gravid
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posted on December 31, 2002 01:16:34 PM new
This is scary. The Louisiana police intend to demand DNA samples from 50 to 100 men in the area. Why not just make it every male in the county? If they can ask for 50 or 100 at a time there is simply nothing to keep them from demanding everyone be sampled. So do they keep all the samples when they do a dragnet like this? And what is to keep someone in the future from picking a sample from their collection when they need a conviction? How does the court authenticate the possesion of a sample from the time it is taken. You have to basically trust the word of the person who takes it. But once you have a bunch of them in your possesion it seems too easy to falsify.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/12/31/serial.killer.louisiana/index.html
[ edited by gravid on Dec 31, 2002 01:56 PM ]
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junquemama
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posted on December 31, 2002 01:26:05 PM new
Do these men have a record? Or ties with some group?
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gravid
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posted on December 31, 2002 01:46:26 PM new
Sorry I missed putting the link. Only thing mentioned is they reside in the area. That's an awfully wide net to cast.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/12/31/serial.killer.louisiana/index.html
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junquemama
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posted on December 31, 2002 01:58:33 PM new
600 out of the 800 have been cleared by DNA testing."WOW"
I dont know how to make the jaw dropping icon.
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Helenjw
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posted on December 31, 2002 02:17:27 PM new
At first, I thought that it meant those people "under the umbrella of suspicion" as they referred to possible suspects in the Jon Benet case. But then, I read that 800 people have already been tested!
"Another 50 to 100 men in the Lafayette area will be asked for samples next week, Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mike Neustrom said. If the men refuse to volunteer the DNA sample, a court order will be sought, he said."
The Lafayette police are clearly in a kind of crazy desperation to find this killer and in the spirit of the no holes barred, to hell with civil liberties mentality, are without reason testing everyone in sight.
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Borillar
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posted on December 31, 2002 02:19:48 PM new
If every male in the surrounding counties volunteered to get DNA-typed, it would eliminate the need for these sorts of dragnets, in theory.
I say that, because gravid has a valid point: what about the DNA specimine? What if some unscrupulous proscecutor or policeperson went and used stored DNA samples to in order to get a conviction of an innocent person? Things like that have happened all too often in the past and without safeguards of enormous proportion, I would never feel safe after giving the authorities a sample of my DNA for typing to clear myself.
Therefore, I feel sorry for any rebellious, suspicious type like myself who may reside in the neighborhood and resist the idea of being clumsily DNA-typed. If I were there, I'd resist it to the nth degree! I don't trust the police much and I trust the prosecutors even less, Oregon having the highest rate of wrongfully incarcerated prisoners according to one of those big international monitoring groups.
[ edited by Borillar on Dec 31, 2002 02:20 PM ]
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kraftdinner
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posted on December 31, 2002 03:10:31 PM new
I understand the fear of misuse gravid, but I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. It would sure help solve a lot of crimes against women and keep innocent people out of jail.
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gravid
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posted on December 31, 2002 03:29:44 PM new
Perhaps that is because you have never had the police frame you for a crime you did not do.
I have had the experience, and it kinda sticks in your craw. Especially when they think it is funny and laugh about it among themselves.
I don't trust 'em anymore. Not an inch.
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KatyD
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posted on December 31, 2002 03:54:54 PM new
Ya still want your knuckles rapped, gravid? You a masochist or what? LoL! 
KatyD
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KatyD
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posted on December 31, 2002 03:56:35 PM new
Perhaps that is because you have never had the police frame you for a crime you did not do.
Yeah...like O.J.!
KatyD
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gravid
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posted on December 31, 2002 04:10:59 PM new
Thank I needed that. - Gotta go suck the nicks and bruises.....
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Helenjw
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posted on December 31, 2002 05:00:05 PM new
You're a brave one, gravid!!! 
And you survived!!!
Helen
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KatyD
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posted on December 31, 2002 05:06:04 PM new
Well heck. I'll offer you a bandaid, gravid. But you gotta choose between glow in the dark Harry Potter or Barbie.
Happy New Year!
KatyD
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Borillar
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posted on December 31, 2002 06:31:12 PM new
>Oregon having the highest rate of wrongfully incarcerated prisoners according to one of those big international monitoring groups.
Amnesty International.
They were here about five years ago and they published that a US FBI survey of wrongfully convicted prisoners found that Oregon had the highest rate of wrongful prosecution and wrongful incarceration.
I looked hard for it, but I can't find records that far back. Sorry. But I swear that I this is the truth. I only wish I had cut out and saved the articles published in The Oregonian.
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wendywins
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posted on December 31, 2002 11:39:00 PM new
I saw a forensic science show about a woman who was raped in Canada. All the men in the (small) town were asked to submit samples of blood and they were able to find the rapist! I've heard of this happening in England and of course, here it is in the states.
This was when DNA was still in it's infancy and most people didn't understand what it was or how it could incriminate them. It was amazing how many rapists were caught because they had no idea how their blood could link them to a crime scene! This also began the "banking" of DNA profiles.
Eventually there will be a country wide DNA net where everyone is tested at birth! Gives you something to think about...
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snowyegret
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posted on January 1, 2003 06:56:31 AM new
Round up the usual suspects.
You have the right to an informed opinion
-Harlan Ellison
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Helenjw
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posted on January 1, 2003 07:33:51 AM new
Besides law enforcement corruption, there is a possibility of lab error in the indentification of DNA so "a country wide DNA net where everyone is tested at birth" gives you something to fear.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,640157,00.html
False result fear over DNA tests
One in every hundred forensic tests performed on the DNA of suspected criminals may give a false result, according to the first research of its kind into laboratory error rates.
The study is the first evidence of widespread mistakes in the sophisticated system of tests. DNA testing is widely used to convince juries of a suspect's guilt or presence at the scene of a crime, and was thought to be almost flawless.
Helen
[ edited by Helenjw on Jan 1, 2003 07:34 AM ]
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DeSquirrel
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posted on January 1, 2003 08:43:40 AM new
A false test is not a match. If a technician fails to detect a match, or the computer identifies a match incorrectly are paperwork blunders which are easily recified. The test in itself is bulletproof. Now if a "racist" cop uses a swab he used to clean his ears with at the OJ crime scene, he gets a false or invalid test. He DOES NOT get a match to OJ.
Lots of guys are probably walking around free due to shoddy lab work.
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