Familial DNA -The First Case

Christopher Franklin was convicted for a felony weapons charge, in Los Angeles, CA. California and Colorado both allow for familial DNA search. This is where they can use someone's DNA to find a relative that may have committed a crime as well.

Lonnie D. Franklin Jr. is Christopher's father. Lonnie was arrested for murdering 10 people, and one attempted murder, over the course of 25 years. It turns out, he is the "Grim Sleeper." It was Christopher's DNA that the policed used to pin his father. How interesting is that?

This is the first time this familial DNA strategy has been used to solve a homicide.

Of course, as predicted, you can't have justice of any kind without the ACLU coming in and complaining about it.

“Familial searching is a tool, and at this point it is a very imprecise tool,” said Michael Risher, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, who added there was the possibility of innocent people being harassed in the pursuit of a crime. “It has the potential to invade the privacy of a lot of people,” he said.

...and here's another shocker...it's RACIST!

“I can imagine lots of African-American families would think it is not fair to put a disproportionate number of black families under permanent genetic surveillance,” said Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University who has written about this issue.

Well, if blacks do not want to be locked up, I have an idea, don't commit crimes. How simple can it be? Same goes for whites, Mexicans, and any other race you want to name. The ACLU is saying this will lead to profiling, that minorities will be targeted. 

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Now, I have not personally done research about prison population in a number of years but, at the time I did.  There is an overwhelming representation of minorities that are in prison. There are more whites in prison, number-wise but, compared to what they represent in the population, as a whole, the percentage is lower in comparison. The black population is, indeed, over represented.

For example, I remember that out of 100,000 white people in a population something like 400 were in prison. For blacks, it was out of 100,000 blacks, there were 600. Do not quote me on that as being the specific numbers but, you get the idea. 

Does this mean we are purposely targeting only minorities? I think there may be cases across the United States where there is some type of prejudice. I am willing to admit that but, I also truly believe that it's the exception and not the norm.

I know for a fact in Baltimore they do not like to arrest blacks at all. While I was there, whites were constantly being attacked on the light rail. They refused to call what was going on a hate crime and, basically said that whites should avoid the light rail. The light rail is a form of PUBLIC transportation that should be allowed to be used by anyone of any race. So, bottom line, it works both ways.

Corruption DOES exist but, you shouldn't just give up. You need to work hard to root out the corruption, not prevent measures that will help capture people who are committing serious crimes.