The United Kingdom has begun practicing a policy of arresting innocent people, just so they can add them to their DNA database. The database, which was supposed to include only those who had been arrested after being suspected of committing a crime, is now growing faster than anyone ever thought it could.
When the DNA database was created, nearly everyone cried, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” This new policy proves the exact point that people like me have been saying for years. Even if you have nothing to hide, you should still fear the encroachment of your civil liberties and privacy by government officials.
…the most grotesque and brazen undermining of our freedoms, we now know, is the theft of our very essence….police are routinely arresting innocent people specifically to secure their DNA samples.
Britain now boasts the largest DNA database in the world, with samples logged from 5.6 million people, of whom almost a million are known to be entirely innocent of any offence.
Let me repeat that for you. One million people are known to be entirely innocent of any offence.
Once you are on that database, it will take a minimum of a several month wait and a fee of £200 for the police to remove your name.
It is said, though the figures are disputed, that up to three- quarters of black men aged 18 to 35 are recorded on the DNA database.
How odd that this blatantly discriminatory statistic does not appear to trigger any sort of challenge under that other great New Labour achievement, the Human Rights Act, which is supposed to guarantee our rights to privacy, private life and equality under the law.
Not really odd. Black men get the shaft when it comes to crime statistics no matter what country you’re living in.
While some may argue that there are medical benefits to collecting everyone’s DNA, such as to help find cures to diseases, this should only be done on a voluntary basis. There are many people, who, even if it would save their own life, would not want their most private details in any database.
The deliberate policy to create a comprehensive national DNA database is one of those public policy matters which, like the introduction of ID cards and the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, is deemed too important to be opened up to any sort of democratic scrutiny. It is policy-by-creep.
Indeed, the real scandal is that the exact implementation of the database has been passed down to unelected police commissioners who make up policy on the hoof about whose DNA should be retained and then whose should be erased.
Given the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service has already been in breach of a DNA database containing 4,000 murderers and rapists on the run was lost for an entire year, do we really want innocent people’s DNA placed into the database where it, too, can be lost? The UK government has already shown that they have a cavalier attitude towards our privacy simply by letting this scheme go forward. Why would you ever place your trust in them securing your DNA?
It is now clear, what we have to fear is the state itself. It is methodically [pdf] tracking all of us with CCTV and electronic data retention laws and, now, placing every UK citizen in a database, thus making everyone a criminal.
