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IMO if it is legal for police to lie to me, it should be legal for me to lie to the police too. Under oath in a courtroom is a totally different thing.
by aftbit 2y ago
IMO if it is legal for police to lie to me, it should be legal for me to lie to the police too. Under oath in a courtroom is a totally different thing.
- hugh-avherald 2y agoIANAL and jurisdictions differ but in general merely lying to the police is not illegal.
- mingus88 2y agoIn theory, sure. In practice, police will gladly make your life hell by charging you with obstruction of justice or a vague charge like disturbing the peace and let you sit in jail for a weekend until they drop the charges. There are countless ways in which they can mess with you, and they are legally unaccountable 99% of the time. Better advice is simply do not engage with police, and know your rights.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ceejayoz 2y agoMake sure they're not feds. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001
- bigfatkitten 2y agoMaking false statements to police is a criminal offence in most places.
- Terr_ 2y agoThat's a tricky proposal, because even if you might legally lie to police without direct repercussions, the same lie could easily--and quite reasonably--be introduced into into a later court case as evidence against you. Imagine a prosecutor, or a juror during deliberations: "He lied to police about not owning a gun, and he lied with a fake alibi about being somewhere else at the time. Those aren't the actions of an innocent bystander."
- JumpCrisscross 2y agoPolice lying about the law is one thing. Lying to a suspect under explicit custody, e.g. “your buddy in the next room confessed” is fine. Policing stops working when we pedantically construct it, which leads to a predictable backlash that stifles civil liberties—hard to be free if you’re dead. (And I’m assuming we don’t provide paper rights. If a Harvey Weinstein can raise reasonable suspicion someone was untruthful, he’s off.)
- Loughla 2y agoI don't understand what you're saying. Can you please expand on your statement? It reads, to me, that you're saying that if police don't lie, then civil society can break down? Alternate reading is that the cops can kill you? I'm very confused by your statements.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> if police don't lie, then civil society can break down Various legitimate interrogation techniques rely on bluffing, e.g. exploiting the prisoner’s dilemma. In other cases, the cop may say something they thought was true but isn’t. Disentangling this admits the Fifth Amendment heavily tilts the table for the suspect. > Alternate reading is that the cops can kill you? Murder, in general, is illegal. Lying, in general, is not.
- ww520 2y agoLying itself is not illegal, i.e. they cannot prosecute you based on the lie itself. But they can use your lying as unfavorable evidence for the case being pursued to nail you in the court. It’s better to invoke the fifth to state you don’t answer questions without legal representation.
- hoppyhoppy2 2y agoLying to a law enforcement officer is a misdemeanor in many US states, and lying to a federal officer is a federal crime.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- qingcharles 2y agoThe police lie under oath so consistently that attorneys have a word for it: "testilying." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_perjury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_perjury
- lazide 2y agoWhile it often is, ‘what you say can and will be used against you in court’. The power dynamic is not even.
- Ekaros 2y agoIn civilized countries as defendant you are free to lie as much as you want. The jury is there exactly for that reason. If you are charged with something you should be able to make any statements you want and even change them up to the trial. And only those statement should be used in trial.