Asks the moderate-liberal columnist, who argues that USA needs to debate creating a national DNA database to solve crime: "As if President Barack Obama didn't have enough on his platter, he's calling for everyone who is arrested to have their DNA samples collected and stored in a national database. He's a brave man to open that can of worms. Just putting the words 'DNA' and 'database' together is like a tripwire to the crowd that still thinks Obama was born in Kenya and is calling for death panels in his health care overhaul. And they're not alone. Just think: Will those Americans who bitterly oppose registration of their guns, for example, go along quietly with the registration of their genetic codes? That's not quite what Obama is calling for, but it's a short slide down the slippery slope from keeping the DNA profiles of arrestees to keeping the profiles of everybody. And you don't have to be a 'birther' or 'gun nut' to care about your privacy."
He continues his commentary: "The advantages sound obvious, especially to fans of the CSI-type television detective shows that make DNA work look easy. But before embracing a national database, we should look closely at how well they're working out in the states that are collecting the samples from arrestees and in the United Kingdom, which since 1995 has been collecting DNA from arrestees, including juveniles. For starters, civil liberties and civil rights groups here and in the United Kingdom have objected to potential privacy invasions and the skewed racial impact. In an age in which a lost laptop can contain personal information about millions of people, I understand the concern of the Brits. In the United States, since blacks and Latinos are more likely to be arrested, rightly or wrongly, they are more likely to have their DNA sampled. Troubling as that may be, especially to me as an African-American, it is not a strong argument against data collection as a crime-fighting tool. After all, in the felonies associated with these arrests, blacks and Latinos are more likely to be the victims of the crime — or, in some cases, wrongfully convicted for lack of DNA evidence."
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CLARENCE PAGE COMMENTARY: Who Has The Right To Collect And Store Your DNA?
