Refusing DNA collection is not an option
Thirty-year-old Grace Cooper was also in the designated “free speech zone” when she was arrested in a clash that she described as “the most terrifying 90 seconds of her life”.
It was his first time at a Broadview protest and Cooper didn’t know what to expect. That day, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino reportedly arbitrarily ruled that the designated area was suddenly a “free arrest zone”, then ordered protesters to quickly withdraw from the area or face arrest.
Although Cooper immediately turned to comply, an agent grabbed him from behind and “threw him to the ground.” After his arrest, none of the agents could tell him what his crime was, and he even heard agents debating what his crime could possibly be.
Of the protesters sued, Cooper was the only one who refused to have a DNA sample taken. The complaint states that such refusal is a crime and the agents did not allow him to refuse. Hours later, agents released him without charges, dropped him off at “a nearby gas station” and refused to give him any information about whether his case was pending.
Like others, Cooper’s “most immediate fear” after his arrest was “what the government would do with his DNA.”
“She is concerned that the government will use her DNA to place her on a ‘domestic terrorist watch list’ and monitor her movements – at airports, during traffic stops, and in ways she cannot anticipate or oppose,” the complaint says.
Cary R., founder of Free + Fair Litigation Group. Dunn, who is representing Briggs in the lawsuit, told The New York Times that the protesters’ lawsuit “addresses a set of constitutional violations that need to be challenged.”
Uncontrolled DNA collection “puts you and your family in a surveillance state database of people who have criticized this administration,” Dunn alleged, while suggesting that “on an authoritarian scale of one to 10, this is a 10.”
Briggs told the NYT that the lawsuit could clarify the DNA Act and potentially restore privacy for countless Americans who could be increasingly harmed by allegedly unconstitutional DNA collection.
“If we don’t have power over ourselves, everything will fall apart,” Briggs said.
<a href