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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOfficial: DNA ties '04 NYC death to Occupy protest (WTF is this article about?)
NEW YORK (AP) A DNA match has created a puzzling new turn in a prominent unsolved killing, linking crime-scene evidence from a drama student's 2004 death to a chain collected after a protest that claimed affiliation with Occupy Wall Street this spring, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.
A database of DNA samples recently matched DNA on the chain to material on a compact disc player found near Sarah Fox's body, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
<snip> The chain was used to hold open an emergency exit gate during a protest this March 28 at a Brooklyn subway station. Aiming to draw attention to transit issues by giving passengers free rides, the demonstrators opened exits at various subway stations. A statement described many of the participants as members of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
More - http://news.yahoo.com/official-dna-ties-04-nyc-death-occupy-protest-031036311.html
Did this reporter just want to tie the Occupy movement to a murder? This has to be one of the shittiest written report I've read in a long time. Unless I'm missing something.
aquart
(69,014 posts)The chain wasn't jewelry. Anyone using the subway system could have touched it...talk about contaminated evidence! WHY were they testing that chain for DNA? What was the crime scene?
Nothing on that much touched chain could hold up in any court case although I'm curious as to what that case might be. Trespass? We test for DNA for trespass?
We have piles of untested rape kits but we're testing subway barriers? EXCUSE ME?
Drale
(7,932 posts)it could have been the Cop or Transit Authority worker who took the chain off the gate. No one knows.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)that) are so low that they simply cannot be relied upon for anything other than entertainment value.
johnnie
(23,616 posts)coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)some right-wing crazies. IIRC, Helen Thomas eviscerated AP over this.
MADem
(135,425 posts)I am reading between the lines, and it sounds to me like someone from Occupy is fingering this guy, not that the police are trying to "accuse" Occupy. Maybe someone from Occupy knew that this guy had drooled or bled all over the chain, or something?
The chain was used to hold open an emergency exit gate during a protest this March 28 at a Brooklyn subway station. Aiming to draw attention to transit issues by giving passengers free rides, the demonstrators opened exits at various subway stations. A statement described many of the participants as members of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
An Occupy representative didn't immediately respond to an email message late Tuesday.
It wasn't immediately clear who might have provided or touched the chain.
http://news.yahoo.com/official-dna-ties-04-nyc-death-occupy-protest-031036311.html
The police may not want to rat out the person who fingered this guy..?
Since "Occupy" is leaderless, a statement from someone purporting to be a representative is pretty meaningless.
johnnie
(23,616 posts)Then again it could be more recently. Actually my reason for posting this is because of how poorly the article is written. It is strange that they put the Occupy movement into the story without really having a good reason to.
MADem
(135,425 posts)I completely agree the article sounds like it was badly translated from Latvian--very hard to follow.
I am wondering, though, if this article is deliberate goading or baiting; that the police are suggesting that someone from OWS ratted out the guy, that the group that got the chain from the suspect had reason to suspect him--maybe he babbled after a night of partying, or something, and they are trying to shake a tree here. I am not getting a sense they are accusing anyone from OWS, just someone who is known to some people within OWS who may or may not be talking to police.
Not sure why I have that sense--it's probably as much what has not been said as what has been said.
Time (and a more coherent report!) will tell, though!!!
maddezmom
(135,060 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)It could be that one of those protesters got a squirrelly feeling about the person who gave them the chain, and mentioned it to the police...?
turtlerescue1
(1,013 posts)especially since of the "anonymity" of the "official" -ya gotta wonder the motive.
It is more frightening that there would be DNA testing to begin with. Put that with the UC Davis "incident"- "Welcome to the Monkey House".
MADem
(135,425 posts)It could be the police are watching the suspect, and saw him drool or bleed all over the chain before he handed it over to the OWS people. Or maybe after...?
I don't think they are running around DNA testing random objects--there is a chunk of this story missing, for whatever reason.
turtlerescue1
(1,013 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)Last edited Wed Jul 11, 2012, 10:17 PM - Edit history (1)
To freak the guy into running...!
