DNA for "littering"

Jock — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:51:07 +0000

While Peter Black today highlights a story in the Western Mail by Jenny Willott I noticed closer to home an egregious abuse, potentially, of the DNA database system:

Police handcuffed a student and took his fingerprints and DNA after he tried to throw a bottle of water to tree protesters.

Jonathan Leighton, a student at St Anne's College, was arrested at 2am on Sunday in Bonn Square, Oxford, after he tried to give the water to tree protester Gabriel Chamberlain.

Now, I am against the "tree protestors" and their supporters, and I do hate littering enough to want it to be a criminal offence, albeit a minor one, but this seems heavy handed at best if the story is as it seems. And potentially to have your DNA (a part of you) on a database for the rest of your life for trying to pass a bottle of water to someone as a gesture of kindness is outrageous.

I would like DNA to be subject to Habeas Corpus, so long as that principle still obtains in English Law - which of course is already doubtful!

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DNA for "littering"