Breaking: Supreme Court OK’s taking DNA upon arrest

[drmeow]

182. There is a concern

that Familial DNA testing (which does allow you to identify race) can lead to racial profiling. Familial DNA searching has been used by law enforcement to solve unsolved crimes so it is not like it doesn't happen.

As for it taking months for the result and it costing a lot of money - my genome sequence cost me $100 and didn't take months by any stretch of the imagination. Also, if it is a cold case, they've had months!

The reality is that a DNA sample is NOT the same as a fingerprint - if it was, there would be no use for DNA samples because the fingerprinting would provide everything law enforcement needs. That fact that it may be a very small incremental difference does not negate the fact that it is different. We could, for example, compare the difference to the difference between taking a picture with a 35 mm lens and taking a picture with a 70 or 100 mm lens. Yes, they are both the same in that they are both pictures being taken but that doesn't mean that they are exactly the same. To simply ask repeatedly how it is different from fingerprinting does not magically make it the same.

Your derisive dismissal of what may be legitimate concerns about DNA testing (which are shared by a large number of people - even people who are ambivalent about this ruling such as myself) is not the type of open dialogue I expect of a liberal forum and your tone is a profound illustration of the deterioration of the general tone at DU since I joined. Even in the worst case, I can often recognize the legitimacy of even some profoundly conservative viewpoints with which I do not agree. Your failure/refusal do so so even among the "allies" at DU saddens me - it suggests to me that the divisions and divisiveness in this country is too deeply entrenched to ever be surmounted.