Police visit but make no arrests at what appears to be speak-easy

About 3 a.m. Sunday, a uniformed officer attempted to follow a patron into the club, only to have the door slam shut on both of them.

I love it! Subversive behavior AND giving a nosy JBT with no warrant exactly the entry he deserves–none at all.

Does it get any better?

Disgusting.

Bills would require samples of DNA from crime suspects

A bill in the House would require police to take DNA samples from anyone convicted of a felony or a gross misdemeanor, while a more aggressive bill in the Senate would require a DNA sample from anyone arrested for those offenses. Existing law requires DNA samples to be taken only from convicted felons.

The Washington State Patrol’s DNA database feeds the one used by the FBI.

But this quote is really a gem:

“The problem we have is that in our justice system, people are assumed innocent until proven guilty,” he said. “I support the idea of the bill, but you can’t help law enforcement all the time.”

I can’t pretend we still operate under “innocent until proven guilty” as a standard in our judicial system, but even if we did, that’s a PROBLEM?

Additionally, requiring DNA upon arrest for crimes that have nothing to do with DNA evidence on the theory that the arrested individual will likely commit more severe crimes is more than Draconian - it brings us into the era of Thought Crime. You might become a more violent offender, so you, Mr. Shoplifter, deserve to be in our little database for life, just in case you decide go career in your criminal life.

It’s shit like this that destroys my faith in America. The fact that this would even be proposed seriously (by more than one person, no less)… I can’t even go on.

All I can do is hope that in 30 or 40 years we’ll look back on this period in American history with disgust and shame. Wishful thinking, I know.

And I’m not placing any bets on the possibility that if such an attrocity were to become law, we’d suddenly find police abusing their “round up the usual suspects” powers just to collect more DNA profiles.

DNA swab … Should samples from babies be added to the National Database?

Britain’s most senior murder investigator has called for DNA to be taken from babies.

Commander Dave Johnston said it would build up a database to SOLVE crimes and PREVENT others.

He said samples could also be taken from Britons renewing passports and from migrants arriving here. The head of the Met Police’s Homicide and Serious Crime Unit, went on: “We have 300,000 unsolved cases where we have taken a profile at a crime scene but have not yet matched it.

“As well as solving crime, it would really make someone think twice about committing crime if they knew their DNA was on a database.

“There is also a compelling case for taking DNA from people when they die, so that we can cleanse the database.”

And this is from the nation in whose footsteps the US follows when it comes to invasive surveillance techniques. Comforting, isn’t it?

A great one from the Seattle P-I today.

As threats to privacy grow, many fight back

As more businesses and government agencies hunger for personal data, many people are fighting back.

Sure, there’s fancy encryption software and phone scramblers available, but many people prefer to wield an arsenal of low-tech, time-honored gestures: deception, denial, stonewalling and occasional pettiness.

Why not? Big corporations use those tactics every day.

His company used to require people to give their names and e-mail addresses in order to download free trial software. But many people registered their first and last names as “Screw” and “You” — or something worse — followed by a bogus address.

“It became an unmanageable system,” Sampson said. His company now offers software without registration. While it’s lost the ability to track people, it’s had a huge increase in downloads.

“It’s in our best interest to ask for less information,” he said.

Gee, you think? I lie my ass off every time - unless there’s a good reason for the company to be able to find me. Fake names, fake phone numbers, fake email addresses. I’m sorry, but Best Buy did NOT need my phone number in order for me to purchase a stand for my DVD player. So, they got a bogus one. And most of these companies accept a lie far more easily than they accept a curt “no, you may not have my phone number.” We privacy-minded folk are damn tired of being viewed as aliens or paranoid freaks because we refuse to share that info.

Perhaps one of the biggest targets of ire are the “loyalty” cards groceries use to track shopping habits. The Internet, for example, froths with tips on how to monkey with Safeway’s Club Cards, by encouraging shoppers to swap card numbers or punch 800-SAFEWAY on the checkout pad.

One Seattle man, Keith Gormezano, was so incensed about Safeway’s eight-year-old program that he posted his card number online for others to use, in an effort to pollute the company’s data.

Safeway’s weak explanation of using the data to track shopping trends is… well, crap. Stores can track shopping trends by tracking what happens to their inventory. They don’t need personal data for that. It’s the same ruse Walmart tried to employ to justify putting RFID in their inventory. Exactly how does RFID enable better shelf stocking than, say, the bar codes they scan when you make a purchase?

Good for Mr. Gormezano, and I really do like this idea of sharing club card numbers… sort of a BugMeNot for shoppers. I’ve generally avoided getting those loyalty cards for that very reason, but I’m wondering if maybe a group of friends and I could just get one of those and share it - preferrably friends in multiple states. Our fake multiple-personality shopper could be visiting a Safeway here in Seattle one minute, and at a safeway register in Los Angeles 20 minutes later. I love it. Anyone else interested in this?