All too often I see "How to Talk to Cops" videos and articles, and inevitably someone states that if a cop decides to question you, your only response should be to say "am I free to go? or am I being detained?" The way the videos are structured, that question seems to deflect the LEOs. Yet so far, I've never seen a single video or article where it tells a person the proper response to a cop who says, "Yes I AM detaining you".
You guys see what I'm saying, right? This question is posed as some kind of LEO Kryptonite, like merely waving it around causes them to lose their superpowers. At some point a cop is going to say "OK wiseass, I've seen all the same videos your amateur internet lawyers put out there, so YES, I'm detaining you. Now what? Oh, you have no idea what to say now, right?" And then you get tackled and tased by six 250lb thugs who "feared for their lives", and you end up charged with resisting arrest and six counts of battery on police officers.
As far as I'm concerned, I think these videos are way off, at least on that one little ridiculous statement. Unfortunately its become something of a mantra in the past couple of years. Its even popping up in articles on Lew Rockwell's site, which is kind of discouraging since his columnists tend to be substantially smarter than a lot of people I've met.
So, does someone here feel like filling in the blanks on this one?
You guys see what I'm saying, right? This question is posed as some kind of LEO Kryptonite, like merely waving it around causes them to lose their superpowers. At some point a cop is going to say "OK wiseass, I've seen all the same videos your amateur internet lawyers put out there, so YES, I'm detaining you. Now what? Oh, you have no idea what to say now, right?" And then you get tackled and tased by six 250lb thugs who "feared for their lives", and you end up charged with resisting arrest and six counts of battery on police officers.
As far as I'm concerned, I think these videos are way off, at least on that one little ridiculous statement. Unfortunately its become something of a mantra in the past couple of years. Its even popping up in articles on Lew Rockwell's site, which is kind of discouraging since his columnists tend to be substantially smarter than a lot of people I've met.
So, does someone here feel like filling in the blanks on this one?