40,000 Dead in The Morgues
Mysteries remain unsolved.
The remains of some 40,000 people in the U.S. have yet to be identified. Why haven’t they been identified? The informed element within the American citizenry will confront that agonizing question in the years to come.
Bodies or remains have been found over the course of decades. When they can’t be identified, they are often stored in the morgues. Many of the cases are unsolved homicide mysteries. Some of the cases may have been destitute people who died on the streets. What is known is that hardly any of the 40,000 dead were killed by Hurricane Katrina: The National Center for Missing Adults has identified 99.8% of those killed by that hurricane.
In any case, the number of dead unidentified bodies is approaching the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam conflict, some 58,000.
Elements within the U.S. government are attempting to create a database that would hold information about the physical characteristics of the dead. The NAMUS database (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) was created under the authority of the Justice Department, but to date information on only 5730 of the 40,000 cases has been entered into the database. Of those cases, 160 have been closed.
Obviously, more resources should be dedicated to forensics. They should receive whatever resources are necessary to complete the database. With sufficient resources, a year would be ample time to complete it.
Less obvious is how to avoid reactionary behavior that has destroyed so many civilizations in the past. The reactionary police state - where constitutional freedoms and procedural rights of the accused are abandoned – is to be avoided. Presumed innocence of all people must be the rule.
Questions must be asked. Why is it that a government that can fingerprint over 100 million living people under programs like U.S. VISIT can’t gather physical information on the 40,000 dead? Are there individuals within the federal or state governments who are delaying the database or the investigations? If murder investigations are being intentionally delayed, the Justice Department is obligated by law to file obstruction of justice charges.
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