2/5/07: In an amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence
Against Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of
sexual crimes, Congress authorized DNA collecting from anyone under criminal arrest by federal authorities and also from
non-documented immigrants detained by federal agents. This is not simply aimed at perpetrators of
violence against women, and in adding this amendment; the government is using and
manipulating people’s real and important concern about stopping violence, rape,
and sexual assault against women to pass through broad police state powers.
The largest group affected will be immigrants and it is
another example of racial profiling and accumulation of data on groups of
people the government is very nervous about because of their potential for mass
political protest. One immigration
attorney was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “It’s so broad, it’s
scary.”
This is a huge expansion of Big Brother data collection
overall. This is NOT only for people
CONVICTED; it is for those arrested or simply detained. They can arrest anyone and then force
collection of DNA. If there is a huge
protest in DC against the Iraq
war and they arrest one thousand people on bogus charges, they can now take DNA
samples of all one thousand even if they are all released with no charges a few
hours later. Mission accomplished: further data bases on
political opponents. This makes Nixon’s “enemies
lists” look amateurish.
This is not a variation of finger printing. DNA is much more intrusive-it can reveal
physical diseases and mental disorders.
Think how that could be used by a regime “setting out to radically
remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to
come.”
Under the Bush regime, one repressive measure after another
has been made law, and the architecture of a fascist police state is built
around us. This latest outrage should
serve as a wake up call to anyone thinking we can wait this out until the next
election. What will society look like in
two years if this continues and these fascistic laws remain intact?
(Click
here for more articles from worldcantwait.org on repressive measures under the
Bush regime.)