guilty until proven innocent!

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jim Warren <jwarren@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 16:46:06 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Matthew Gaylor <freematt@xxxxxxxx>,
Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
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


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