In this nation, one is presumed innocent, unless found guilty in a court of law. Yet, we do so find, that the policing arm of some individual States, or those people that are under federal custody, have effectively added more tools to their arsenal, which serves to place all people within those States or of federal custody under the strong possibility that a given felony arrest, will subject those so accused to mandatory DNA being extracted from their person. To date, we find that for federal charges, as well as in certain States, court law, has determined that DNA samples from those arrested under a felony charge, is considered to be permissible as part of the standard booking procedure by law enforcement within that State or federal jurisdiction.
Again, it is important to point out, that it is one thing to sample DNA from a given person convicted of a crime, and it is an entirely different thing to sample DNA from someone that has not been yet convicted, may not ever be convicted, and in fact, may have the charges laid against that person, be subject to being amended, reduced, or eliminated at some future stage. In other words, it is never a crime to be arrested; or even to be arrested for a serious crime; for not only are mistakes made in regards to who is or who isn’t arrested, but also circumstances of what has occurred or has not occurred in regards to a given crime can easily change, as more actionable information comes to light, or when such is investigated in more detail. Further to the point, when it comes to probable cause, those that create such probable cause, are quite capable of presenting such cause in a way and manner, in which the background of such a decision is skewed in favor of that probable cause being justified, even when in the light of the day, such probable cause when seen by neutral eyes demonstrates such as being mainly manufactured.
The presumption of innocence, is an important right, contained within American law, and therefore any and everything that takes away from that presumption of innocence, is one step further away from liberty and one step closer to a police state. Again and again, those agencies and institutions that have information and of which, the general public is not privy to that data, or even how that information is subject to being utilized, are at an extreme disadvantage to all those agencies having such data. A given person’s DNA is a form of identity, that is unalienable to them, and therefore should be theirs to decide as to whether or not they so desire to divulge such, to policing agencies, or any other institution, for that matter. So then, to be compelled by State or Federal law, to give up one’s DNA, for a felony arrest, is a very dangerous precedent, that should not be countenanced, under any circumstances.
In short, the more DNA that governmental agencies are allowed to collect from people, no matter what the circumstances are that permits such, the easier that it thereby comes for that government, to thereby decide to collect as much DNA evidence that can be collected at a given crime scene, and then utilize their DNA database to arrest any and everyone that shows up upon that list, of which, each of those people, aren’t really going to be presumed innocent, at all; but, in fact, are by those policing agencies, presumed guilty, with now the burden of proof of them, to explicate why their DNA was there