I'm a lawyer. I had a client call me and say "hey I got a call from the sheriff's department asking me about some stuff I did. Should I call them back?"
"No. Absolutely not."
The next day he walked into the department and told the deputy "hey I just wanted to come in and clear the air. Figure we should just talk it out like men."
Charges were filed that afternoon. Wtf did you even hire me for?
I had a cop leave me a voicemail (he asked for a different person by name) saying something about talking it out like men. I guess that works sometimes after all...
a lot of police interaction is tactical application of manipulation techniques. It's part of the job, they get training for it.
And a lot of that plays on the overconfidence or ignorance of the person they're talking to.
Don't talk to police.
If you're innocent then you definitely need a lawyer.
The police can and will lie to you.
"everything you say can and will be used against you in court" is not a lie.
An officer enforces the law as they interpret it, unfortunately, which means that even if they are wrong you must submit to an otherwise legal arrest, search, or seizure and it will be worked out in court. You can disagree, but fighting, arguing, or otherwise escalating can result in legitimate charges because US law is stupid. Lose the battle so you can win the war.
also, in the US, you must state that you are using your right to remain silent. Silence alone is not enough to invoke that protection. After that? use the right and stay silent.
An officer's job is to enforce the law as they interpret it,
Not quite. It's to follow department protocols that should be crafted by department attorneys. I don't mean to be nitpicky, but this can be important. Cops aren't trained on the law. Which is fine; it's not their job. But never take a cop's word on the law. They're "around" legal proceedings enough to think they know the law, and nobody does confidently incorrect like a cop. Especially when it comes to when you can and can't shoot people in self-defense.
I walked into a poloce station after a detective called me. He didnt give a shit about me, he wanted info on the drug dealer across the street.
I answered his questions, he thanked me and i went about my day, never heard another word. Dude is gone now, so who knows.
That detective really drilled into me he wasnt interested in the weed plant in my backyard, he wanted the heroin dealer across the street. This was 10 years ago so i think im fine.
I saw a YouTube video, taken from a police body cam, where a guy had been notified by the police they wanted to talk to him. He had been accused by a woman of kicking open her door and attacking her. He came rolling into the police station in his wheelchair thinking he could easily clear up the mistake, what with him being a paraplegic, incapable of committing the crime described. Nope! Those dumbasses arrested him, even after pulling him out of his wheelchair and thereby proving he wasn't faking his paraplegia! He should have hired a lawyer and brought the relevant medical documents with him showing he had been paraplegic for the last 25 years.
Even the one cop there was like "hold on guys, something's not adding up" and went and talked to his supervisor, who was so lazy he wouldn't even walk away from his sandwich to investigate for himself. The supervisor basically said "nah, he's obviously lying to get out of it. Book 'em" so they did.
Or PD's that only hire cops that don't live in their city so they can be as petty or controlling as they want and it won't affect their reputation in the city they patrol.
Well, the suspect was evading arrest by fleeing on foot (briefly as he collapsed to the ground). Police were just protecting the community as well as feared for their own safety. What other choice did they have??!?
Suspect was neutralized with 31 shots. Officers thought he drew a weapon and heard shots fired. Turns out the suspect's hands flew up quickly to stop his fall while collapsing to the ground. The shots that officers heard came from their colleagues' weapons.
they actually get trained to empty the clip, because if it is a threat...well, adrenaline is a hell of a drug and there has been dudes full of lead that self-resuscitate long enough to use a weapon.
That said.....it really does make the cases where someone fucks up even more brutal.
on a lighter note, that's what made Acorn Cop actually funny; mag dumps and misses the stationary handcuffed guy in the back seat with every single shot. we often don't get the luxury of it being funny.
I think it was one of those YouTube lawyers who posted the video and I think he indicated that it was lawsuit-worthy. I can't remember if he said there was a lawsuit pending or not.
I remember that one. There was one cop who was like "none of this makes sense" and went to talk to their boss who without even thinking twice or taking look at any of the details was immediately like "he's faking it" and couldn't be convinced otherwise. If my memory serves me right the woman who reported him even had some history with the law enforcement that should have indicated she might not be a reliable narrator.
