Best. Quote. Ever.
Look, you folks know it’s no secret that I’m disillusioned with the people that pretend to govern us, especially when it comes to their views on justice and crime. This disenchantment has been solidified in the current legislative session, starting with EdithGate and today’s news that the abominable DNA upon arrest bill staying alive. This bill, you will recall, permits the state to take DNA samples of any arrested of a crime. The DNA profile would then remain in the State’s database until you were acquitted and then you jumped through bureaucratic hoops to get it removed.
Explains State Rep Hewitt, a proponent of the bill:
“If I walked out of this door right now and I was arrested for rape with an eyewitness and there was DNA found on the scene of that rape — God help me I wish they would take my DNA.
I’d wish the same too. And you know what? They do. It’s usually titled ‘Motion for Non-Testimonial Evidence’ and is always granted, because there’s no basis to object. Then the police take a buccal swab of the defendant, do some science-y magic and decide if you’re the guy. It. Happens. All. The. Time.
Said another:
Rep. Don Clemons, D-Bridgeport, said it was the rape and murder of his son’s mother more than 30 years ago in Bridgeport that makes him inclined to support the bill. He said from 1978 to 1982 there were eight women abducted from Bridgeport and later found strangled and raped. To this day, those cases remain unsolved, he said.
“When I saw this piece of legislation Rep. Hewett produced, it brings back haunting memories,” he said, but he added that the measure could provide resolution for the families affected by those crimes.
And so you’d think there was no hope for individual freedoms and liberties in the Constitution State. But there is. And his name is Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain. Which brings us to the greatest quote ever:
Personally I’ve long argued that we won’t be robbed of our liberties at gun point. We will freely give them up one at a time to solve one problem at a time with our hearts being tugged by one truly horrible story at a time,” he said. “That’s why we’ve coded our liberties as we have.
Take a minute and read it again. Isn’t it beautiful?
| Print article | This entry was posted by Gideon on May 23, 2011 at 9:31 pm, and is filed under dna, dumb laws, proposed legislation. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |


about 1 year ago
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
-Ben Franklin
about 1 year ago
Rep. Tercyak: <3
Further, if there's a presumption of innocence, why should you have to be acquitted to qualify your petition to have it removed from the database?
about 1 year ago
I am actually somewhat sympathetic to your point of view here, but I don’t really see how DNA is really all that different from fingerprints. And that ballgame is over. Obviously, DNA is a little more intrusive, but if it’s junk DNA that is retained, there’s really no huge issue. And I don’t see how there’s really a US Constitutional issue–if they can take it on an arrest, I don’t see how the Constitution requires the government to destroy evidence it has gotten.
about 1 year ago
Tercyak is right and that same emotional framework is why we passed the Patriot Act.
about 11 months ago
It is a beauty.