60. (~This is not legal advice!~) DO NOT TALK TO COPS.
This one stood out as kind of puzzling. Especially as the link is to a 45-minute lecture whose thesis seems to be “one should always exercise one’s 5th amendment rights when being questioned by authorities.” I think summarizing that as an all-caps “DONT TALK TO COPS” is weird and inaccurate.
By far the most common context in which anyone I know has interacted with the cops is when filing police reports for damaged or stolen property (stolen bike, car break-in, stolen phone, etc.) In which case… you kind of need to talk to the cops to get insurance coverage, even if they’re not able to recover the item (but they sometimes are).
Maybe this bullet would be more clear as “Exercise your right to remain silent if being questioned by cops” ?
Though I suspect that that isn’t a terribly common scenario among average lesswrong community members
I once got into a minor car accident (no one was hurt, thankfully) in which the other driver was clearly at fault. I spoke to the police and a report was filed.
I received no compensation from the other driver’s insurance company (nor did he receive any compensation from mine). However, my insurance company subsequently raised my premium (and, no doubt, the other driver’s insurance company raised his premium as well). Filing the report was worse than useless.
I do not know anyone who has their bicycle insured against theft, or their phone insured against theft. I have never heard of anyone I know who’s had their cars broken into (nor do I know anyone who has their car insured against break-ins).
As far as I can tell, none of these alleged reasons to talk to cops applies to me or to anyone I know, despite me and a number of my friends owning cars, bikes, phones, etc.
It’s pretty USA-centric, at least. Doing this in other jurisdictions where the balance of rights and the dominant informal relationship between the public and the police are different could be much worse.
The advice is meant in the context of police investigating a crime. Because police can be very convincing that it will be okay to answer a few innocent questions, it seems useful to have this advice drilled into one’s mind. By the way, the author of the linked lecture now recommends asking for a lawyer instead of directly invoking the right to stay silent, after some recent SCOTUS rulings.
Potentially dumb question — but wouldn’t refusing to answer questions just make one look more suspicious, which you may especially want to avoid if you haven’t actually done anything wrong?
Lying to the police… or making an innocent mistake that seems like lying on purpose… or even telling the truth when the police misunderstands (or lies about) what you actually said… can get you in jail.
I assume that maybe 5% of people in prisons haven’t done anything wrong… they just were in the wrong place at the wrong time, didn’t have enough money to hire a good lawyer, or made some mistake. This advice is about reducing your chance to become one of them.
Possibly, it depends on the individual cop. However, I think the idea is that if you haven’t done anything wrong and you don’t answer any questions you’re in a better position than if you have done something wrong and the chance that you say something that sounds incriminating and/or the cop is not questioning in good faith.
In other words, the consequences of seeming suspicious with no evidence against you are much better for you than the consequences of saying the wrong thing.
By far the most common context in which anyone I know has interacted with the cops is when filing police reports for damaged or stolen property
USA resident here that lives in a more rural-esque area:
I can’t say I know anyone who has talked to the cops to file a report. Every interactions that I can think of between people I know and the cops has been in situations wherein they could incriminate themselves. Traffic stops and the like.
When I lived in SF, every single person I knew who owned a car had experienced at least one break-in. Usually several. Sometimes the car itself was stolen, then left on the street in another part of the city.
Car-related crime is unbelievably high in SF for some reason
It’s not for some reason. It’s because the government of San Francisco and California at large have failed their citizens. They have normalized criminal behavior. Along with crapping in the streets.
People only want to talk to the cops when they need something. People give out silly advice like “Don’t Talk to Cops” and then wonder why their burglaries aren’t solved, and criminals are breaking into their cars, or murderers go free. That’s such a silly generalization it made me stop at the rest of the advice. Because surely we can find better.
Surely you don’t imagine that the police recover stolen property if it’s reported? I’ve never had that happen and I don’t know anyone who’s ever had that happen. As far as I can tell, it basically (to a first approximation, anyway) just doesn’t happen.