EDIT--in any event, it doesn't matter--the double DNA comes from the lab tech who worked on both cases. It was poor procedure on the part of the lab worker, who is in trouble, most likely, right about now.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)They will do anything and everything in their power, including stupid stories like this, to make Occupy look bad in the eyes of the public.
The 1% is killing the planet.
We're going to stop them, no matter how many lies, and how much bullshit anti-Occupy propaganda they print
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)This was a crime scene related to theft of services from the MTA.
The next logical step is to review surveillance video, interview people at the scene, etc.
It's a pretty significant break in the murder case.
johnnie
(23,616 posts)I was wondering why they tested the chain. Like I said, I posted this more to show a poorly written article seeming to just get the word out the Occupy is tied to a murder.
Huey P. Long
(1,932 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)You think all murder investigations are invalid now? Did you read the article? It has to do with someone the police previously questioned. If their main suspect had touched that chain, it only makes sense to test it.
What I found particularly curious is the mention of an 'Occupy representative'. I didn't know such a thing existed.
johnnie
(23,616 posts)It just seemed to me that someone wrote a quick piece with little facts just to tie Occupy to a murder. So I said "what the fuck".
randome
(34,845 posts)Really? They claim they found some DNA on a chain link in NYC, and they are obviously trying to arbitrarily connect it with OWS in order to make OWS look bad in the eyes of the public.
That makes sense to you?
Really?
MADem
(135,425 posts)Zorra
(27,670 posts)of Occupy.
That front page of Rupert Murdoch's NY Post...are you kidding me?
The damage is already done; Occupy has been maliciously smeared and libeled by 1% RW owned MSM. That's the beauty in owning all the media. You can totally make shit up and then get people to read and think things that are total bullshit, and never have to fess up that you totally lied in order to deceive them. There are no laws against lying or planting false news stories.
There will be no followup to this phony story. Many gullible, ignorant people have now effectively been scared and made afraid, there's no reason for anything further, until they make up some other total bullshit to smear Occupy with.
MADem
(135,425 posts)follow-up to the story--it was a lab tech fuckup. The source is still anonymous, but I think a spokesman will come out and make this official in the next day or so.
NEW YORK POST: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/dna_found_lab_sarah_fox_ows_scene_AXAcfM2L6Ld1TuZS4cfVzJ
DNA link between Sarah Fox murder & OWS scenes could be mistake: sources
NY DAILY NEWS: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/dna-found-sarah-fox-evidence-ows-chain-belong-sloppy-city-worker-sources-article-1.1112436
'Link' between DNA from Occupy Wall Street protest & Sarah Fox murder was actually product of a lab mess-up: sources
The NYPD lab employee who processed evidence from both cases will likely face departmental charges for not taking precautions to prevent tainting, sources said.
WALL STREET JOURNAL: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303740704577521394281541760.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Officials were investigating whether a potential match between DNA found at the murder scene of a Juilliard student and on a chain used in an Occupy Wall Street stunt was actually a mistake by a lab worker.
The connection initially looked like an unlikely break in the unsolved 2004 killing of 21-year-old Sarah Fox. However, as police looked more closely at the link Tuesday, a law-enforcement official said questions began arising about the credibility of the match.
WASHINGTON POST: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/official-dna-match-in-unsolved-ny-killing-came-from-lab-worker-who-also-worked-on-occupy-case/2012/07/11/gJQAv6Q7dW_story.html
Official: DNA match in unsolved NY killing came from lab worker who also worked on Occupy case..... But during the process of excluding people who may have handled evidence, it was determined the DNA came from a lab worker who dealt with both cases, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. It was not clear if the mistake was the result of contaminated evidence.
Much more from other sources is coming across the wire right now...
Zorra
(27,670 posts)I called bullshit on that story before I even finished the headline.
Media Pounces on False DNA Link to OWS Protests, Student's Murder
]So here's what you posted in this thread:
The police may not want to rat out the person who fingered this guy..?
Since "Occupy" is leaderless, a statement from someone purporting to be a representative is pretty meaningless."
Really? All. People. Must. Have. Leader.
