Just say no to Giuliani/DNA collecting

Dear Editor,

In an ideal world of government that functioned without prejudice, racism or class inequalities collecting DNA samples from every person arrested might not be such a scary idea. Unfortunately, that’s not the world or the City we live in. Mayor Giuliani has proven to be an oppressive enemy of civil liberties who targets anyone daring to oppose or criticize him with the full weight of the power at his disposal. False and politically motivated arrests have become so commonplace that N.Y.C. Criminal Courts routinely dismiss the vast majority of cases before them each day. As someone who has been falsely arrested 34 times for criticizing Mayor Giuliani since he took office (all but two of my cases have so far been dismissed) I have very real concerns about allowing the purveyors of this evolving police state, Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Safir, to begin collecting DNA. During a 12/15/98 NBC news debate with NYCLU Director Norman Siegal, Commissioner Safir claimed that once cases were dismissed arrestees would get their DNA back and their record would be cleared, “as is now done with fingerprints and mug shots”. Nonsense. I’ve never gotten a single set of my fingerprints or any mugshot back. Arrests that were dismissed and sealed years ago routinely come up on NYPD computers whenever I’m booked. Despite a Federal judge issuing two subpoenas for my extensive (and illegally collected) NYPD Intelligence file, the NYPD and NYC Corporation Counsel refuse to allow the judge, myself or my attorneys any access to the file. No reasonable person could believe the NYPD will throw away DNA samples after a defendant’s case is dismissed. Imagining that Giuliani and Safir would use such a program in a fair and reasonable manner is to ignore their every action and public statement. The DNA initiative would also directly effect freedom of speech. Routine DNA collecting for misdemeanor defendants will intimidate anyone contemplating attending a demonstration, an activity that under Mayor Giuliani’s First Amendment hostile regime is increasingly likely to result in arrest.

Might routine DNA collecting help solve some crimes? It might, but so would unwarranted searches, beating confessions out of suspects and holding people indefinitely without due process. A police state is undoubtedly effective at decreasing crime. Nazi Germany, the former U.S.S.R. under Stalin and China under Mao were relatively free of petty crime. Does anyone in New York City really envy those who lived under those regimes?

Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics)
(718) 369-2111
e mail ARTISTpres@aol.com
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html

Last updated: January 2, 2005