This one stood out as kind of puzzling. Especially as the link is to a 45-minute lecture whose thesis seems to be “one should always exercise one’s 5th amendment rights when being questioned by authorities.” I think summarizing that as an all-caps “DONT TALK TO COPS” is weird and inaccurate.
By far the most common context in which anyone I know has interacted with the cops is when filing police reports for damaged or stolen property (stolen bike, car break-in, stolen phone, etc.) In which case… you kind of need to talk to the cops to get insurance coverage, even if they’re not able to recover the item (but they sometimes are).
Maybe this bullet would be more clear as “Exercise your right to remain silent if being questioned by cops” ?
Though I suspect that that isn’t a terribly common scenario among average lesswrong community members
I once got into a minor car accident (no one was hurt, thankfully) in which the other driver was clearly at fault. I spoke to the police and a report was filed.
I received no compensation from the other driver’s insurance company (nor did he receive any compensation from mine). However, my insurance company subsequently raised my premium (and, no doubt, the other driver’s insurance company raised his premium as well). Filing the report was worse than useless.
I do not know anyone who has their bicycle insured against theft, or their phone insured against theft. I have never heard of anyone I know who’s had their cars broken into (nor do I know anyone who has their car insured against break-ins).
As far as I can tell, none of these alleged reasons to talk to cops applies to me or to anyone I know, despite me and a number of my friends owning cars, bikes, phones, etc.
It’s pretty USA-centric, at least. Doing this in other jurisdictions where the balance of rights and the dominant informal relationship between the public and the police are different could be much worse.
The advice is meant in the context of police investigating a crime. Because police can be very convincing that it will be okay to answer a few innocent questions, it seems useful to have this advice drilled into one’s mind. By the way, the author of the linked lecture now recommends asking for a lawyer instead of directly invoking the right to stay silent, after some recent SCOTUS rulings.
Potentially dumb question — but wouldn’t refusing to answer questions just make one look more suspicious, which you may especially want to avoid if you haven’t actually done anything wrong?
Looking suspicious is not a jailable offense.
Lying to the police… or making an innocent mistake that seems like lying on purpose… or even telling the truth when the police misunderstands (or lies about) what you actually said… can get you in jail.
I assume that maybe 5% of people in prisons haven’t done anything wrong… they just were in the wrong place at the wrong time, didn’t have enough money to hire a good lawyer, or made some mistake. This advice is about reducing your chance to become one of them.
Possibly, it depends on the individual cop. However, I think the idea is that if you haven’t done anything wrong and you don’t answer any questions you’re in a better position than if you have done something wrong and the chance that you say something that sounds incriminating and/or the cop is not questioning in good faith.
In other words, the consequences of seeming suspicious with no evidence against you are much better for you than the consequences of saying the wrong thing.
USA resident here that lives in a more rural-esque area:
I can’t say I know anyone who has talked to the cops to file a report. Every interactions that I can think of between people I know and the cops has been in situations wherein they could incriminate themselves. Traffic stops and the like.
When I lived in SF, every single person I knew who owned a car had experienced at least one break-in. Usually several. Sometimes the car itself was stolen, then left on the street in another part of the city.
Car-related crime is unbelievably high in SF for some reason
https://projects.sfchronicle.com/trackers/sf-car-breakins/
It’s not for some reason. It’s because the government of San Francisco and California at large have failed their citizens. They have normalized criminal behavior. Along with crapping in the streets.
People only want to talk to the cops when they need something. People give out silly advice like “Don’t Talk to Cops” and then wonder why their burglaries aren’t solved, and criminals are breaking into their cars, or murderers go free. That’s such a silly generalization it made me stop at the rest of the advice. Because surely we can find better.
Surely you don’t imagine that the police recover stolen property if it’s reported? I’ve never had that happen and I don’t know anyone who’s ever had that happen. As far as I can tell, it basically (to a first approximation, anyway) just doesn’t happen.
“Don’t talk to cops” is excellent advice.