[speechlesstx]

And apparently they are experts at racial profiling as well...

LONDON - Britain has built the world's biggest DNA database without proper political debate and police routinely arrest people just to get their DNA profiles onto the system, the genetics watchdog said in a report on Tuesday.

The Human Genetics Commission, which advises the government on the social, legal and ethical aspects of genetics, called for a review of the database and said new laws must be passed to govern its use.

In a damning report, the commission said "function creep" had transformed the system from a DNA store for offenders into a database of suspects.

More than three-quarters of young black men aged between 18 and 35 are on the system, the report said.

Set up in 1995, the database contains the DNA profiles of five million citizens, eight percent of the population, making it the world's biggest in proportion to population size.

"Parliament has never formally debated the establishment of the National DNA Database and safeguards around it," commission chairman Professor Jonathan Montgomery said in a statement.

"It has developed through amendments to laws designed to regulate the taking of fingerprints and physical evidence before DNA profiling was developed.

"It is not clear how far holding DNA profiles on a central database improves police investigations."

The report quoted an unidentified retired senior police officer as saying that "it is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything" in order to obtain a DNA sample.

More than three-quarters of young black men aged between 18 and 35 are in the system? Would you guys like to borrow Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jackson for a while?

Exit question: How many young, male men of Arab descent are in the system?

[paraclete]

And apparently they are experts at racial profiling as well...

More than three-quarters of young black men aged between 18 and 35 are in the system? Would you guys like to borrow Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jackson for a while?

Exit question: How many young, male men of Arab descent are in the system?

Hey it's not news that the UK is heir to the Orwellian system. The message is basically this; if you offend you will be watched. Does it infringe on human rights? Probably but the UK isn't renown for the quality of rights enforcement and they have a long history of dealing with terrorism and urban violence in many forms. There is another message coming from the UK, if you don't like it; leave

[excon]

Hello Steve:

Yeah, those nutty brits... But, wait...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/us..._r=1&th&emc=th

Ed Meese, not known for leftist leanings, says, there are more than 4,400 criminal offenses in our federal code, many of them lacking a requirement that prosecutors prove traditional kinds of criminal intent.

“It's a violation of federal law to give a false weather report,” Mr. Meese said. “People get put in jail for importing lobsters.”

Looks like invented reasons to arrest people and take their DNA.

excon

[speechlesstx]

If it's against the law to give a false weather report, shouldn't we be able to jail a whole bunch of climate scientists now? Yes, we jail too many people, there are too many petty criminal offenses, but for now at least we're not quite the surveillance society the UK is and we still haven't given the green light to Sharia law. Have we?

Which leads again to my exit question. Any takers?

[galveston]

Must not offend Muslims.

You can only do that to Christians.