This is a common-sense guide, literally, to surviving conflicts with law enforcement. Ideally you will never have a conflict with a darkly-clad, tense, armed 28-year old with a gun - and a badge - but if you do, here's how you can make the experience end as quickly and safely as possible.
1
Know Your Officer
Whether it's a stop-and-frisk, a traffic stop or "Avon calling" - an FBI term for blasting your front door down with a shotgun and entering through the debris - you need to remember that the officer's number one concern is almost always going to be safety - his/hers, his/her fellow officers', witnesses' and ideally yours also. Police are in the safety and order business; accordingly, when they close a door, lock a pair of handcuffs, seat a suspect on a curb or in the back of a vehicle, it's to exercise control. There are a few naturally sadistic officers, lawyers, deli shop owners, etc., in existence, but in general police want situations CONTROLLED more than they want to show off, inflict truly random brutality, mock people, etc. With younger, less experienced officers this is particularly true.
In sum, the police are generally neither saints nor devils, but "controllers."
2
Obey All Physical Commands
When an officer tells you to sit, be silent, walk, stand, touch your nose or get out of the vehicle, do it immediately and calmly as instructed. Do not challenge the officer's physical commands, mock them, engage in philosophical argument, tell him to go bother real criminals, cite constitutional principles, etc. If an officer tells you to sit in the back seat of your car, plant your rear end there. Why should you obey? Because this enables the officer to establish physical control without resorting to violence, which is what police are trained to use when needed to establish physical control.
Only if you are at risk of severe harm by obeying the police should you even consider disobeying a cop (e.g. you are choking, you need diabetes medicine or the like.)
In sum: avoid dying by doing what you are told.
3
Know Your Right to Remain Silent - And Its Limits
You do have the right to remain silent in the context of CUSTODIAL INTERROGATION by police, which often does not occur. You have the right to be advised of your right to remain silent if, and only if, you are going to be subjected to custodial interrogation. What's custodial interrogation? It's when they are asking you questions beyond extremely basic ID information (your name, your address, your ID for you and your vehicles) and you are not free to leave.
Some people believe that the police don't have the right to ask you for your Social Security number, based on some provisions in the Social Security Act. In my view, this is a murky area of law. However, if you don't give it when requested, your likelihood of remaining in jail longer increases until you get a hearing before a judge. I would probably advise a client to give that number on request, but request POLITELY not to have it appear on documents or said out loud, to avoid identity theft issues.
4
Suicide By Cop and How to Prevent It
If you aggress upon a law enforcement officer during the course of a stop, you will get battered pretty harshly. If you make sudden moves, appear to be escaping, start reaching without notice into bags or glove compartments, turn around and walk away from an officer, disobey an instruction to stay seated, curse the officer, challenge the officer on the law, you stand an excellent chance of catching not only a disorderly conduct charge or its local equivalent but of getting beaten, scraped up, abused, brutalized or worse. Again, under the theory that officers desperately want CONTROL and will oppose any threat to that control through the violence that they learn how to inflict at the police academy, by making a headlong assault on their CONTROL you may in some cases risk maiming or even death in an extreme case.
5
Safe Things to Discuss with Police - Do Not Exist
There are no safe topics to discuss with police other than your precise identity. Do not ask what your charges are, what the probable cause is, the legal theories of the arrest or citation, etc. If you do these stupid moves, you will damage your case. Shut your mouth and say nothing, other than your name, address and date of birth, your driver's license information if you are a driver and, if pressed only, your social security number. Otherwise, it would be legally better for you to staple your top lip to your bottom lip, and go to the emergency room to have the staple removed when you are released. Chatter and asking questions is for your lawyer at trial four months later.
In my experience, suburban Euro-Americans of moderate income have the most severe difficulty accepting this advice, for some reason. Echoing the catchphrase, it must be a "white thing."
In sum, discuss nothing other than your identification. Not even Britney Spears, the octuplets lady nor the weather.
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