Neil Harding and the DNA Database
"Timmy has already drawn this comparison, but I shall do so here too. Here's Sam Leith in The Telegraph, talking about the National DNA database (and the whole article is worth a read).
What this is actually about is the police asking the Government to extend the powers of the state for its convenience. The argument in favour of the establishment, de jure, of a compulsory national DNA database has been lost. This is the first attempt to sneak it in - without any proper argument at all - de facto.
That is why it needs to be resisted. It is based on the alarming rationale that there exists an absolute divide (one expressed in an abrogation of your right to privacy) not only between all those who have ever broken any law and the rest of the population but also between all those who have ever been suspected of breaking the law and the rest of the population. That's not the characteristic view of a free society. Our privacy is something that belongs to us: not something the Government gives us, on probation, as a favour. They serve us: not vice versa. This may be a matter of principle, but it is one that could scarcely have more profound practical importance."
Read it all at The Devil's Kitchen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That will never be passed in the U.S. That is, until someone says it will "save the children." For that they'll pass a law allowing fuck all.
ReplyDelete