Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Staying Out of Trouble with The Man, When You Dial 911

Here's my self-help tip for 2009, coming via Peter Hubel.

I never thought about this before, but Hubel writes:

The 911 operators are trained to redundantly try to get you to incriminate yourself so don’t play their game.
In other words, if you need the help of the police or an ambulance and need to call 911, tell them the location and a very, very limited general overview of the situation, then let them get there and figure out the details for themselves.

Hubel says:

Don’t ever answer any questions other than name and address and if you need police or an ambulance.
If you are somehow directly involved, Hubel suggests you have a neighbor, or someone else, call 911 so your voice won't be on tape.

1 comment:

  1. Wenzel,

    Good tip. I've been trying to get friends and family recently to understand that the police are not our friends and that they're trained to find something to haul you in for as part of their duties. There were some good posts recently on this topic at the Surviving in Argentina blog by "FerFAL" in which he had posted some videos of police detectives and lawyers speaking to a law school class about the way people typically incriminate themselves in negotiating the criminal "justice" system. The main point was DON'T SPEAK TO THE POLICE... the 5th amendment is there for a reason. One example they used: when you're pulled over by a cop, and the cop asks you if you know why he pulled you over, never give a suggestion because you just admitted guilt to a crime. When you go to court, it's the cops word against yours.

    I think the ACLU has a video clip on YouTube of how to handle the police in a pull-over, as well, and what your rights are as far as police demands for ID, what you're doing, possible DUI situation, etc. The ACLU are generally a bunch of nasty commies but this video was helpful.

    The DUIBlog is a good catalog of police corruption and how easily people get themselves screwed by talking to the police in a situation like that.

    As for me, I recently got pulled over by an officer, on private property, when I was simply trying to pull into the property to make a U-turn thanks to a stupid navi system. The guy ended up harrassing me and claimed he pulled me over because of illegal tinting and license plates. I advised him that the windows were not tinted illegally and he said "yeah well I don't know the law." Then he went on about how there was gang activity in the area and he wanted to know what I was doing there.

    I'm almost certain I had the right to leave without explaining anything or producing any ID, as we were on private property and he had no probable cause of any kind (my only mistake had been pulling into this parking lot to try to U-turn) but the other people in the car with me were convinced that explaining our innocence was the best way to get us left alone... so of course the guy continued to harass us, attempted to intimidate me ("What's wrong, cat got ya tongue? Ya get nuhvuss when ya speak ta a police offica?") and threaten me before finally telling us to take a hike.

    Dangerous criminals in suits. We best all know our rights, so long as the govt is still nominally respecting them, or we all risk becoming innocent people in prison.

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