SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @10:32PM
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
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
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
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
In my experience those psychopaths are the vast majority of humanity. :(
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:23PM