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posted by martyb on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the could-just-ask-23-and-me dept.

DNA Databases in the U.S. and China Are Tools of Racial Oppression

Two major world powers, the United States and China, have both collected an enormous number of DNA samples from their citizens, the premise being that these samples will help solve crimes that might have otherwise gone unsolved. While DNA evidence can often be crucial when it comes to determining who committed a crime, researchers argue these DNA databases also pose a major threat to human rights.

In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a DNA database called the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that currently contains over 14 million DNA profiles. This database has a disproportionately high number of profiles of black men, because black Americans are arrested five times as much as white Americans. You don't even have to be convicted of a crime for law enforcement to take and store your DNA; you simply have to have been arrested as a suspect.

[...] As for China, a report that was published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in mid-June claims that China is operating the "world's largest police-run DNA database" as part of its powerful surveillance state. Chinese authorities have collected DNA samples from possibly as many as 70 million men since 2017, and the total database is believed to contain as many as 140 million profiles. The country hopes to collect DNA from all of its male citizens, as it argues men are most likely to commit crimes.

DNA is reportedly often collected during what are represented as free physicals, and it's also being collected from children at schools. There are reports of Chinese citizens being threatened with punishment by government officials if they refuse to give a DNA sample. Much of the DNA that's been collected has been from Uighur Muslims that have been oppressed by the Chinese government and infamously forced into concentration camps in the Xinjiang province.

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  • (Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:11PM (4 children)

    by legont (4179) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:11PM (#1017643)

    Police are looking for two White people who painted over a Black Lives Matter mural

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/us/black-lives-matter-mural-painted-over-trnd/index.html [cnn.com]

    No comment.

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  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 07 2020, @06:34PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday July 07 2020, @06:34PM (#1017813) Journal

    And? I thought vandalism matters?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @04:33AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @04:33AM (#1018064)

    They got them [thesun.co.uk]. Charged with painting a street without a permit. (The BLM, being law-abiding Americans, had a permit.)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @08:55AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @08:55AM (#1018108)

      Score: 0 for you though. Shame reality has such a leftist bias, like you seem to.

      Shame nobody cares enough about facts to vote for you. Maybe they blew all their mod points voting up the trolls. :(

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @12:08PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @12:08PM (#1018152)

        A less than zero AC! Racist! Now, get back to towing that line.