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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 17 2017, @08:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-say-ah dept.

The ACLU has sued the San Diego Police Department, seeking the destruction of DNA samples collected from minors during a stop that was found to be unlawful:

Specifically targeting black children for unlawful DNA collection is a gross abuse of technology by law enforcement. But it's exactly what the San Diego Police Department is doing, according to a lawsuit just filed by the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties on behalf of one of the families affected. SDPD's actions, as alleged in the complaint, illustrate the severe and very real threats to privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights presented by granting law enforcement access to our DNA. SDPD must stop its discriminatory abuse of DNA collection technology.

According to the ACLU's complaint, on March 30, 2016, police officers stopped five African American minors as they were walking through a park in southeast San Diego. There was no legal basis for the stop. As an officer admitted at a hearing in June 2016, they stopped the boys simply because they were black and wearing blue on what the officers believed to be a gang "holiday."

Despite having no valid basis for the stop, and having determined that none of the boys had any gang affiliation or criminal record, the officers handcuffed at least some of the boys and searched all of their pockets. They found nothing but still proceeded to search the bag of one of the boys—P.D., a plaintiff in the ACLU's case. (It's standard to use minors' initials, rather than their full names, in court documents.) The officers found an unloaded revolver, which was lawfully registered to the father of one of the boys, and arrested P.D.

The officers told the other four boys that they could go free after submitting to a mouth swab. The officers had them sign a consent form, by which they "voluntarily" agreed to provide their DNA to the police for inclusion in SDPD's local DNA database. The officers then swabbed their cheeks and let them go.

P.D. was then told to sign the form as well. After he signed, the officers swabbed his cheek and transported him to the police department. The San Diego District Attorney filed numerous charges against P.D., but they were all dropped as a result of the illegal stop. The court did not, however, order the police to destroy either P.D.'s DNA sample or the DNA profile generated via his sample. The ACLU seeks destruction of the sample and profile, along with a permanent injunction "forbidding SDPD officers from obtaining DNA from minors without a judicial order, warrant, or parental consent."


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by jmorris on Friday February 17 2017, @09:35PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday February 17 2017, @09:35PM (#468355)

    Perhaps you didn't read the summary, we aren't talking about the backwoods in a Red State where kids with a shotgun is something that wouldn't really attract attention, we are dealing with a Blue Hell where handguns aren't generally legal without a license. The summary itself noted this, the kid's father has a license but a minor can't get a CCW anywhere I know of. If the kid stole his dad's handgun the odds are pretty good he planned to use it. And the point I was making was that the cops instinct was operating perfectly. So now we punish cops for guessing correctly.

    So straight up, is it the position of the ACLU and you that we should wait until the kids kill someone because it would be wrong to stop them before they kill because [???]. Because I can't see where anything fills in the ??? and results in a sentence that isn't insane.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Bot on Friday February 17 2017, @09:47PM

    by Bot (3902) on Friday February 17 2017, @09:47PM (#468360) Journal

    Indeed, I have seen kids with their personal .22 rifle, but with father and at the range. 4 underage guys with an unloaded weapon had better have a good reason to go roaming around, and if they had it it would be in the story. QED.

    All of this still makes the police procedures about DNA collection very questionable, no matter the potential usefulness. It's not as if one has to pick sides. I'd rather have a justice system where the police doesn't have to bend the rules (which will never happen when the ruling system needs criminals to do the dirty work and police to keep them under control), but, among all who bend rules, the police is one of the most dangerous.

    --
    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 17 2017, @10:26PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday February 17 2017, @10:26PM (#468378) Homepage

      The tragedy here is that the ACLU is compelled to defend obvious thugs, it would be much more palatable if the cops forced their collection methods on a lovable tranny or a respectable businessman for bogus reasons.

      California doesn't even have open-carry laws. To be fair they could have just been wearing their school colors since there are schools in the area with blue as a color, and the time of the arrest was around 3:30 p.m. on a Wednesday which could easily have been right after school but nothing excuses an underage person conceal-carrying a handgun in an urban area.

      It was right of the cops to mark those punks. I hope we hear a follow-up in a few years with one or more of those knuckleheads arrested during an armed robbery or something.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:09PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:09PM (#468572) Journal

      4 underage guys with an unloaded weapon had better have a good reason to go roaming around, and if they had it it would be in the story.

      I take it you didn't grow up in small town America. Kids get terribly bored because there isn't much to do. The parents are usually working 3 jobs to make ends meet, so there isn't a lot of adult supervision, either. With those two things kids can get up to all kinds of trouble. The ones who lived in the trailers by the slough down the hill from my town would do stuff like TFA describes all the time.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday February 18 2017, @05:30PM

        by Bot (3902) on Saturday February 18 2017, @05:30PM (#468645) Journal

        Kids get terribly bored because there isn't much to do.

        They get terribly bored because they are terribly boring. Not their fault, of course. They have been conditioned to be consumers, their social skills are modest for lack of practice and from the virtual world overlay which creates more problems.

