Despite the ruling in the European court, the UK still persists in the gathering of innocent peoples’ DNA in utter contempt of both the courts and the liberty of the British people. Now, the police stepping way over their remit, are targeting juveniles in order to gather DNA for use in potential future crimes; pre-crime, indeed.
Officers are targeting children as young as 10 with the aim of placing their DNA profiles on the national database to improve their chances of solving crimes, it is claimed.
The alleged practice is also described as part of a “long-term crime prevention strategy” to dissuade youths from committing offences in the future.
It is this behaviour, the assumption of guilt, that contributes to the civil liberties’ lobby regarding the idea of a universal database with such abhorrence – quite apart from other issues, such as effectiveness, false positives and miscarriages of justice that would result. If true, this behaviour is despicable and it is not up to the police to engage in gathering DNA data “just in case”.
Civil liberty campaigners have condemned the tactic of as “diabolical” and said it showed contempt for children’s freedom.
Diabolical indeed. However, let’s not lose sight of things just because we are talking about children here. They are just the means to get a toe in the door. These repugnant totalitarian control freaks won’t rest until we are all on it and are all suspects guilty of pre-crime.
The officer said: “Have we got targets for young people who have not been arrested yet? The answer is yes. But we are not just waiting outside schools to pick them up, we are acting on intelligence.”
Clearly we have a difference of opinion on the matter of etymology here.
“It is part of a long-term crime prevention strategy. If you know you have had your DNA taken and it is on a database then you will think twice about committing burglary for a living.”
Quite possibly. That, however, is not an argument for putting innocent peoples’ DNA on a database as it presupposes criminal intent and, frankly, increases the risk of miscarriage of justice following false positives. It is not up to the police to decide that children might commit crimes in the future. If the police want to solve crimes, they need to be concentrating on good old fashioned investigation techniques – and, by all means, use the DNA evidence that is present at a crime scene.
“We are often told that we have just one chance to get that DNA sample and if we miss it then that might mean a rape or a murder goes unsolved in the future.”
The cry of the totalitarian. Life is a risk. We cannot be safe all the time. People will commit crimes. That is life. The police are required to conduct investigations and gather evidence to prosecute in the aftermath. It is not up to them – and should never be – to seek to presume criminal intent on the part of innocent people and prevent crime by treating us all as suspects. There lies the road to dystopia.
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Update: Renegade Parent also comments.
This on a day when we commemorate all those who took part in the D-Day landings that led to the overthrow of totalitarians.
Our police really are out of control, but the sad thing is if walk down the average high street you’ll probably find that the majority will unthinkingly support them on the “nothing to fear, nothing to hide” basis.
“If you know you have had your DNA taken and it is on a database then you will think twice about committing burglary for a living.”
Hey, if it’s such a good idea, officer – you first! And all your colleagues. And their families. And your family.
No? Not us either then…
Apparently Alan Johnson is to become Home Secretary. The test of his competence and liberal instincts (if any) will be what he does about ID cards and the increasing Stasi-like tendencies of the police.
Just as an observation, when police were referred to as the police force the law-abiding public was heavily supportive of them. Since morphing into the police service that support has withered.
Alan Johnson is a bit of an unknown on these issues. We wait and see.
Ooops, just realised I got my dates mixed up. I thought it was the 6th today.
Make that on the eve of of the D-Day landings. Dood knows what thoughts were going through people’s minds 65 years ago but I bet it wasn’t “wouldn’t it be good if we can have some totalitarian twats governing us!”.
How Alan Johnson voted on key issues since 2001:
* Voted a mixture of for and against a transparent Parliament. votes, speeches
* Voted moderately against introducing a smoking ban. votes, speeches
* Voted strongly for introducing ID cards. votes, speeches
looks like id cards will be staying
Can’t say I’m surprised. They will cling to this one to the bitter end rather than admit they got it wrong.
This pre-crime is on both sides of the pond and is the best indicator of the mindset but the sad thing is – it’s not just Labour’s. It’s the Westminter elite’s and that of Europe thumping through.
Thanks for the mention – I was in a rush and rather enraged when I came across this story, so was very glad to see your far more articulate post here.
Now I remember why I was so determined to escape the zoo twenty years ago; the last time I dropped in for a weekend was in 2000. I didn’t recognise much then of the country I was born in, I would probably recognise it even less now. The only thing it’s going for it is the British sense of humour, about the only area where we lead the world 😉