Don't Talk to Cops. Take the Fifth.

If you ever become a person of interest in a police investigation, or are ever arrested, or are merely pulled over for a traffic violation — the only sane thing to do is to shut your mouth. Take the fifth. Even if you are wholly innocent. Even if you were — honest officer! —  going to tell nothing but the truth. Watch this entertaining (and scary) lecture by ace law professor James Duane of Regent University School of Law.

Consider that the scenarios that Duane talks about are those where police officers act in good faith. But their moral purity, such as it is, simply doesn't matter if you have in interest in staying out of jail, as Duane ably demonstrates.

Also, think about the legions of officers who will actually lie, cheat and steal to get their suspect convicted. It's clearly boneheaded to indulge them on any level — and as a consequence, prisons are full of boneheaded people. Smart people shut the hell up.

One of the fastest ways to reverse America's disastrous incarceration trend is to make sure everybody knows what to do when questioned by cops. All together now: Don't talk to them.

Oh, here's part two of the lecture, in which Duane gives the microphone — and just about equal time — to George Bruch, a sergeant with the Virginia Beach police department. Bruch, who seems like an amiable enough fellow, doesn't attempt to refute a single thing Duane has just said. In fact, he volunteers right off the bat that "Everything he said was true and it was right and it was correct."

A few minutes later, Bruch actually says "People are inherently honest [meaning, they want to tell the truth, RvB] and that's their downfall."

The sergeant boasts of his 98 percent conviction rate, and adds that that's his job — to put people away (not, apparently, to serve justice, and to first make sure, Hippocrates-style, that no law-enforcement harm befalls innocents).

Bruch's whole presentation, gentle as it is, speaks volumes about the adversarial role in which police officers typically cast themselves. Despite what it says on their badges or on the doors of their squad cars, far too many cops are not there to "serve" anyone or anything except their own sad, shallow fantasies of cops and robbers, good guys and bad guys, a thin blue line that you and I will always be on the wrong side of.

The second part of Bruch's talk is here. Third and final part here.

Comments

[markm]

Of course, if no one talks to the cops, they will also be unable to make cases against real criminals - murderers, robbers, burglars, ... But with the tactics some cops use, if a cop asks me questions supposedly about a murder, I won't know if he's telling the truth or is trying to trick me into helping the city/county/state/federal budget by confessing to violating some regulation I never heard of.

[Windypundit]

As a companion piece to this, and lest people think that only "bad guys" refuse to talk to cops, be sure to check out Mark Bennett's post about how a bunch of cops respond when they are the subject of a routine investigation: http://bennettandbennett.com/blog/2007/07/more-dea-skulduggery.html

[Rogier]

markm wrote:

"Of course, if no one talks to the cops, they will also be unable to make cases against real criminals - murderers, robbers, burglars"

For real? The police and the D.A. can and do and should use crime photographs, surveillance footage, fingerprints, DNA evidence, blood spatter analysis, digital 'footprints' left in a computer cache or a on a disk, correspondence, autopsy reports, the suspect's notes, witness testimony, ballistics reports, other kinds of forensic evidence, phone records, credit card transactions, experts' testimony, legal wiretaps, and literally anything else that's admissible in a court of law.

Nine out of ten times, having to rely on a suspect's confession to obtain a conviction is a sign of a weak (flawed) case.

Besides, a large percentage of confessions and self-incriminating statements, as watertight as they make the criminal cases in question look, are false. For background, start here: http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/False-Confessions.php .

Then, of course, there's stuff like this: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-burge-investigationfeb04,0,5165114.story

I would talk to the police as a witness, provided I could audiotape the conversation. I would not, under any circumstances, talk to a cop (without my lawyer present) if I were pulled over, placed under arrest, or declared a "person of interest." After a traffic stop, the officer is entitled to my license, registration, and proof of insurance; I'll certainly (and politely) oblige. And that's as far as it goes. James Duane's lecture explains rather well why I feel that way. The fifth amendment is there for a reason. And I don't think taking the fifth is remotely identical to sabotaging justice or safety.

[Ron]

Glad to see this site. Wish I had it years ago and knew this stuff. I will pass it along to as many as I can. Cops are tricky folk. I dont trust any of them.

[Taylor]

Just sue the bastards. Make them pay for messing with you, even if you did nothing wrong. It gives them a bad name like Rodney King, put it in papers, TV. Use the Media as a weapon against idiot cops. They are as bad as crooks.

[Hal]

Always refuse to answer questions of cops. They're out to bust people and care not if they get you. Innocent til proven guilty is the law today with fascist Bush in office.
If cop threatens you, warn of a suit. He will take a different tune.

[Sankar Gorthi]

The videos were removed from youtube for whatever reason. They're on video.google.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6014022229458915912&q=&hl=en#