Judge wants everyone in UK in DNA database

Including visitors! That would stop me from vacationing in the UK.

The entire UK population and every visitor to Britain should be put on the national DNA database, a top judge said today.

Lord Justice Sedley, one of England's most experienced appeal court judges, described the country's current system as "indefensible".

"We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police, then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven't, it isn't ... that's broadly the picture," Sir Stephen Sedley told the BBC.

"It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets, and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free."

He said that expanding the existing database to cover the whole population had "serious but manageable implications".

[...]

The Home Office minister Tony McNulty told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning: "I think we are broadly sympathetic to the thrust of what he [the judge] has said.

"I have said that myself in the past, that there is a real logic and cohesion to the point that says, 'Well, put everybody on'.

"But I think he probably does underestimate the practicalities, logistics and huge civil liberties and ethics issue around that.

"There is no government plans to go to a compulsory database now or in the foreseeable future."

(via)

Big Brother Spying on Taxi Drivers in NYC

If I were a taxi driver I wouldn't want the city spying on where I went. It's none of the business of the city:

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance -- which accounts for more than 8,000 city drivers -- is threatening to curb their cabs on Sept. 5 if the Taxi and Limousine Commission does not get rid of their GPS system, which the union says invades a driver's privacy.

[...]

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance -- which accounts for more than 8,000 city drivers -- is threatening to curb their cabs on Sept. 5 if the Taxi and Limousine Commission does not get rid of their GPS system, which the union says invades a driver's privacy.

(via)

Lieberman thinks America should emulate Britian and put cameras all over the major cities

To monitor what people are doing

"I think it's just common sense to do that here much more widely. And of course we can do it without compromising anybody's real privacy. This is about the security of our country and our people with an enemy that is prepared to attack us again and again here at home."

Instapundit thinks it's a bad idea (via). But Chicago is already on it's way to London-style surveillance.

BTW, how does it not compromise privacy when you are spying on citizens and taking pictures of them throughout their day? Londoners are "likely to be caught on camera 300 times a day" (via). And does it stop the jihadist? No, because usually they are prepared to die in their attack. They know that they are being videoed and yet they do it anyway.

Tags: Lieberman, UK, London, Instapundit