The Washington Post’s front page for January 4, 2017 featured an article by Janell Ross entitled “Blacks Learn the Nuances of a Police Encounter — Black Parents Take Their Kids To School On How To Deal With the Police”. I’ve got news for these parents. There is nothing nuanced or subtle about a police encounter. In this lengthy, well done article, there is nothing about what parents are doing about the most important, number one thing, young people of any color can, and should know about surviving a police encounter; the one thing that happens the least in a police encounter, and the one form of behavior that will save their lives, their futures and prevent getting convicted in court — the absolute right to not speak after simply, calmly and politely saying to the cop that you have nothing to say, and repeating only that until they get it, and either release you, or arrest you.
Schooling our kids should deemphasize talking, and instead emphasize how, when and where to be silent. Teach the Fifth Amendment with the same intensity as we teach about the First Amendment. There is nothing wrong in teaching children and young adults how to stand up for what is right, to speak out against what is wrong, and to stand up for themselves, but if that is all that is taught, then parents and teachers are missing the most important lesson; who is the audience to whom we should speak out, and when is the right time to do so. The absolutely wrong time, wrong place, and the wrong audience is a cop when he or she stops you.
The officer who stops you anywhere is the law according to that officer; you cannot convince them otherwise. You cannot debate or discuss the law, or your rights with a cop on the street, no matter how right you are, and how wrong they may be. In fact, you cannot discuss anything, so don’t even try. A cop on the street doesn’t have a discussion with you. What you get is an authoritarian, drill sergeant style monolog by the cop, unfriendly in tone. You should not discuss anything either. Instead, you should have ready your own brief monolog. Exactly when and how to do it, and what it should contain is detailed in “A Toast to Silence”. If you engage in a discussion with a cop you are committing legal suicide by providing self-destructive evidence. The cop on the street not a defense lawyer, nor a judge; he is nothing more than a collector of evidence to be used in court against you, and invariably collects that evidence from you by your very foolish exercise in those pre-Miranda moments, of First Amendment free speech.
The far wiser and definitely safer choice, on which most cops grudgingly agree, is the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent after you comply with four basic requirements during a police encounter; identify yourself, stay calm and polite, maintain visible motionless hands, and exit your vehicle if directed to do so. Then, the only three things you should say are “Please video this.”, “Am I free to leave?”, followed by “I have nothing else to say.”. Then stick to remaining silent under any and every circumstance, including the threat of arrest. If you get arrested, okay, stay calm and don’t panic. The next stop will be to a judicial officer who does know the law, and knows that the cop must have the evidence to justify your arrest. The cop won’t have it if you don’t give it by remaining silent.
That is how to stand up for what is right in that setting, with that audience. I don’t understand why civil liberty groups don’t stress the importance of spreading the word about the most effective civil liberty the Constitution provides — the right to remain silent, before it’s too late. It’s too late when you hear it from the cop who is arresting you. He’s arresting you because we have been conned and misled by the media into thinking that the right to silence starts at the moment of arrest when the cop recites the Miranda warning, and are totally unaware that the right to silence is with us at all times, and especially before arrest in that interval between the stop and an arrest. Not remaining silent in that interval (police code for “cooperating”) is what gets you arrested — gets you the Miranda warning. What good is being told you can remain silent after you have not been silent, run your mouth, and thereby given the evidence for that arrest; the same evidence that will convict you.
When we teach our young people to stand up for themselves and their rights and what is right, to a cop who stops them, we are teaching the wrong lesson — we are teaching engagement with the cop. The correct lesson is disengagement. That’s what the Fifth Amendment right to silence means and allows — DISENGAGEMENT. When you engage with an officer by talking you are giving evidence against yourself which cannot be compelled. You may be tricked or deceived by the cop into talking or voluntarily having a discussion with him or her, but you cannot be forced to talk, nor are you required to talk — give evidence against yourself.
Our rights are simple and familiar. The problem is knowing when and how they should be exercised. This is the big problem because we have not recognized the deadly combination of not teaching the power of the Fifth Amendment and the steady drip of entertainment media misinformation, which for generations has conditioned us not to know when not to speak, not to give evidence. When you speak to a cop you only empower them more, making them something they are not — your judge. They are mere evidence collectors. Judges are found in courthouses, not on the street. A cop’s main source of evidence is your mouth and the words that come out of it.
