This morning the paper ran a story about a killer in California that was found because his son was run through a DNA test as he was convicted. Somehow, they determined what his father and mother's DNA profile was and inferred that his father was a killer of 13 people. They then followed his father and picked up a coffee cup he had used in a restaurant and matched the profile leading to his arrest and hopefully his conviction. This will get the scumbag off the streets and hopefully put to death to eliminate the possibility that he will ever kill again. No repeat offender has ever repeated once he was put to death. (Unless you mix Stephen King's stories with reality) The result is a good thing.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/08/grim.sleeper.case/index.html?hpt=Sbin
He was caught by a Familial DNA search. The result was good, but I'm not sure about the process.
DING, DING, DING, DING - where did anyone ever give the Government the authority to build a data base of DNA and then mine it for that kind of information? Why not collect DNA from everyone and get it done with. I am pretty sure that the Military collects DNA information for their "Mass Casualty" data base. It is to identify the soldiers in the case of a mass casualties. How hard will it be once the new Medical Plan is implemented to tie the Medical Data Base to our criminal finger print Data base and have information on everyone?
Let me say that I for one do not fear any bad results for me, it is the fairness of the system to use information collected and to be able to mine that data for results on people not in the Data base. Have a son in the Marines? Have a son in the Army or Air Force? You too can be looked at.
At what point will our loss of rights get press? If we are going to nationalize our data bases, lets get on it and make it illegal to be here as an undocumented Alien. I have carried a National ID Card for over 40 years now and am pretty sure that my DNA and fingerprints are on file. How about you?
MUD
I'm not too concerned about whether or not my information is on file. I am secretive at times, but not about anything important, just because I am a private person. That desire for privacy is only about shielding my thoughts, not anything physical or my actions. Now, if the government finds a way to start mining my thoughts, I'll be worried. Or if we start going all Minority Report and guessing what people's future actions could be through their DNA profile or something. They are already using DNA and some "killer gene" as a defense in some cases. No one will get off on charges because of it, but some are hoping to change the severity of the punishment based on it. Ridiculous. No matter the circumstances you're born under or what you have built into you, you have free will. I suppose a more paranoid person could worry that such developments could be used for profiling of possible future crimes, but I think that will probably just stay in the sci-fi category.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post there, MUD.
ReplyDeleteMy fingerprints are on file somewhere. I took a job once to fill in the financial blanks as a substitute janitor in a small school district in Colorado.
I had to be fingerprinted, and checked out by the State of Colorado. Honestly, I was kinda glad about that. I had two children attending those schools, and I was glad that they wouldn't just hire anybody without checking for a criminal record.
The interesting part to me is the DNA cross matching. As you know, I've got two military sons. I'm pretty sure that with modern technology if I did something real bad, the military DNA database would show up enough similarities in me and my sons to raise some red flags.
In Louisiana, everyone convicted of a felony is DNA documented. And, it's amazing how many old cases get cleared up, and how many new crimes get solved because of that database.
It's a Brave New World, for sure. But, profiling of future crimes??? I'd like to think that's the stuff of novels, and films. But, the way things move nowadays, "fiction" seems to be closing in on us a lot faster than I ever figured.