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You can still win the game be refusing to play. Assert your right to depart as soon as possible. State (politely) that you refuse to answer off-the-cuff questio

You can still win the game be refusing to play. Assert your right to depart as soon as possible. State (politely) that you refuse to answer off-the-cuff questions. Upon any indication of detention, ask if you are free to leave. If you no longer have this right, you're in hot water. Shut up. Lawyer up. The law is a dangerous animal that you do NOT want to face alone and unguided. Most people trip up by either: (1) Assuming that the law officer is their friend and they are not a suspect. That's what happened here. (2) Foolishly thinking they can talk their way out of their predicament with what they gleaned from the last episode of law and order. The cops probably know more than you about the law. I personally would refuse to answer any questions beyond the level of "how fast were you going" from a LEO without a lawyer present. I would advise others to do the same.

r00fus 13y ago
This is a horrible result - how can law enforcement be effective if no one trusts them enough to willingly assist them? Their job just got tougher today.
- hga 13y ago
  It's a horrible result from horrible, quota etc. driven policing, especially as "real" crime continues to drop (you don't notice any layoffs in the police-judicial complex strictly from this statistical decline, do you?). If they really wanted to do what we perceive as their jobs, they wouldn't be faced with this problem. (And that's not even getting into the thesis that outside of e.g. very small rural departments there are by definition no good police, since even the "good" police look the other way in observing the Blue Wall of Silence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Code_of_Silence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Code_of_Silence.) Perhaps the most important thesis in Arrest Proof Yourself (http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Ex-Cop-Reveals-Arrested/dp/1556526377/ http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Ex-Cop-Reveals-A...) is that the decline in real crime, which the police and courts by and large still do as good a job of dealing with, has required them to generate more arrests, convictions, and parole based entrapments, primarily from those the authors describe as "the clueless", the harmless to mostly harmless who do dumb things that are illegal but not a great threat to society. To the extent they view "their job" as doing whatever their superiors demand to e.g. achieve quotas of arrests, my heart bleeds.
- AnIrishDuck 13y ago
  > This is a horrible result - how can law enforcement be effective if no one trusts them enough to willingly assist them? I agree. I would much prefer living under a legal code where we could even estimate the number of federal crimes. I want to live in a country where possession of a rare bird feather isn't a felony [1]. Unfortunately, that country is not the US today, and as such you can't trust LEOs. > Their job just got tougher today. It really didn't, not by much. There's one born every minute. The fraction of the US population that doesn't understand their basic constitutional rights, or the restrictions put on the police force, is overwhelming. See [2]. Honestly, just look through the entire collection of comics I linked to. They're definitely worth your time. 1. http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/29326904495/16-a-problems http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/29326904495/16-a-pr... 2. http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/19810672629/12-i-was-entrapped http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/19810672629/12-i-wa...
chii 13y ago
apropos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc Edit: ahh didn't realize link was posted below as well.

r00fus 13y ago

This is a horrible result - how can law enforcement be effective if no one trusts them enough to willingly assist them? Their job just got tougher today.

hga 13y ago
It's a horrible result from horrible, quota etc. driven policing, especially as "real" crime continues to drop (you don't notice any layoffs in the police-judicial complex strictly from this statistical decline, do you?). If they really wanted to do what we perceive as their jobs, they wouldn't be faced with this problem. (And that's not even getting into the thesis that outside of e.g. very small rural departments there are by definition no good police, since even the "good" police look the other way in observing the Blue Wall of Silence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Code_of_Silence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Code_of_Silence.) Perhaps the most important thesis in Arrest Proof Yourself (http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Ex-Cop-Reveals-Arrested/dp/1556526377/ http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-Proof-Yourself-Ex-Cop-Reveals-A...) is that the decline in real crime, which the police and courts by and large still do as good a job of dealing with, has required them to generate more arrests, convictions, and parole based entrapments, primarily from those the authors describe as "the clueless", the harmless to mostly harmless who do dumb things that are illegal but not a great threat to society. To the extent they view "their job" as doing whatever their superiors demand to e.g. achieve quotas of arrests, my heart bleeds.
AnIrishDuck 13y ago
> This is a horrible result - how can law enforcement be effective if no one trusts them enough to willingly assist them? I agree. I would much prefer living under a legal code where we could even estimate the number of federal crimes. I want to live in a country where possession of a rare bird feather isn't a felony [1]. Unfortunately, that country is not the US today, and as such you can't trust LEOs. > Their job just got tougher today. It really didn't, not by much. There's one born every minute. The fraction of the US population that doesn't understand their basic constitutional rights, or the restrictions put on the police force, is overwhelming. See [2]. Honestly, just look through the entire collection of comics I linked to. They're definitely worth your time. 1. http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/29326904495/16-a-problems http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/29326904495/16-a-pr... 2. http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/19810672629/12-i-was-entrapped http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/19810672629/12-i-wa...

chii 13y ago

apropos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc Edit: ahh didn't realize link was posted below as well.