Refusing DNA collection is not an option
Grace Cooper, 30, was also in the designated “free speech zone” when she was arrested in a confrontation she described as “the most terrifying 90 seconds of her life.”
It was his first time at a protest in Broadview and Cooper didn’t know what to expect. That day, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino allegedly arbitrarily ruled that the designated area had suddenly become an “arrest-free zone” and then ordered protesters to quickly move away from the area or face arrest.
Although Cooper immediately turned to comply, an officer grabbed her from behind and “threw her to the ground.” After his arrest, no officers were able to tell him what his crime was, and he even reported overhearing officers discussing what his crime might be.
Of the protesters who sued, Cooper was the only one who refused the DNA sample. Such a refusal is a crime, the complaint stated, and the officers did not allow him to refuse. After hours, officers released her without charging her, dropping her off at “a nearby gas station” and refusing to give her information about whether her case was still ongoing.
Like the others, Cooper’s “most immediate fear” after his arrest was “what the government will do with his DNA.”
“She is concerned that the government will use her DNA to place her on a ‘domestic terrorist watch list’ and track her movements—at airports, during traffic stops, and in ways she cannot anticipate or question,” the complaint says.
Carey R. Dunne, founder of Free + Fair Litigation Group, which represents Briggs in the lawsuit, told the New York Times that the protesters’ litigation addresses “a constellation of constitutional violations that needed to be challenged.”
Unchecked DNA collection “puts you and your family into a state surveillance database of people who have criticized this administration,” Dunne 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 the privacy of countless Americans who may be increasingly affected by allegedly unconstitutional DNA collection.
“If we don’t have the right to ourselves, everything is going to fall apart,” Briggs said.
