Held as a terrorist: man suspected of photographing a sewer cover
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
A Manchester man was arrested, held for two days, had his DNA taken and stored and was then released without charge.
His alleged offence? Taking photos of a sewer cover!
From boingboing.net (including video report):
“Though the police couldn’t find any photos of sewer-gratings on his phone (and even though “what a sewer grating looks like” isn’t a piece of specialized terrorist intelligence), he was held on suspicion of planning an act of terror, imprisoned for two days while the police searched his home, his phone and his computer.
“When they couldn’t find anything suspicious, they released him, but kept his DNA on file, as the biometric of someone who had been accused of plotting a terrorist act.”
Mr Clarke is now insisting that his DNA and fingerprints should be removed from police files.
Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna
