I am not for sure how many of you have followed the case of the Golden State Killer, but he has finally been arrested. Killing and raping since 1970's and turned out to be an ex police officer. Great police work that never wavered on catching this killer.
After nearly four decades, an arrest has been made in the case of a serial killer and rapist who terrorized communities in California in the 1970s and 1980s, the authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested on a warrant from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and booked early Wednesday on two counts of murder, according to Sacramento County jail records. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Mr. DeAngelo had been arrested in connection with the case.
There was a 4 part documentary on the TV about this a few weeks ago. A police officer was never mentioned as a possible suspect. If this is the dude, he is one twisted individual.
In certain extreme situations, the law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy, it is necessary to act outside the law to pursue a natural justice.
According to the one story, he is also suspected in 150 burglaries. I guess my question is: how was such a prolific criminal able to get away with those crimes so easily at the height of his rampage? I understand that DNA is very helpful today where it wasn't in the 70s and 80s. But 45 rapes is a lot. I also understand that he was a police officer and was probably better at covering his tracks that the average criminal. But I cannot believe that he was that perfect that he didn't leave something for them to go on.
I'm glad that he is finally on a path to be brought to justice and that the families involved will get at least some sense of closure. It is too bad he will be tried in CA and not TX. He deserves the big needle and he won't get it there.
I think it's great they caught the guy, but I thought you could expect a certain amount of privacy from these companies collecting DNA.
I had purchased a set of DNA tests for myself and my wife over the holidays and never submitted them. I don't personally have anything to hide, but I had inhibitions about submitting my DNA when I couldn't be assured that what they found was private. I had heard that people have used similar websites to locate long lost family members/unknown fathers/birth parents. I'm not so sure that submitting your DNA to these companies is such a great idea.
There is absolutely no guarantee of privacy or respect of your 4th Amendment rights in this day and age. Cell phones can be bugged even when they are off. Those home speaker thingys listen in on your conversations. Every email you send is read by the provider and the government.
Pretty scary stuff.
"When democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote." Mike Vanderboegh
"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." – Ayn Rand
I think it's great they caught the guy, but I thought you could expect a certain amount of privacy from these companies collecting DNA.
I had purchased a set of DNA tests for myself and my wife over the holidays and never submitted them. I don't personally have anything to hide, but I had inhibitions about submitting my DNA when I couldn't be assured that what they found was private. I had heard that people have used similar websites to locate long lost family members/unknown fathers/birth parents. I'm not so sure that submitting your DNA to these companies is such a great idea.
Plenty of reasons not to voluntarily have your DNA profile put into a database. For instance, the CEO of 23 and Me, Anne Wojcicki, is the wife of Sergey Brin, one of the co-founders of Google, and the president of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. Wojcicki, Brin and Mark Zuckerberg are partners in various ventures. Not a group of people I want having even more of my personal information.
The left lies about everything. Truth is a liberal value, and truth is a conservative value, but it has never been a left-wing value. People on the left say whatever advances their immediate agenda. Power is their moral lodestar; therefore, truth is always subservient to it. - Dennis Prager
I think it's great they caught the guy, but I thought you could expect a certain amount of privacy from these companies collecting DNA.
I had purchased a set of DNA tests for myself and my wife over the holidays and never submitted them. I don't personally have anything to hide, but I had inhibitions about submitting my DNA when I couldn't be assured that what they found was private. I had heard that people have used similar websites to locate long lost family members/unknown fathers/birth parents. I'm not so sure that submitting your DNA to these companies is such a great idea.
That's exactly why I refuse to do those. While it was used for good this time, who's to say it won't be used for tyranny later? My sister told me to stop being paranoid and just get the Amazon Echo because "it's just the way things are going, you can't stop it so why fight it?" I responded by saying that there may come a day when I am illegally bugged for no reason (or at least no lawful reason), but I'm not going to invite the bug into my home and willingly advance the erosion of my rights. I'm ready for all this to end.
Never bring a knife to a gun fight.
Carry gun: Springfield XD Tactical .45
I'm glad to others are concerned about this DNA usage. The troubling thing is that your relatives can submit DNA without your knowledge and you can still be tied to other DNA. I believe that is how they narrowed down their search.
USMC, Retired
Treating one variety of person as better or worse than others by accident of birth is morally indefensible.
oohrah wrote:I'm glad to others are concerned about this DNA usage. The troubling thing is that your relatives can submit DNA without your knowledge and you can still be tied to other DNA. I believe that is how they narrowed down their search.
The break in the case came after a cold case squad started matching DNA from those crime scenes to online family trees that had members who had submitted DNA. You see, you can access DNA profiles from other people. MyHeritage.com, for instance, lets you access the DNA for your family members; if you upload DNA data of your own, the site will match you to people with similar profiles.
I’m sure you can see how this could play out. Detectives could create a profile with their collected DNA from the crime scene, and use it to springboard into the correct family groups, and from there whittle it down to the right person while matching results with known geographical data such as residence locations at the time of the crimes, etc.
They arrested DeAngelo this week after using DNA databases from family tree sites to do just that.
What makes DeAngelo’s case worrisome isn’t that a potential rapist and murderer is off the street. In fact, there’s a reason why his particular case is getting so much attention. It’s not the first case that used DNA from genealogy sites, but it’s one of the first to get national media coverage. The reason is normalization. People are far more apt to shrug off a privacy or rights violation if it’s done to get a monster out of society.
Let’s change a few details. What if someone was arrested because some touch DNA was found on ‘subversive’ pamphlets and police found related profiles on a family tree site? Is it still okay to do then? What if DNA from a genealogy site was used to identify someone who was working in an underground network that provided magazines and ammunition to states where it was banned? What about then?
The left lies about everything. Truth is a liberal value, and truth is a conservative value, but it has never been a left-wing value. People on the left say whatever advances their immediate agenda. Power is their moral lodestar; therefore, truth is always subservient to it. - Dennis Prager