Posted on 08/05/2008 8:30:35 AM PDT by Daffynition
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So, the police are investigating a crime, and in the course of their investigation, they come to chat with you about what you know or may have seen. You've done nothing wrong, so you have no objections to sitting down with the investigating officers and telling what little you may know. But the questioning becomes more intense, you find yourself stumbling over facts that don't seem important to you, but have the police pricking up their ears. And suddenly you realize that you're not just a helpful witness; now you're a suspect. What did you do wrong? The answer, unfortunately, is that you talked yourself into trouble -- yes, even innocent people can do that. You've probably heard that before from your paranoid brother-in-law, or a lawyer friend, but you didn't do anything. Who would have believed that your life could be turned upside down by a few words? Prof. James Duane of the Regent University School of Law is one of the people who does believe that loose lips sink ... well, not ships, but reputations and even lives. In an engaging and lively 27-minute lecture (I know, I know -- but it's worth watching), without assuming any malice on the part of the police, he explains just how you can talk yourself into trouble, and why you shouldn't talk to the police at all when suspicion wanders in your direction. Note an important issue addressed early in the video: There are now so many laws on the books that even the government can't tell you the number. The chance that you unknowingly broke a law or two is very high -- as is the likelihood that you just may confess to a crime that you never new existed. But Prof. Duane is a lawyer -- and an academic one at that. What do the police themselves think of the wisdom of spilling your guts in an interview with law-enforcement officers? Well, as it so happens, in the very same classroom, just after Prof. Duane finishes, Officer George Bruch of the Virginia Beach Police Department steps up to the podium and says ... well ... that Prof. Duane is basically right. In fact, Officer Bruch fills in a lot of important details about how people get themselves into trouble. Watch and learn. ACLU: Printable "bust" card on what to do if you're stopped by police here (PDF). |
BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters
You only think you are not guilty of anything.
Oh ... and by the way ... never invite an on duty cop into your home. And I say this as a retired LEO.
I’ve seen those two videos, and they are excellent advice, but nothing new. My father was an attorney (died nearly 40 years ago) but he had essentially the same advice - don’t talk to the police. They are not your friends.
Ping for later
Stop Snitchin!!!!
After seeing what the feds did to Scooter Libby, criminalizing what amounted to a difference of recollection on who said what when, I wouldn’t talk to anybody in law enforcement for any reason these days.
Never-never give a cop permission to search your car
bttt
Bump and mark for later...
My son got stopped for something way minor like 35-in-a-30 a few years back when he was around 20. The police wanted to search his car, and he politely told them he needed to call his father and ask his advice on that. They instantly cuffed him and arrested him for the speeding. He was a block away from the friend’s house he had just left, and they wouldn’t even let him call the friend to come get his car. They of course had it towed and impounded, and when we got it back it was obvious that it had been searched.
The police are the good guys but there are a lot of bad apples in the barrel, too, a lot of guys who flaunt their authority and don’t want it to be questioned in ANY way.
MM
The Supreme Court ruled long ago that you have the right to demand certain things from ANY public servant and by law they must provide it.
http://faemalia.net/PublicServantQuestionnaire.pdf
In Portland if your car is towed they will usually steal everything not bolted to the car. Purses, bags, cameras are all routinely disapeared by them.
I’ve worked with the police in various city attorney’s offices, as, among other things, an investigator for the city. The police will lie on the stand, they will twist what you say, they will fabricate evidence just to get a conviction. Not all will, and this is not an indictment of all LEOs, but there’s enough out there that this gentleman’s advice is very important. Keep you mouth shut.
I watched that, and it is sobering. I guess I’ve been lucky, have been in the unfortunate position in being in situations where I was involved in helping the police gather evidence to proceed with criminal charges that were definitely warranted for the sake of public safety, and the worst was we all came out of it with frazzled nerves and some trauma. My daughter reported her purse stolen once and had to take a lie detector test. Her checks finally surfaced, the perp was caught trying to pass them at a local supermarket, and the cloud of suspicion lifted off my daughter at last.
I did report a theft of checks from my house, my checking account balance suddenly took a nosedive, and I had to submit handwriting samples and sign a statement where I had not colluded in the incident. That person went to prison, I was supposed to be alerted through victim notification when she was released and paid $30, none of which happened. I didn’t want her to show up at my door to pay the $30 anyway, but I did want to know when she was released. That I found out through the grapevine.
More recently I stopped at the station to report my purse, w/credit cards, checks, etc., stolen, don’t carry much cash, the police and helpful citizens got most of my things back for me. Yes, I let an officer into my home to return an item. All this, and I know there are corrupt elements in our system, but not all.
So what does one do when it is your grandson who is 22 was allegedly feloniously assaulted by his stepfather requiring 18 stitches for a head wound? I wasn’t supposed to know, and am trying to get to the bottom of it first, at least get his version without the others involved knowing. He may not be blameless himself by provoking it, but that does not excuse it.
Do I need to hire an attorney for him, and how do we report this, if it fell out like I suspect, without some other family member being endangered including myself? He’s too old to go through child protective services, and I have good reason not to trust most of those people anyway although believe sometimes they have to do a job that is necessary, remove children from abusive and homes that are unfit for an animal let alone a child, just had a case here locally yesterday where the cops took on the local crime family, removed 11 children and boarded up the house. I believe I would be morally complicit if I sit back, do nothing, and hope it won’t happen again. This isn’t like that.
There can be exceptions to this.
Once I was pulled over on my way home from work at about 2AM. Apparently I was suspected of Driving When I Shouldn't Be Out.
I was driving my 1966 Mustang which was "distressed" and I had a lot of old, greasy parts in the trunk. It also had had the seats replaced with fiberglass racing seats that didn't fold forward. Access to the back seat was by crawling between the front seats.
And the rear floorboards were rusted out.
So when the two khaki-clad cops wanted to do a search of my vehicle, I let them.
Watching the junior cop, a female with a bit of swivel-chair spread, trying to wedge herself between those two seats just to put her foot through the floorboard as well as seeing how much nasty oil and grease they got all over their pretty uniforms was worth the hassle, especially as I never kept anything untoward in the trunk.
After about thirty minutes of trying to pick up intake manifolds and cylinder heads with two fingers to keep from getting completey greasy and trying to scrub off years of grease and road grime onto some flimsy paper towels they finally gave up and let me go about my business.
Oregon, I presume? Pretty state.
MM
ping
Yes, admittedly they are not new, however many readers who have teenagers now, who just starting to drive, etc. have an obligation to show them this. It’s good info that bears repeating now and again.
Lately the ‘search’ function has not been my FRiend. ;(
That being said, GM, we raise our kids to be respectful of the law and not incidentally LEOs; stuff happens, and even in small-town-America, teens get pulled over. While you think you are being respectful to an officer by appearing cooperative, depending on his/her testosterone level at the time, in a heartbeat, you can be in big trouble.
Posted on these threads almost daily, we see officers overstepping their bounds. These videos are a good cautionary note to all of us.
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