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This is neither common knowledge, nor intuitive. There’s a famous YouTube video of a law professor encouraging people to never talk to the police. Civics clas
by pyuser583 6y ago
This is neither common knowledge, nor intuitive.
There’s a famous YouTube video of a law professor encouraging people to never talk to the police.
Civics classes regularly tell students they have an absolute right to stay silent.
The idea that US citizens have an obligation to report crimes is not obvious, and sounds like “compelled speech.“
If this is true, I find it shocking. I thought I had an almost infinite right to keep my mouth shut, and the exceptions involved a judge telling me “you must answer the question” - or at least signing a warrant.
- pyuser583 6y agoI’ve looked into this. It’s indeed a crime, but heavily criticized one. Most legal systems have abolished or narrowed it. It’s under (very light) fire from legal scholars. It’s not archaic - US federal prosecutors still use it. But they insist that the accused actively participated in covering up the crime. Or, at least, had a special obligation to report. So this isn’t obvious or well known, and probably is a good candidate for reform.