BUSTED - The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters

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BUSTED - The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5OrtjKKFPG8&search=police

I watched the entire video. Spread the word.

...good video.

Very insightful, nitraine.

Thank-you for sharing

Interesting video and worth watching, but mostly non-applicable if you are obeying the law. The video seemed to be more for the benefit of people who want to break the law and get away with it.

If you have no illegal drugs or items in your car or house, it does not really matter whether the police search it. Although I suppose it may still be inconvenient, and you could avoid the inconvenience by knowing that you can verbally refuse to consent.

If you have nothing to hide, then it's none of their damn business what's in your trunk.

A search is very unlikely to happen and if it does happen, it does not really matter anyway (unless you were breaking the law). In other words, it is interesting but _not_ particularly important or useful to know your rights regarding police searches, unless you are breaking the law.

In fact, what that video failed to tell you is that if you are obeying the law, it may be disadvantageous to refuse a search because a search that revealed nothing illegal generates evidence that PROTECTS you. After you are searched and nothing was found, lawyers cannot accuse you of carrying something illegal.

For example, say there was a case where someone was kidnapped. The police stop you and want to search your luggage compartment to see if the kidnapped person is in there. You know nothing about this case and have no involvement with it, but you refuse to consent to a search. The police become suspicious but they cannot search your car. A few days later, they arrest you, and lawyers claim that you had the kidnapped person in your luggage compartment. Now, if you had consented to the search, this would have generated evidence that protected you against claims of wrongdoing.

So it could possibly be said that the video is giving BAD ADVICE for people who are obeying the law. Their advice is really only applicable to law-breakers.

What I got from that movie was that the second guy was wrongly accused.

Things can often just look bad.


Further more, as far as the 'if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide' line of reasoning goes? You don't get to decide what's wrong. 'They' do. (Use of they in this case being intentionally generic)

I thought he was probably correctly accused because his artwork matched the artwork/vandalism on the storefront. But anyway, you have equally as much chance of being wrongly accused of something regardless of whether you do or do not consent to a search. You can be wrongly accused in either case. And if you refuse to consent, a lawyer will argue that you had something to hide.



Often? Things only occasionally look bad, not often.

In most cases, if you are not breaking the law, consenting to a search will generate evidence that protects you because nothing of interest will be found. Consenting to a search is more likely to help you than harm you (unless you are a criminal).

If you have nothing to hide, you should have no problems...

Wouldn't it be a better usage of time for them to make a video telling people why its a bad idea to break the law and the harmful effects of many illegal things?

The biggest mistake people make with Police is to try and be a smartarse but that just makes the cop look for extra ways of getting you. I find admitting any problem, apologising and showing respect help quite a lot. I once submitted to have my flat searched when asked, and all they said 'oh that's ok and didn't bother!'. You just have to think like a cop, would you take crap from some smartarse punk trying to show off to his friends? I don't think so, would waste time doing a thorough search if the person looks normal enough and consents without hesitation? You either wouldn't bother or would just take a quick look around without properly searching. Cops are just ordinary people trying to do a difficult job, there are some nasty ones but most are quite reasonable people in my experience. You treat them with respect and they will treat you with respect.