E-Mail This Article to a Friend Spitting on our liberties The Cape Cod DA’s coercive DNA sweep is an outrageous assault on the right to be left alone

NO DOUBT Michael O’Keefe, the district attorney for Cape Cod and the Islands, thinks he’s doing the right thing by attempting to persuade Truro men to provide saliva samples so that they may be matched against DNA evidence in a frustratingly elusive murder investigation. Those who would take away our personal freedom invariably believe it’s for our own good.

It’s not. In fact, O’Keefe’s edict — which is being enforced by Truro police and the Massachusetts State Police — is an outrageous trampling of our civil liberties. It may not be intended as intimidation, but that is the effect. Not only should the district attorney cease and desist immediately, but any records collected in carrying out this witch-hunt should be destroyed — something he has promised to do only after the samples are no longer needed. Above all, O’Keefe’s crusade makes a mockery of the right to be left alone.

The spit test is the latest development in the investigation of the 2002 murder of Christa Worthington, a 46-year-old fashion writer. O’Keefe wants DNA samples from the 750 or so men who live in Truro because semen was found on Worthington’s body. The man with whom Worthington had sexual relations is not necessarily a suspect, O’Keefe has said; but since he may have been the last person to see Worthington alive, the authorities want to question him.

Unfortunately, there is little to suggest that O’Keefe’s tactics are illegal, despite the Fourth Amendment prohibition against "unreasonable searches and seizures." In fact, similar sweeps have been conducted elsewhere in the country. But that doesn’t make them right. On Monday, the ACLU of Massachusetts sent a letter to O’Keefe and to Truro police chief John Thomas, asking that they "discontinue the wholesale collection of DNA samples in connection with the investigation of the murder of Christa Worthington," calling it "a serious intrusion on personal privacy that has proven to be both ineffective and wasteful."

A study by the University of Nebraska found that such mass DNA sweeps rarely produce useful information. Thus O’Keefe’s tactics are not only an affront to liberty — there is also no evidence that they will work. What’s taking place in Truro is nothing more than an exercise in police intimidation, wrongly wrapped up in the laudable cause of solving a notorious murder case.

Menino avoids reality

Mayor Tom Menino’s State of the City was a masterful performance on the surface, a feel-good message delivered at a time when many residents do, indeed, feel good about the city. His call for expanded early-education programs, for beautification projects, and for 375th-birthday parties across Boston, to be paid for with $1 million in funds left over from the Democratic National Convention, were well-received — although he’ll have to prove he can match his predecessor Kevin White’s stylish celebration 25 years ago. Menino’s observation that the city contributes far more to the state’s economy than it gets back was on target, if lacking in policy specifics (see Adam Reilly’s take on the State of the City, posted Wednesday on BostonPhoenix.com).

But the mayor avoided the tough issues, especially soaring property taxes and his increasingly troubled police department. Since the late 1970s, property taxes had been relatively stable because of state aid and Proposition 2 1/2, which strictly limits tax increases. In the past few years, though, the state cut back considerably in local-aid payments as it struggled with its own fiscal crisis. And the value of residential property kept rising even as recession lowered the value of business property, thus shifting too much of the tax burden onto hard-pressed homeowners. Coupled with the Menino administration’s inadequate record in developing affordable housing, the tax burden has, sadly, given residents one more reason to think about moving out of the city.

Even more troubling is the performance of the Boston Police Department (BPD). After toxic contract negotiations that nearly disrupted the Democratic convention, there was reason to hope that police commissioner Kathleen O’Toole, who’s been on the job for about a year now, would get her department back on track. During the 1990s, after all, the BPD was a national model, admired for its community policing and the city’s decreasing murder rate. Now the murder rate is climbing, and the department’s ability to solve crime has come under serious question. A recent survey shows that public confidence in the BPD is dropping, not just among African-Americans — which is to be expected, given that their neighborhoods are often the most crime-plagued — but among other communities as well (see "Reasonable Bias," News and Features, January 7). O’Toole seems genuinely committed to cleaning up her department by taking such steps as establishing a citizen review board. But she still has much to do.

What Menino said Monday evening was fine as far as it went. What he didn’t say was far more significant.

Race and the Metro

If the stakes weren’t so high, it would be entertaining to sit on the sidelines and scoff at the dust-up between the New York Times Company and the suddenly oh-so-sensitive Boston Herald. Last week the Times Company — which owns the Boston Globe — purchased a 49 percent share in Boston’s Metro, a freebie weekday tab, for $16.5 million. Herald publisher Pat Purcell vowed to fight the deal on anti-competitive grounds. Then, on Monday, MediaChannel.org reported on vile racist jokes told at get-togethers of Metro International, the Metro’s parent company (see Monday’s and Wednesday’s Media Log entries at BostonPhoenix.com). The Herald has been in full battle regalia ever since. On Wednesday, the Herald published a page-one splash that screamed SLURS FLY AT HUB METRO. Nor did that front page fail to omit a prominently featured Boston Globe logo.

By now, Times Company chair Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Globe publisher Richard Gilman must realize that they have a serious problem on their hands — one that clashes with the liberal image they take such care to cultivate. But there’s no reason to give Herald publisher Pat Purcell his due, considering his refusal to deal with his own racially insensitive columnists, most notably Howie Carr and Mike Barnicle. Instead, the Times Company should insist that its new business partner clean house. Yes, the Times Company is already the region’s dominant media organization, owning not just the powerful Globe but also the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and, through its part-ownership of the Red Sox, a chunk of New England Sports Network. The dangers of corporate media consolidation are real. But adding the Metro to the Times Company’s portfolio won’t make much of a difference — and Purcell wouldn’t see it as such a threat if his own downscale tabloid were more adept at attracting readers and advertisers.

CBS and the truth

The shortcomings of CBS anchor Dan Rather, fired producer Mary Mapes, and their nominal supervisors are not news, although this week’s report did add to our understanding of what went wrong with the network’s deeply flawed story last September on George W. Bush’s non-service in the Texas Air National Guard (see "Don’t Quote Me," News and Features). What people should not forget is that, by all credible accounts, Bush used his privileged position both to get into and later to get out of the National Guard, thus avoiding service in Vietnam and then getting a head start on his lackluster business career.

The Boston Globe did some groundbreaking work on that story as far back as 2000, and follow-ups by the Globe and other news organizations have never called that basic premise into question. Yet Bush and Dick Cheney, who also managed to avoid the draft, have gotten a free ride, even as the genuine service of Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry, in 2004, and Al Gore, in 2000, has been denigrated beyond all recognition. That’s not just ironic. It’s outrageous.

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