2 ms·
How the hell are you supposed to behave? Police officers have the informal authority to make your life miserable (detaining for 24hrs without cause, selective
by jjoonathan 10y ago
How the hell are you supposed to behave?
Police officers have the informal authority to make your life miserable (detaining for 24hrs without cause, selective enforcement, the ability to lie both to you and the court and be taken at their word, etc). No lawyer is going to advise talking to the police, but there's clearly an element of selection bias in that. In cases that don't wind up requiring a lawyer, cooperation with the person who has this power over you is almost certainly to your benefit. The real question is how to draw the line, and all the lawyerly "never say a word to the police ever unless you're invoking the 5th" really doesn't help.
- tptacek 10y agoMost people just talk to the police. The overwhelming majority of interactions with police are benign. Consider avoiding police interactions if you are black/latino and not a resident of the neighborhood where the interaction occurs; if the police are knocking on your door or doing something else that deliberately involves them confronting you; if you carry or have casual access to firearms or contraband; if you have any criminal record. Statistically, most people don't fall into these buckets and thus don't land in the fact patterns that generate the majority of abusive interactions. I know it's hard to believe on Internet message boards, but in majority-minority neighborhoods in the US, the primary complaint residents have with the police is that they aren't doing enough. (I do not also mean to say that residents of black neighborhoods aren't also concerned that the police will casually murder them in tense/hostile confrontations, because that is a real concern as well).