-----
"Yes--that loony-looking but fit fellow in the tape is the suspect.
I completely agree the article sounds like it was badly translated from Latvian--very hard to follow.
I am wondering, though, if this article is deliberate goading or baiting; that the police are suggesting that someone from OWS ratted out the guy, that the group that got the chain from the suspect had reason to suspect him--maybe he babbled after a night of partying, or something, and they are trying to shake a tree here. I am not getting a sense they are accusing anyone from OWS, just someone who is known to some people within OWS who may or may not be talking to police.
-----
Not sure why I have that sense--it's probably as much what has not been said as what has been said."
-----
"It could be the police are watching the suspect, and saw him drool or bleed all over the chain before he handed it over to the OWS people. Or maybe after...?
I don't think they are running around DNA testing random objects--there is a chunk of this story missing, for whatever reason."
"-this sounds more like a "tethered goat" baiting to me. I think they know who gave those kids the chain, and they want to sweat him."
Here's what I posted in this thread:
Worst. Murdoch. Propaganda. Ever. The 1% knows that Occupy is going to win.
They will do anything and everything in their power, including stupid stories like this, to make Occupy look bad in the eyes of the public.
The 1% is killing the planet.
We're going to stop them, no matter how many lies, and how much bullshit anti-Occupy propaganda they print.
----
Really? They claim they found some DNA on a chain link in NYC, and they are obviously trying to arbitrarily connect it with OWS in order to make OWS look bad in the eyes of the public.
That makes sense to you?
Really?
----
Really? No. What they wanted, and what they've done, is to make people afraid of Occupy.
That front page of Rupert Murdoch's NY Post...are you kidding me?
The damage is already done; Occupy has been maliciously smeared and libeled by 1% RW owned MSM. That's the beauty in owning all the media. You can totally make shit up and then get people to read and think things that are total bullshit, and never have to fess up that you totally lied in order to deceive them. There are no laws against lying or planting false news stories.
There will be no followup to this phony story. Many gullible, ignorant people have now effectively been scared and made afraid, there's no reason for anything further, until they make up some other total bullshit to smear Occupy with.
-----
What I meant by the last paragraph was that the damage was done. There would be no need to investigate or arrest any Occupier because the story was a bullshit plant. Saying whoops, we goofed is not a followup story. It's just a bullshit explanation for a piece of phony propaganda.
So, like, I was wrong?
People should never try to cover their ass to save face, unless they have some very unusual anatomical anomalies.
MADem
(135,425 posts)You said: There will be no followup to this phony story.
The police came out and said there was no connection between OWS and the CD player--that the "connection" was their own incompetent lab tech.
Obviously, they were testing the chain to see if they could find out who was the person/persons who chained open the door and disrupted the transportation system. They were not looking for a murderer when they tested that chain, they were looking for someone who caused chaos in the subway.
They ran the DNA and found that it matched a hit on the CD player--and someone felt a need to let the media know, either for money or what-have-you, that there was a connection.
Unfortunately for them and their reputations, it was learned during exclusionary testing that the "match" belonged to someone in the lab.
Now, the story is not focused in the slightest on OWS or even on the people who chained that door open, it is focused on the police lab, a bumbling lab tech, a possibility that cases have been compromised, and the fact that the place is apparently run very sloppily. No one is "afraid" of Occupy, no Occupier needs to be arrested for murder (though if they had found anything on that chain, they might have tried to get someone for disrupting public transportation), they're now afraid of slobs in the police lab drooling all over the evidence and making a conviction impossible owing to their slovenliness.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)Again.
So remember that DNA link to a OWSer .... turns out FALSE
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002948953
Nice try though!
wandy
(3,539 posts)The headline is misleading. As is ofter done on right wings blogs or FOX the headline will give you a 'desired' impression.
Do you doubt that their are Teapublicans so uninformed that they do not believe or could be lead to believe that Occupy was around in 2004.
I'm not saying it was the intent, however I don't doubt that a number of teabbagers came away with......
See I told you they were no good. Those dirty OWS hippies were causing trouble all the way back to 2004.
