A private firm with a federal contract - and backed up by city police - forced motorists off Laurel Street and into a private parking lot Friday to question them about their driving habits and ask for a swab of their mouth."I feel this incident is a gross abuse of power on many levels," Reading resident Ricardo Nieves, one of those stopped, told City Council Monday.He said federal and local tax dollars were being used to stop innocent people without probable cause, and allow a private company to hire uniformed police to force citizens to listen to their questions.He said he wasn't told what the swab was for, but added, "Clearly it was for DNA."The checkpoint was among several being carried out in Pennsylvania by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, hired by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.City Police Chief William M. Heim said the two federal agencies are trying to see what can be done about crashes and injuries, and the swabs were not to get DNA samples but to test for the presence of prescription drugs. - See more at: http://readingeagle.com/article/20131217/NEWS/312179910&template=mobileart#sthash.NoPLthUc.dpuf What part of the Fourth Amendment do they not understand? Whether this is for DNA or to test for the presence of prescription drugs, it doesn't matter. Think about this, drivers are stopped with no probable cause and basically forced to give samples from their mouth for DNA or to test for drug presence. This is an attack on liberty and an abuse of power!
If this actually happened then WHAT. THE. F.? Mouth swab? No probable cause? Somebody needs to be going to jail for this.
