by Jennifer Teeter

Created on: April 20, 2008

I have always despised cotton swabs. That static feeling that you get when you stick it in your ear and swish it all around. It makes me want to run and hide under my big pillow. People must be brainwashed if they enjoy that peculiar sensation! Doctors even warn that cotton swaps do not help contribute to the cleanliness of your ear, but rather cause your ears to be more prone infection by pushing debris further into the ear canal. DO NOT STICK FOREIGN OBJECTS IN YOUR EAR.

On another note, why are we sticking cotton swabs in foreigners' mouths, in our citizens' mouths, who haven't even been proven to have done anything wrong? In a move to prevent violent crime, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation will begin to collect DNA samples via cheek swab from detainees regardless of whether they have been charged with a crime or not. In the past, DNA samples were only collected from convicted felons. What ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?

Already a disproportionate number of people are arrested because of flaws in the racial profiling tactics by the police. Now the FBI is going to start collecting DNA well before its suspects are convicted. Is this not an incredible violation of our civil rights? Is this not an extreme infringement on our privacy?

After an arrestee's cheek is swabbed, their data is inputed into a database called CODIS. Apparently, if a person is not convicted, they can request that the DNA sample be destroyed. What I'm wondering is how readily available this information is made to people being detained and how simple is the process made to get the DNA destroyed. Furthermore, after going through the whole process of requesting the DNA be destroyed, how will we ever know if it is really destroyed? Yet even more worrying is the increased potential for abuse of personal information.

If the FBI is permitted to do these cheek swabs, where will it stop. Will I get a cotton swab put in my mouth if I am pulled over by the cops for speeding? Where will this invasion of our privacy end? If we can not get this decision reversed, the least we can do is make this process as transparent as possible, for the sake of our rights.

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