TJIC writes of his concern over expanding DNA collection of arrested folks, a proposal for which includes gathering DNA from people arrested, not merely convicted.

Anyone who has been arrested in the last 80 years is routinely fingerprinted. Why? To check to see what other previous or unsolved crimes may be linked to the arrested.

But here is your shocker: there is no scientific proof behind fingerprinting. There is no systematic way of evaluating prints, no formal method for instructing others in their analysis and interpretation, no rudimentary experiments ever done to prove the notion that all fingerprints are unique, and so on. TJIC has not yet realized the massive potential for fraud and abuse that has long existed with fingerprints. And it does happen, my friends. Anyone with a little knowledge of chemistry can transfer prints from one object to another and create a horrifyingly convincing piece of incriminating evidence.

On the other hand, DNA evidence is much harder to fabricate or falsify. Any laboratory can run the same standard tests, at any date, to verify matches. Further, DNA evidence has exonerated more people than fingeprints have. DNA evidence is easy to quantify in a national database, and you already leave pieces of it everywhere, unlike fingerprints, which require specific surfaces and contact methods to work.

The only problem with DNA evidence is that it cannot do everything. An increasing number of juries are disappointed that CSI teams are not involved in solving misdemeanor cases with extensive forensic trace evidence of DNA (“If you think he embezzled the money, check to see if his DNA is on the accounting server!”). But in cases that matter, such as murder, rape, arson, or robbery, DNA is a criminal’s nightmare. It is presently the most powerful, and underrated, weapon in law enforcement.

Curiously, the same folks who decry DNA testing as intrusive and ripe with potential for abuse tend to accept, without blinking, fingerprinting or even those drug screening tests you do for pre-employment and pre-insurance screening. Ask yourselves who runs that circus of an industry first. And good luck getting to sleep.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.