[ggggtez]

I think the idea of this post is contradictory.

Who suffers from government lists of potential terrorists, criminals, and their relatives? It's not a "white people" problem. That would be a problem faced primarily by dark-skinned people.

And really, what else would the government do with a database of the DNA of every person in the country, other than use it to track and profile people of color? Could you imagine being "stop-and-frisked" for your DNA to see if you were related to any known criminal, and then questioned under suspicion that you might know where they are hiding?

It seems simply crazy to say in one breath that government and police abuse their power, and then in the next say you want to give them authority to keep files on every single person with impunity.

[burneraccount12]

Right, because the lack of DNA indexing stops cops from racial profiling now.

Cops already check your ID to see if you're related to any known criminal! Literally, this "nightmare scenario" you're envisioning happens every day in America. E.g.: https://theintercept.com/2019/06/28/nypd-gang-database-addit...

It's comical that you think this is some 1984 thing that will happen if we enable DNA indexing...the fact you don't know it already does happen shows just how far removed your experience is with police from those of black and Hispanic people in America.

If you're Arab flying into the country? Even worse.

If anything DNA indexing would allow innocent, unaffiliated people to not have to endure the indignity of what they currently go through.

[ggggtez]

So... you are saying: "We can't trust police, let's give them more powers"?

I think your expectations on how many crimes a DNA database would solve is vastly over-estimating. For example, even if a rape case collected DNA evidence, most of them never actually process those kits. You can't solve a crime if you never look at the evidence to begin with.

I think a DNA database is a solution in search of a problem.

[burneraccount12]

What is this implicit assumption that DNA index = power?

Power to do what? Identify you? They already (try to) do that! A DNA index is just a superior authentication mechanism, one that would involve a lot less suffering for those being identified.

The not processing of rape kits has been shameful and many nonprofits are working to rectify that problem: https://www.rainn.org/articles/addressing-rape-kit-backlog

You don't experience the problem because you're likely wealthy and probably white. The fact that rich whites can so easily dismiss even the idea of police authentication as a problem just shows that rich white America isn't even aware what poor black people go through in this country every single day.