[Apologies to the list for (a) my misleading Subject: line -- not a product of malice but of not spending enough time reading the story -- and (b) my lack of knowledge of Cajun culture! That said, I still hope Mike will reply. --Declan] --- From: Stewart Maiden <maidenat_private> To: "'declanat_private'" <declanat_private> Subject: RE: Louisiana police force all townspeople to give DNA samples Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 10:13:38 +1100 Declan, Old news, but in response to Mr Carlson's question, a similar program was instigated (on a voluntary basis) to DNA test all male residents of Wee Waa, a small rural town in Northern New South Wales, following the 1998 rape of a 91 year old woman. The rapist confessed after the program was instigated, but police wouldn't reveal whether he had provided a sample. Wired reported it at http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35727,00.html Keep up the good work! Stewart Maiden, Barrister maidenat_private --- From: Eric Lee Green <ericat_private> Organization: BadTux: Linux Penguin Gone Bad (http://badtux.org) To: declanat_private Subject: Re: FC: Louisiana police force all townspeople to give DNA samples Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 16:33:45 -0700 On Tuesday 07 January 2003 03:41 pm, Declan McCullagh wrote: > [What about those Acadianers who decide to go on safari in Africa for the > next three months, or simply decide to move to a less restrictive town? Okay, first of all: "Acadiana" is the generic term for the French-speaking portion of Louisiana, it is *NOT* a town. There is no such thing as an "Acadianer". The residents of Acadiana are called Cajuns. There are approximately 750,000 Cajuns in the Acadiana area of Louisiana, so it is quite unlikely that all of them are going to be swabbed. Secondly, the article is rather clear that there are multiple towns involved in a serial murder case, and that the 50 or so people who will be swabbed are people who are suspect because of their knowledge of a certain area or the fact that they were in a certain area at a given time. There is a Constitutional issue here -- can a court force someone to give DNA just because they were in a certain area at the same time that a serial killer was killing somebody? But let's not go over the top into hyperbole. Finally, just in case you're wondering: Lafayette Parish is a fairly cosmopolitan area of approximately 150,000 people. The main industries are the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (with approximately 16,000 students) and the oilfield services industries (e.g. my brother works there as a software designer for a company that designs and manufactures SCADA systems used to monitor and control pipelines and public utilities). It is known as having one of the more honest and competent governments in Louisiana. Also, it seems to me that you were unfairly lumping the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Department with corrupt Louisiana Sheriff's departments like, say, the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Department (the one that made it onto national TV a few years back because their deputies were shaking down passers-by for bribes on Interstate 10). The LPSD has its own problems -- last time I knew much about the inner workings of the LPSD it was nowhere near as professional as it should be, with promotions and assignments often occurring due to politics rather than merit -- but corruption and widespread abuse of citizens are not amongst those problems. The city fathers wouldn't allow it. That would interfere with their dream of growing Lafayette as a modern and economically booming city, a dream that in my opinion is rather far-fetched, but hey, even businessmen can dream the big dream sometimes, right? -- Eric Lee Green GnuPG public key at http://badtux.org/eric/eric.gpg mailto:ericat_private Web: http://www.badtux.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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