" towards a surveillance state as numbers on the controversial police record topped four million.
Emphasis mine. It does more than mention Britain. It's about Britain. But I agree that their situation only mirrors our own, and I still have the same concerns about it now as I had before. The only difference is that my own personal DNA won't be in the same database that this article references, but that doesn't mean it can't end up in one here, under the same type of circumstances.
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9/9/2007, 8:49 pm
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toxiczen
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drunken post...
ehhhhhhhh....
well our country is going to hell in a handbasket... but it is ours is it not?! resist even if it means a cop stomps ypur head in, your gonna die anyway...
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"Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet! it is the humblest imaginable."
~Gandhi
"it is easier to tell the truth: you don't have to remember anything"
~Mark Twain
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9/10/2007, 6:31 pm
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PM toxiczen
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Big Brother tightens the grip...
You bet I'll resist anyone trying to infringe on my rights. If Americans never resisted, we would've been ruled by fascism a long time ago.
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9/10/2007, 10:00 pm
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