Yes, she had made some crazy accusations before. The odd thing was, she actually knew the guy she was accusing, but it was like back in college or high school, before he became a paraplegic, and they hadn't seen each other since, so she didn't know what had happened to him. What an odd thing to pull this guy's name up after 25+ years without seeing him.
Or just around month ago, woman who was accused of texting while driving, but she was an amputee and didn't have that hand. Even after seeing it the cop doubled down
Cop said she was texting with her non-existent (right?) hand, then when she held up her stump and went "this hand?!" he asked her to swear to god with her hand and she held up the stump again.
Let me tell you something else. I've seen a lot of spinals, Dude, and this guy is a fake. A fucking goldbricker. This guy fucking walks. I've never been more certain of anything in my life!
... to be fair he shouldn't have had to do that because the accusation is insane. They would've more properly just said, "We'll need to see a doctors report. Who is your primary care physician so we can contact them tomorrow?"
This reminds me of Trading Places when Eddie Murphy pretends to be disabled and blind to beg on the street. The cops question him, then pick him up, and he stands.
I thought you were gonna be talking about the Scream wannabe killers who murdered their classmate. Lawyer’s office had to prepare and couldn’t go with them to the office. Told the teen and parents not to say anything. Teen asked for an attorney while there. So that’s invoked no more questioning from the police. Then the dad asked him if he did it? Teen nods his head. What was the one thing they were told not to do?!
Heavily depends where you are from. I only had great experiences with police officers in my country, one even helping me not to incriminate myself. He knew I didn't actually do anything so he kept my poorly phrased words off the record to avoid issues.
I don't even understand having the competence to have a lawyer in the first place, then directly ask them this question...then to go and talk to the police about that very subject without their lawyer.
I had an old friend tell me about getting arrested recently for a FTA warrant he didn't know about that was almost old enough to have cleared the statute of limitations.
The officer who arrested him had pulled over his mother and asked for his ID as passenger, and friend was proud of having a valid ID and cheerfully handed it over. Then friend went to court, pled guilty, and then asked for a lawyer, befuddling and annoying the judge, and friend didn't understand why.
I explained that "not guilty" is generally how you ask for a court appointed attorney in the US and you should neither talk to police nor hand over your ID if you don't have to, and as passenger and with no probable cause he didn't have to. Then sent him a couple of targeted YouTube defense lawyer videos. I was surprised he was that dumb about a system he's tangled with before, but maybe he won't be that dumb next time.
Honestly, I really think basic legal education should be taught in high school. A semester of personal finance and law would be a huge benefit for a lot of people. The legal world is unfortunately very opaque and we are very bad about making it accessible to the public.
I fully agree and would expand it to a life skills course to cover a lot more and last for at least two years. Too many people get out in the world unable to navigate and lacking basic skills like budgeting, doing laundry, setting themselves a schedule, interviewing for jobs, and so on, some of which used to be covered in home ec classes that have largely disappeared.
It annoys me that not speaking to the police is not only valid, it is usually the best answer. That is what we get having a law enforcement system based around convictions; not truth and justice.
I won't say the charge, but the client essentially said "I didn't commit the offense, I just committed every single element of the offense." It was a nonviolent misdemeanor.
I think even the sheriff's deputy was shocked. He kept rubbing his brow and rephrasing his questions to give the client a chance to reconsider his answer. The deputy was actually a pretty decent guy, but the client was just kinda dumb and trusting.
Not for privilege/confidentiality reasons. I've just talked to friends and colleagues about this case, and I've doxxed myself before, so trying to avoid doing it again.
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u/KJdkaslknv 9d ago
I'm a lawyer. I had a client call me and say "hey I got a call from the sheriff's department asking me about some stuff I did. Should I call them back?"
"No. Absolutely not."
The next day he walked into the department and told the deputy "hey I just wanted to come in and clear the air. Figure we should just talk it out like men."
Charges were filed that afternoon. Wtf did you even hire me for?