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I watched both parts – kinda changed my mind about this topic…
I want to go to law school.
I need to watch this when I have time. Everything I’ve read on the topic leads me to believe it’s true, that under the bill of rights and the constitution, etc. that you SHOULDN’T talk to the police. However as we’ve seen these past so many years, what’s written down as our rights and how those rights are enacted, allowed, judged, viewed, etc. by the system and those in power are two different things.
So yeah, it would be great if we could just not talk to the police, invoke the 5th amendment and have it all work out the way it should given our constitutional protections. Does anyone honestly think that is the way it will actually work and turn out?
Yeah, you should watch it. He addresses that, in a way. It just makes it easier to defend you, regardless of guilt, if you never once opened your mouth to the police.
Yeah Kev, he does give a few examples of little petty interactions with cops, like being pulled over for a speeding ticket. But this is definitely geared more towards serious crimes and arrests. I never really thought about it before, but the fact that when your rights are read to you they say “can and will be used against you” as opposed to “against and for” you is a serious warning sign. Plead the 5th and wait for your lawyer.
That’s a difficult thing to do given how most of us have been brought up to fear authority and be honest, but some of the examples that are given in this video about seemingly honest testimony from an innocent suspect that end up incriminating them are really interesting. You should definitely check it out.
Yeah, I’m gonna try and watch it when Dylan takes a nap this afternoon.
I guess you hit the nail on the head to with the “it makes it easier to defend you.” because the cynic in me thinks that’s only the case if you have a good lawyer who knows how to work stuff like that and effectively play those angles. But for someone who is getting a shitty public defender or a sub-par lawyer I can’t help thinking that they’d get rolled over by a good prosecutor who can easily turn someone refusing to talk against them.
Don’t get me wrong, I know all this and if in a bad situation I completely would not talk if I were being accused or questioned. But I’m also a reasonably intelligent, middle class white dude who can afford quality representation if the situation arises who can use my silence as a positive rather than a negative.
I’m curious to see if/how your latter thoughts change after watching it.
I’ll post after I’ve watched it.
O.K. I just watched it. It definitely makes sense. I still think that everything he says presupposes a fair and equal justice system which we don’t have and public defenders who are always at the top of their game and not overworked or stressed so that they provide the right legal coverage and advice to their clients. And juries and a public who fully understand the true implications of pleading the 5th rather than some Nancy Grace brainwashing media fabrication as to what prosecutors WANT it to mean. So yeah, even after watching it I totally agree with the guy. But I don’t think that it’s always going to work out well for everyone.
But even still, regardless of how good your public defender is, it gives loss fodder to whomever the prosecutor is.
Definitely true.
er, that’s less fodder, not loss.
this makes me wish Alan Shore was a real person.