Former rape victim Jill Saward gives her reasons why she is standing as a candidate against David Davis in the forthcoming by-election In Haltemprice and Howden. (extract via Harry’s Place):
“Another ‘erosion of British liberty’ (as identified by Davis) is the National DNA Database. According to David Davis, neither this, nor the other security measures he now fights against will make us safer. In fact, he describes it as “a myth to believe that we can defend our security by sacrificing our fundamental freedoms.
“David Davis appears to be very concerned about ‘British liberty’. But what does it mean? I want men and women- including children- to be at liberty to walk the streets our of towns and cities without fear of violence in general- and sexual violence in particular; and to feel safe in their homes and workplaces.
“And part of that ‘British liberty’ is to expect the law enforcement agencies to use every tool at their disposal to catch the people responsible for the attack- and to never give up.
“The National DNA Database has done just that. There have been numerous occasions when rapists have been convicted years after the attack- simply because, when the trail and the investigation has gone cold, the DNA profile of the attacker had been retained. And when the rapist had been arrested years later, for something completely unrelated, the routine DNA test had provided a match.
“Surely this is a good thing? This ensures our freedom, and our liberty. But Davis wants to do away with it. If anything, we should be expanding the National DNA Database so that everybody’s DNA is on it.
“DNA can rule out invesigations as well as pointing the finger.”
Sorry, much as I have respect for your opinion, I think you’re dead wrong. Having a massive database with 60+million peoples’ DNA on it is not only too expensive to organise, but also, it can be left open to abuse by desperate (Labour) politicians and does not guarantee peoples’ liberty. In the Guardian’s G2 today, this article quotes a Washington Post story about Britain’s scandalously poor record for rape convictions. The rate of total convictions had fallen from 33 per cent in the 1970s to just 5.7 per cent today. Also in the main article, figures showed that the total of (reported) rapes increased by a staggering 247 per cent between 1991 and 2004, while services that help victims have been cut due to lack of public funds.
In the recent past, as Britain’s total crime rate has soared, the priorities of government ministers have repeatedly been changed, and have resorted (yet again) to imposing more directives on police forces to increase the conviction rate. That means that they cannot deal with violent crimes in their areas, so they have to deal with minor misdemeanors such as vandalism, possession of cannabis, and of course, motorists speeding on a national scale.
Such a database will not prevent terrorist attacks either. People could still give their DNA under a false name and the authorities would not be able to tell the difference. The government wants the database so it can attempt to control the general population. This issue is all about a government that has no real concept of ‘liberty’. It’s about those within the government that has lost any self-control and deserves to be punished by the British people…. starting in Haltemprice and Howden.
London
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