On the other hand, it could be the lazy ass editor should be seeking employment in a different endeavor.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Mittens is gonna get his ass kicked if he tries to cut that kid's hair this time!
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)The NY Post and NY Daily News both have similar reports.
Ironically, the Post has the only honest paragraph in this whole mess:
"Matching the DNA on the chain to a suspect wont be easy, sources said, because the genetic sample could be from an OWS activist or anyone who passed through the gates for a free ride."
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ows_link_to_gal_slay_2O6i1NY2Htt2kArXSv2jOI
...but that didn't stop the NY Times from running their fucked-up headline: "DNA Said to Link Occupy Wall St. Protest and 2004 Killing"
I smell the NYPD all over this, especially after they smeared that activist couple last week:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/168729/nypd-brands-occupy-wall-street-couple-professional-agitators
johnnie
(23,616 posts)I don't know much about the back story on the murder it just struck me funny how poorly the story was written, like someone just wanted to say Occupy = murder.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Banner headline.
frylock
(34,825 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)The lab tech is in trouble for shitty procedure.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)This corruption of our legal system, if history is any guide, will not be reserved by the state for suspected terrorists, or even Muslim Americans. In the coming turmoil and economic collapse, it will be used to silence all who are branded as disruptive or subversive. Hashmi endures what many others, who are not Muslim, will endure later. Radical activists in the environmental, globalization, anti-nuclear, sustainable agriculture and anarchist movementswho are already being placed by the state in special detention facilities with Muslims charged with terrorismhave discovered that his fate is their fate. Courageous groups have organized protests, including vigils outside the Manhattan detention facility. They can be found at www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org or www.freefahad.com. On Martin Luther King Day, this Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. EST, protesters will hold a large vigil in front of the MCC on 150 Park Row in Lower Manhattan to call for a return of our constitutional rights. Join them if you can.
....
There will be more Hashmis, and the Justice Department, planning for future detentions, set up in 2006 a segregated facility, the Communication Management Unit, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Nearly all the inmates transferred to Terre Haute are Muslims. A second facility has been set up at Marion, Ill., where the inmates again are mostly Muslim but also include a sprinkling of animal rights and environmental activists, among them Daniel McGowan, who was charged with two arsons at logging operations in Oregon. His sentence was given terrorism enhancements under the Patriot Act. Amnesty International has called the Marion prison facility inhumane. All calls and mailalthough communication customarily is off-limits to prison officialsare monitored in these two Communication Management Units. Communication among prisoners is required to be only in English. The highest-level terrorists are housed at the Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, known as Supermax, in Florence, Colo., where prisoners have almost no human interaction, physical exercise or mental stimulation, replicating the conditions for most of those held at Guantánamo. If detainees are transferred from Guantánamo to the prison in Thomson, Ill., they will find little change. They will endure Guantánamo-like conditions in colder weather.
Our descent is the familiar disease of decaying empires. The tyranny we impose on others we finally impose on ourselves. The influx of non-Muslim American activists into these facilities is another ominous development. It presages the continued dismantling of the rule of law, the widening of a system where prisoners are psychologically broken by sensory deprivation, extreme isolation and secretive kangaroo courts where suspects are sentenced on rumors and innuendo and denied the right to view the evidence against them. Dissent is no longer the duty of the engaged citizen but is becoming an act of terrorism.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/one_day_well_all_be_terrorists_20091228/
brentspeak
(18,290 posts)Jim Warren
(2,736 posts)My thought exactly. Just a little warm up for the coming convention season.
MADem
(135,425 posts)smokey nj
(43,853 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)It appeared both DNA samples may have been tainted at a police lab before they were tested by the medical examiner's office, sources told ABC News' New York station, WABC. The material found on both the CD player and the chain may have come from a member of the NYPD who handled both items, sources said.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/dna-links-occupy-wall-street-protest-slain-julliard/story?id=16753258#.T_4gyI6hC5Q
MADem
(135,425 posts)johnnie
(23,616 posts)fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)Terrorissss! Murdururzzzz!
To quote the shampoo commercial, "That means it's working". Occupy, that is