1.7M people liked this video; 172 cops did not

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
14,210
Location
Midlothian, TX
Display Name
3Green
Home Airfield
KJWY - Mid-Way Regional
We've had some discussions here before (and will, again) about keeping your trap shut and not needlessly and senselessly volunteering information to police officers, FAA personnel doing ramp checks, etc.

This guy explains why. It is a lecture given to law students by James Duane. He is a Regent University School of Law professor, former criminal defense attorney, and Fifth Amendment expert.

 
Last edited:
"Do you know how fast you were going?"
"38-40"
See. You already admitted to doing something illegal. Not the 50 you were doing, but do you think that matters?
At my next traffic stop, I guess my answer is exactly whatever the speed limit is. Of course you will notice in another thread I admitted I really do KNOW what SPEED LIMIT is.
Yeah, funny how EVERYTHING you say can and will be used against you gets missed by most people.
James Duane is very entertaining. He does, however, need to lay off the caffeine. BC had a guy who's class on COMMERCIALS was sold out every time it was offered.
Same kind of guy.
 
Police, and government enforcement officials are not your friends.
 
So how is it that anything that can be used for you is hearsay, but anything used against you is not, even in the same conversation?
 
Maybe he is a great lawyer, but Regent University is a joke. Anything affiliated with Pat Robertson makes me gag. The law school is a Tier 4 school, the lowest ranking.
 
haven said:
So how is it that anything that can be used for you is hearsay, but anything used against you is not, even in the same conversation?
Click to expand...

Because of the way hearsay is defined. The definition excludes out of court statements by a party opponent offered against that party.
 
This is relevant, NOT.


bluee said:
Maybe he is a great lawyer, but Regent University is a joke. Anything affiliated with Pat Robertson makes me gag. The law school is a Tier 4 school, the lowest ranking.
Click to expand...
 
So, 40:48 gone...

Good advise though. Thanks for sharing.
 
Zip your lip and just shrug a lot - drives em crazy...
Don't try to duel them by answering a question with a question as the lecturer suggests - the officer has 10,000 times more experience at that game than you do (unless you are a defense attorney)
They will threaten you when you refuse to have a conversation - courts have ruled that an officer may lie, cheat, and just this side of steal, to coax a confession.. Keep shrugging...
After he comes back from his cruiser (checking to see if you have an arrest warrant) he will pressure you some more with threats...
Just smile and say, "May I go now?"
More threats... "May I go now?"
Finally he will scowl, chew you out, toss your papers and your traffic citation at you and stomp away...

You see, absolutely nothing you say will stop him from giving you a citation... He made that decision before he turned on his flashing lights...
And saying nothing will not result in more or worse citations - decision was already made...
But saying anything other than "here you are officer" as you hand out your papers, can certainly make it worse...

denny-o
old police surgeon who haws heard it all...
 
bluee said:
Maybe he is a great lawyer, but Regent University is a joke. Anything affiliated with Pat Robertson makes me gag. The law school is a Tier 4 school, the lowest ranking.
Click to expand...

The ranking system of law schools is the joke
 
Dr. O said:
You see, absolutely nothing you say will stop him from giving you a citation... He made that decision before he turned on his flashing lights...
And saying nothing will not result in more or worse citations - decision was already made...
Click to expand...
Possibly, though I wouldn't encourage trying to antagonize the officer who pulls you over for speeding. He may have decided to write you the ticket already, but I routinely have gotten mine for lower (sometimes FAR lower) speeds just by being polite. The last guy was a real jackass... but still wrote me up for just under the 10 MPH+ violation that gets you a much stiffer penalty. All because, when he told me he's spent 17 years in the traffic division, I bit my tongue - hard -- rather than say, "Well, I'm sure your mother is very proud of you".

Seriously, in a traffic stop I've found it best to be cooperative. When they ask if I know how fast I was going, I'll either tell them I wasn't paying close attention or ask what HE saw, since we obviously must disagree. But if they also ask to look in the car... sorry, sport, if it's something you need my permission for that's going to cost you a search warrant.
 
Dah all of that, courteous but not forthcoming. And I will never consent to perform a field sobriety test, no matter how sober (or otherwise) I am. Never. If they want to use a breathalyzer on me, fine. But no performance based tests. And I agree, they can get a warrant to search my car, and I don't care what's in it. If we don't stick up for our rights no one will do it for us.
 
Yes, be cooperative, but not cooperative to the point that you give them more rope to hang you with.

I used to be a volunteer fireman, and on occasion I rode along with one of the town cops. One day that stands out in my mind in particular, 20 years later, was when we were going east on a 2 lane road, posted limit 35. A car going the opposite direction was going 47. Jerry turned on the lights and stopped, right there. The car drove right past us. Jerry put it in reverse and backed up, keeping up with her for a short distance, before he turned around and pursued, finally getting her attention with a quick tap of the siren. "She's DEFINITELY getting a ticket," were the words he said upon exiting the car.

A few minutes later, he came back and wrote her a warning. I don't remember now what the reason was that she gave him for being inattentive, but whatever she said turned a cop around who was quite angry with her for her inattentiveness.

