Monday, March 17, 2008

Police State Run Rampant

This time in Britain:
British police want to collect DNA samples from children as young as five who 'exhibit behavior indicating they may become criminals in later life'. A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers argued that since some schools already take pupils' fingerprints, the collection and permanent storage of DNA samples was the logical next step. And of course, if anyone argues that branding naughty five-year-olds as lifelong criminals will stigmatize them, the proposed solution will be to take samples from all children."
I always thought the whole point of child fingerprinting was to help find them if they are abducted. But looking at through this lens certainly helps in the long run.

I didn't ever get fingerprinted until I joined the Navy. It was done for identification purposes then and for security clearances (which I got later).

But this one story is replete with all kinds of stigmas and screwups. Labeling five year olds as "potential offenders" simply strikes me as odd. How many upper class kids will get saddled with that moniker, and how many poor kids? How many immigrants? How many Muslims? So in order to avoid stigmatizing anyone, we will get DNA from everyone. Talk about going to far.

Is there anyone with common sense left in the British Isles?

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