In the wake of the conviction of Mark Dixie for murdering Sally Anne Bowman, we hear yet again, the cry of the totalitarian:
The policeman who led the investigation into the death of Sally Anne Bowman called today for the establishment of a national DNA register, after the second high-profile murder conviction in as many days in which the suspect had been identified through a gene sample given to police.
Fer fuck’s sake! Is there to be no end to the constant demands by various statists for yet more intrusion into our private lives?
“If there was a DNA register we would have known who killed Sally Anne that day,” said Detective Superintendent Stuart Cundy, who led the investigation.
No, DS Cundy, you would not. You would have had reasonable grounds for further investigation of this suspect. DNA at a crime scene does not mean automatic guilt; it merely means that the suspect was at the scene of the crime. This is nothing more than latching onto a high profile and highly emotive case to campaign for yet more bad law.
I have never sexually assaulted anyone, let alone murdered and raped anyone. Nor, for that matter, have I been at or near a crime scene. Therefore, there is no need for the police to have my DNA.
DNA evidence is a useful tool in the crime investigator’s arsenal; it is not the be all and end all. Real life is not like CSI and DS Cundy should bloody well know that. What is likely to happen with a national DNA database consisting of 60 million records is that there will be so much background noise that the real perpetrators of crime will escape justice and innocent people will be placed under unnecessary suspicion – and possibly conviction because investigators and juries will presume that DNA can’t be wrong.
I suggest DS Cundy gets on with real, old fashioned policing using DNA evidence when and where applicable, not as a scatter gun to make his life easier. And, frankly, the use of this case to further his totalitarian agenda is plain sick.
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Update: The Home Office rejects this idea:
The Home Office said a mandatory database “would raise significant practical and ethical issues”.
Nicely understated. Just for once, they manage to get it right…
“Nor, for that matter, have I been at or near a crime scene. ”
That you know of, and there’s the real problem. Anyone who’s DNA is found anywhere near a crime scene wil be rounded up and made to prove their innocence.
Anyone who even calls for the use of a DNA should be made to explain why “1 in a million” doesn’t mean someone is guilty.
The Great Simpleton’s last blog post..On this day
Do you recall the demands by the police in the 50s to get everybody’s fingerprints on a national register? No – nor do I. In fact I can’t recall any public “demands” by the police for anything before the 1990s (except by the Police Federation for some more money). And don’t believe McNulty’s rejection of these demands. He’ll “resist” them until “public debate” results in “overwhelming support” for a comprehensive national DNA database (BTW men will be first in line for obvious reasons). The news this weekend that the alleged murderers of Stephen Lawrence may be exposed to a double jeopardy prosecution involving DNA evidence is no accident.
I shouldn’t take too much comfort in the Home Office’s rejection of the call for a universal DNA database. The government knows that there is widespread public opposition to a universal database so it won’t push it. However Labourite MPs such as Martin Salter would forcibly register everyone on the database. The Labour party, that is the say, the authoritarian wing of it (*), is already sold on the idea.
(*) I don;t think the social libertarian wing of the Labour party exists any more. Certainly not in the PLP.
That, no doubt, is because we left in disgust.
Check out details of an earlier arrest Mr. Cundy made that he does not wish to publicise. Details can be found here http://gizmonaut.net/blog/uk/dna_retention_of_unconvicted_people.html
And also my local Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone’s blog which can be found here http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2008/04/its-not-only-guilty-who-get-arrested.htm
The Police had all it needed to know my DNA did not match the evidence found at the crime scene yet still arrested me for the murder. What right does this man have to ask any person to put themselves on a DNA database after what he done to me and my family?