        My gen, in a small town, did not have smartphones, so got along with 8 bit pc, pimped 50cc/125cc motorcycles (no way you kept it stock), instant cameras and boom boxes for the privileged, and soccer ball, volley ball, beach ball, tennis ball (still for soccer), deflated balls (dodgeball time), bikes, elastic band for underwear (two people holding it at various height, one doing the evolutions, dunno how it was named there in burger/sandwich land) for everybody. The hardcore guys played gilli-danda. A friend once had a psychology/whatever seminar with younger people, one of the exercise was playing tag, he absolutely destroyed them, to the point of feeling bad for them.

        Adult supervision consisting in an old cat lady tending a corner shop telling us not to trust the priest (we trusted no adult anyway).

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        Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @09:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @09:52PM (#468363)

    Go back to Britain you god damned redcoat.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:23AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:23AM (#468504)

      The British are coming! The British are coming! The British are coming!

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 17 2017, @09:59PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday February 17 2017, @09:59PM (#468364) Journal

    The position is not taking their DNA you goddamn goose-stepping Hell-bound sociopath. What the hell is hard about this?!

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday February 17 2017, @10:13PM

      by dyingtolive (952) on Friday February 17 2017, @10:13PM (#468370)

      BUT THE LAW IS DISPLAYING A CLEARLY UNFAIR LIIIIIIBRAL BAAAAAASSSIS!

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
      • (Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday February 17 2017, @10:16PM

        by dyingtolive (952) on Friday February 17 2017, @10:16PM (#468372)

        and there's my sarc fail. BIIAAAASSSS. BIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAASSSSSSS!

        Also, never write job goals while posting on SN. Think "bias" and "basis" was a pretty bad swap? You should have seen what I did in the goals form I'm supposed to submit.

        --
        Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @10:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @10:32PM (#468381)

    Maybe they were up to no good and maybe they weren't, but an unloaded gun is much less dangerous than a loaded one. What if they had to deal with an unpleasant situation and brought the unloaded weapon as protection, unloaded specifically to avoid killing someone on accident. You're myopic worldview IS the problem, now go back to your basement and don't come back till you're a decent human being.

    I guess we're past the fake news bias you hate so much, oh wait, only cause this confirms your prejudice.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 17 2017, @11:02PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday February 17 2017, @11:02PM (#468393) Homepage

      It's all about minimizing risk - Any good thug knows that, especially in the age of the internet.

      For example, when carrying your minority-clobbering baseball bat in your car, be sure to also carry a mitt and/or baseball (and if you don't play baseball learn the rules and then take some medium-grit sandpaper to the ball and mitt to give them that authentic worn look). With regard to guns, a round or two could easily be picked up at a friend's house or hidden cleverly throughout urbana itself.

      If the kid didn't have any ill intent and just wanted to be "hard," then he was a stupid fuck taking that unloaded gun out into that part of town, because he could have been jacked and then the gun could have been misused by real criminals. That's the part of town where you stand with your back to the wall when waiting for the trolley because having your back to the wall is preferable to having a blind-spot and being ambushed. And, unless its a multiple-murder, it's gonna be at least 45 minutes before the cops respond to any calls -- leaving you all that time to hope all those knives will go away after they get your wallet. And if they're on meth, which Mexicans and South-Americans who are already predisposed to violence almost always are, they'll mark their territory on your forehead.

      The best part of all this is that that specific part of town is being advertised to out-of-state hipsters as "the next big thing" even though it's still soaked with urine, there are tent-cities on the sidewalks, because that's where all the social services are. You can see the look of regret on those hipsters' faces after they signed the mortgage paperwork on those $5000/mo "urban" condos. Jesus Christ does, after all, have a sense of humor and poetic justice.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @11:08PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @11:08PM (#468394)

        Gentrification doesn't happen overnight. Somebody has to have the first mover disadvantage.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @11:59PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @11:59PM (#468414)

        Think of the chiiiildrreeeennnnn. People like you almost make me go religious just so I can believe you'll suffer for eternity. Sadly I then think "nooo, he's just a misguided fool" and compassion takes over. Thankfully you psychopaths are a minority of humanity.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:18AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:18AM (#468442)

          In my experience those psychopaths are the vast majority of humanity. :(

      • (Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:23PM

        by JeanCroix (573) on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:23PM (#468620)
        I used to get my hair cut at Two Roses down in Barrio Logan. Sunday morning was the ONLY time I'd go, because I knew they'd all be sleeping off Saturday night, or in church.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday February 17 2017, @11:30PM

    by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Friday February 17 2017, @11:30PM (#468402)

    where handguns aren't generally legal without a license.

    That sounds unconstitutional to me, and therefore null and void.

    So straight up, is it the position of the ACLU and you that we should wait until the kids kill someone because it would be wrong to stop them before they kill because [???].

    Because they haven't committed any crimes, bootlicker. Yes, we should wait until someone actually commits a crime before doing any DNA collection (and it should definitely be destroyed if they are not convicted), at the very least.

    You can't claim to want a small government but then go on to constantly worship thug officers when they violate people's rights. Or, maybe you can, but your hypocrisy will be obvious.