Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Worst Argument For A DNA Database Yet.

Is David Aaronovitch retarded? I don't wish to be abusive, but he seems to be spending a column unable to figure out the difference between 'guilty' and 'innocent'.

His argument is, and I'm not making this up, that opponents of the current practice of putting innocent people who have been convicted of no crime on the DNA database are hypocrites because they don't object to keeping convicted criminals on the database, and after all those criminals are really just differently innocent because they haven't yet committed the offences which the DNA database might help convict them of.

I'm sure he thinks he's found a very clever example of hypocrisy although if we were to follow his logic we would either have to get rid of all criminal records or give everyone a criminal record because otherwise it's completely unfair on convicts.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

David Aaronovitch is the tame Labour commentator who can be relied upon to spout the party doctrine. Apparently he used to be a good writer.

One day he will start a column on our war against East Asia and end congratulating our glorious allies East Asia in our common fight against Eurasia. Metaphorically

JuliaM said...

'differently innocent'

Lol! Nice one...

Ross said...

"David Aaronovitch is the tame Labour commentator who can be relied upon to spout the party doctrine. "

I think that is the thing, unlike a lot of people who are often grouped with Aaronovitch, like say Nick Cohen, Aaronovitch's positions are almost entirely a reflection of deep party loyalty.

Anonymous said...

Comrade ('Son of Sam') Aaronovitch is ex CP, and daddy was the CP economics guru. (Mike Kidron was held in similar high regard on ecenomics by the SWP).
His loyalty to NuLab is, I think, some form of overcompensation for the days when he was 'Broad Left' but actually outside the party tent.

Edwin Greenwood said...

"differently innocent"

Excellent. I shall remember that if I ever find myself up before the beak.

Or to quote the Monty Python "Dead Bishop" sketch:

Voice of God: "It was the one in the braces, he done it."

Guilty youth: "Alright, but society is to blame."

Detective Parson: Fair enough. We'll be charging them too.