Welcome to Amerika: precrime squads

[Major Variola (ret)]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/1548489

Aug. 25, 2002, 10:00PM

                           Delaware police compile database of
                           future suspects

                           Associated Press

                           WILMINGTON, Del. -- 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.