IP: guilty until proven innocent!

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 16:46:06 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Matthew Gaylor <freematt () coil com>,
Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: fwd: guilty until proven innocent!

> .c The Associated Press
>
> WILMINGTON, Del. (Aug. 26) - Police in Delaware are trying to get a
> head-start on cracking crimes before they happen by setting up a
> database that contains a list of people who officers believe are
> likely to break the law.
>
> Defense attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union oppose the
> database, which lists names, addresses and photographs of the
> potential suspects - many of whom have clean slates.
>
> The precise grounds for putting a person on the list aren't clear.
> But since the system was introduced in Wilmington in June, most of
> the 200 people included in the file have been minorities from poor,
> high-crime neighborhoods.
>
> State and federal prosecutors say the tactic is legal, but defense
> lawyers object to the practice.
>
> ``We should enforce the existing laws, but not violate them, to
> catch the bad guys,'' said Theo Gregory, City Councilman and public
> defender. ``We've become the bad guys, and that's not right.''
>
> Mayor James Baker called the criticism ``asinine and intellectually
> bankrupt.''
>
> ``I don't care what anyone but a court of law thinks,'' he said.
> ``Until a court says otherwise, if I say it's constitutional, it's
> constitutional.''
>
> The pictures are being taken by two Wilmington police squads created
> in June to arrest drug dealers. The units are known in some
> neighborhoods as ``jump-out squads'' because they jump out of cars
> and make quick arrests.
>
> Many of the people whose photos have been taken for the file were
> stopped briefly for loitering and let go.
>
> 08/25/02 21:43 EDT


------ End of Forwarded Message

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/