Take a stand against this national DNA database
Posted by: Richard in BBC, Id Cards, Media, Politics, Radio, UKI imagine – hope even – that a lot of people were taken aback to hear the news today that a ’senior judge’ is calling for everybody to be put on the DNA database. The main reason cited it’d be ‘fairer’ than the widely acknowledged to be broken and unfair system, where anybody arrested by the Police is permanently added to the database, and it is badly skewed to minority groups. So putting everybody in it as somehow the fix? It really is putting the cart before the horse.
I suppose it’s a highlight of the silly season that we get opinions from judges and retired politicians that generate headlines, as the media hacks champ at the bit in the build up to the political conference season. But what’s worrying here is that the minister put up to respond on Radio 4’s Today programme really didn’t do much to dismiss the idea. He said the right things to avoid being gummed to death by the increasingly tedious interview style of John Humphreys, but it left me feeling this was more a political ‘outrider’ to make the introduction of ID Cards all the more tolerable to the British Public: Introduce the prospect of something awful, dismiss it, and only then introduce the thing you wanted all along as ‘better’, and not the proffered bogeyman that everybody was scared about.
This DNA database proposal, and the ID cards that are surely related, is all part of the same march towards ‘The State Knows Best’, be it judges talking about universal DNA databases, or the government changing the fundamental relationship with the public from that of our servant to our benevolent master.
If this whole proposal yanks your chain at all – and I really hope it scares you as much as it scares me – can I quietly suggest you make a bee-line over to Liberty and sign up as a member? It is the most vocal Civil and Human Rights campaigning organisation in this country, and has been at the forefront of the fight against the campaigns waged by the various Home Secretaries we’ve had over the last few years as they seek to increase Police powers whilst decreasing scrutiny and even basic access to justice. Their campaigning voice – already strong – is all the more influential and effective with more members.
It’s no longer the case that we can tut from the side lines and shake our heads and presume that “it’ll all work out in the end”. This famous poem about apathy in Nazi Germany is increasingly pertinent to this country right now. Can we really presume Cameron’s Conservative party will be any difference if they ever get in power? Can we actually NOT expect to be presumed guilty until proven innocent, as a national DNA database could allow?
I’m deeply worried that OUR collective apathy as a nation is taken as implicit acceptance of everything the Government does to erode our hard-won rights.
It really is time to make our voices heard.
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September 6th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
This intrusion into every ones private life is totally out of order. Under our laws no one is guilty until proved so therefore no one should have their details, including DNA, taken and used against them except when they are charged. Once, if your finger prints were taken they would be destroyed if you were either discharged or found innocent. Now it seems that if you are involved with either as a witness or victim, all these details are kept forever! Why? Twenty years and more ago, This country cried out against this if it happened in foreign countries. Now our government wants it to be norm here! MPs should remember (if they ever thought about it) that they work for us. We pay their salaries! We do not belong to them! They should not use what authorities we allowed them, to walk over our rights. The decision over this should be put forward in a referendum not taken as it has.
July 20th, 2009 at 11:50 am
potest aginst the dna data base for inocent people outside north wales police Hq
in august
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Hi, I came across your article whilst searching on google to find exactly why it is that some people are against having everybody on the dna database.
The way I see it, if you get raped and the rapist is on the dna database, they will almost definately be identified and caught.
If you die and your body is horribly damaged beyond recognition and you’re on the dna database then you will be identified.
It’s stupid to assume that only previous offenders will commit a crime and need to be caught. I’d like to think that if someone murdered me then their dna would be on the database and they’d be easily identified by traces left at my murder scene.
So why is it that you’re actually against dna archiving? is it just privacy? ‘cos that’s quite selfish considering rapists and murderers are still free because there is no dna sample which could identify them.
Almost every murder and rape leaves behind some trace of dna from the culprit. having everyone on the database means that hardly any rapists or murderers will go free. Doesn’t that sound good, or is your privacy more important?
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Sorry if my comment seems agressive it just seems like a no brainer to me that catching murderers and rapists is more important than a very small issue of privacy.