Recently, I got a ticket for improper lane use. I passed a car in the right turn lane, when the car in front of me stopped to turn left. Perfectly legal in most of the places I've lived, but what I hadn't noticed before was the sign that said right lane must turn right. Ok, fine.... The only problem I have with it is that one of the young ladies at my church passed me while I was pulled over, so that night at church, she told me of how she got a warning for the same thing, in the same place. Turns out, I guess, that you have to have different anatomy to get off like that.... :mad2:
 
hopmedic said:
One day that stands out in my mind in particular, 20 years later, was when we were going east on a 2 lane road, posted limit 35. A car going the opposite direction was going 47. Jerry turned on the lights and stopped, right there. The car drove right past us. Jerry put it in reverse and backed up, keeping up with her for a short distance, before he turned around and pursued, finally getting her attention with a quick tap of the siren. "She's DEFINITELY getting a ticket," were the words he said upon exiting the car.
Click to expand...

Your cop buddy was going 47mph in reverse??? Who was drving wrecklessly?
 
hopmedic said:
Turns out, I guess, that you have to have different anatomy to get off like that.... :mad2:
Click to expand...
It works both ways. My wife got pulled over once for nothing more than the cop wanting to get a look. Female driver, long hair, little girlie car (white '02 Cougar) on a state highway in the middle of Kansas. He didn't see our defensive lineman son snoozing with the passenger seat reclined until he got up to the window. He couldn't find any more reason for pulling her over than to give her a warning for the air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror.
 
Brad Z said:
Your cop buddy was going 47mph in reverse??? Who was drving wrecklessly?
Click to expand...
I didn't say it was right, and I didn't say I agreed with it (thought he was nuts at the time). I just said it happened.

DaleB said:
It works both ways. My wife got pulled over once for nothing more than the cop wanting to get a look. Female driver, long hair, little girlie car (white '02 Cougar) on a state highway in the middle of Kansas. He didn't see our defensive lineman son snoozing with the passenger seat reclined until he got up to the window. He couldn't find any more reason for pulling her over than to give her a warning for the air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror.
Click to expand...
Yeah.... This is the kind of thing that wouldn't surprise me if my brother did it.... Or to learn that this kind of thing is why he pays child support to two ex-wives... He's a detective now, so I have little faith in his department, which is one of the reasons I'm glad I don't live where I grew up anymore.
 
I've had extremely good luck getting warnings just by being cooperative and taking the hit for it. When they ask me if there is a reason why I was driving that fast, my standard response is "No sir, just had my head firmly up my butt and wasn't paying attention." That has worked for me so far every time I've used it, but I'm usually only running 5-8 mph hot anyway so it's not a capital offense.

I've gotten away with enough stuff over the years, I figure I'm way past due and when I do finally get a ticket I'll just take it for good karma and not *****. :D
 
80% of the time I am driving a 2002 Porsche Boxster or a 2005 ML350 -does not matter what happens I am getting a ticket.

So given that police write everything incriminating you say on the back of your ticket or in their log - I never say anything. Ever. DL & Reg - here you go. And I HAVE had this conversation on the side of the road:

"Do you know why I stopped you?"

"Hello Officer, I'm usually pretty good at things but clairvoyance is not one of my skills"

Many times the officer does not know what clairvoyance means - and I get a scowl - I get the scowl if they do know what it means anyway - so maybe they all know what it means. . .

anyway - like I said I always get the ticket. I also have never been convicted of a moving violation. There are literally dozens of technical means of avoiding conviction on almost every citation. About 1/2 the time the officer never shows up, the other half is when you need to get creative. But hey, got stopped once for doing 45 in a 25mph zone using the basic speed law in Calif. A speed limit in a residential zone requires that there be a traffic control device [stop sign or light] every 1/2 mile - on this street it was 2700 feet apart. Ooops. Not guilty. Basic speed law is 55 - its also a rebuttable presumption in the event of no speed limit - so - all of a sudden no other cars and no pedestrians, school buses, cyclists or anyone else on the road is now relevant to the speed one is going. Cops hate it when you make a technical defense and nail them.
 
A friend of mine who is an attorney speaks in the same rapid way. I think those type of people's level of intelligence has their brains working well ahead of their mouths. He is young and slams them almost every time in a courtroom. Very brilliant guy. I, on the other hand, usually have my mouth going long before my brain is actually aware of it.

-John
 
I don't know whether I have talked my way out of a ticket or not, but on 3 occasions I did not get a ticket.
1) Pulled over for speeding. My mother, husband and child were in the car and I had to get my purse from the back to get my driver's license. Trunk was filled with suitcases, so I explained that my father had recently been hospitalized with a serious illness and my mother had been taking care of him night and day, so I was finally able to get her to take a couple of days off to go to Six Flags for a vacation. Hadn't noticed the speed signs because my mind was on getting away for the vacation. I got a warning.
2) 2 am I was pulled over and didn't know why. Once again, walking to get my driver's license from the trunk, I explained that it took me so long to pull over because it was so unusually dark out and I knew that there was construction along the side of the road, so I continued on until finding a gas station that I knew would be a safe place to pull over. After asking whether I had been drinking and assuring I had not been and that I was headed straight for home, I was informed that I had been driving with parking lights instead of headlights. No ticket.
3) Another speeding incident in the middle of the night. Don't remember what the circumstances were, but no ticket although I spent some time explaining what I was doing and why.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top