Standing up for your rights in the interval between the initial encounter and an arrest accomplishes nothing unless the right stood up for is the one right that counts the most and does you the most good at the courthouse — remaining silent on the street. If our young people want respect from the police and to survive, start with self respect. Respect yourself by exercising your right to disengage, to remain silent. I have a friend who is a retired state trooper with whom this topic , and “A Toast to Silence” is discussed every time we meet. We often clash verbally from our seemingly opposite viewpoints. When he was on the job and having street encounters with folks, the ones he released after a stop did three things; they were calm and police, they identified themselves, and then were silent. This is one thing we always agree upon — silence works!
You are not going to change the world, or a cop’s attitude no matter how nasty or nice or correct you are in telling them your rights. You want power? Watch what happens when you show power with disengagement by silence. The Fifth Amendment (silence on the street) always finishes well at the courthouse; the First Amendment (talking to a cop on the street) does not. The best lesson our children will ever get to prepare them for when they meet the police has two words — remain silent, or if you prefer, SHUT UP!
ashington Post’s front page for January 4, 2017 featured an article by Janell Ross entitled “Blacks Learn the Nuances of a Police Encounter — Black Parents Take Their Kids To School On How To Deal With the Police”. I’ve got news for these parents. There is nothing nuanced or subtle about a police encounter. In this lengthy, well done article, there is nothing parents are doing about the most important, number one thing, young people of any color can, and should know about surviving a police encounter; the one thing that happens the least in a police encounter, and the one form of behavior that will save their lives, their futures and prevent getting convicted in court — the absolute right to not speak after simply, calmly and politely saying to the cop that you have nothing to say, and repeating only that until they get it, and either release you, or arrest you.
Schooling our kids should deemphasize talking, and instead emphasize how, when and where to be silent. Teach the Fifth Amendment with the same intensity as we teach about the First Amendment. There is nothing wrong in teaching children and young adults how to stand up for what is right, to speak out against what is wrong, and to stand up for themselves, but if that is all that is taught, then parents and teachers are missing the most important lesson; who is the audience to whom we should speak out, and when is the right time to do so. The absolutely wrong time, wrong place, and the wrong audience is a cop when he or she stops you.
The officer who stops you anywhere is the law according to that officer; you cannot convince them otherwise. You cannot debate or discuss the law, or your rights with a cop on the street, no matter how right you are, and how wrong they may be. In fact, you cannot discuss anything, so don’t even try. A cop on the street doesn’t have a discussion with you. What you get is an authoritarian, drill sergeant style monolog by the cop, unfriendly in tone. You should not discuss anything either. Instead, you should have your own brief monolog. Exactly when and how to do it, and what it should contain is detailed in “A Toast to Silence”. If you engage in a discussion with a cop you are committing legal suicide by providing self-destructive evidence. The cop on the street not a defense lawyer, nor a judge; he is nothing more than a collector of evidence to be used in court against you, and invariably collects that evidence from you by your very foolish exercise in those pre-Miranda moments, of First Amendment free speech.
The far wiser and definitely safer choice, on which most cops grudgingly agree, is the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent after you comply with four basic requirements during a police encounter; identify yourself, stay calm and polite, maintain visible motionless hands, and exit your vehicle if directed to do so. Then, the only three things you should say are “Please video this.”, “Am I free to leave?”, followed by “I have nothing else to say.”. Then stick to remaining silent under any and every circumstance, including the threat of arrest. If you get arrested, okay, stay calm and don’t panic. The next stop will be to a judicial officer who does know the law, and knows that the cop must have the evidence to justify your arrest. The cop won’t have it if you don’t give it by remaining silent.
That is how to stand up for what is right in that setting, with that audience. I don’t understand why civil liberty groups don’t stress the importance of spreading the word about the most effective civil liberty the Constitution provides — the right to remain silent, before it’s too late. It’s too late when you hear it from the cop who is arresting you. He’s arresting you because we have been conned and misled by the media into thinking that the right to silence starts at the moment of arrest when the cop recites the Miranda warning, and are totally unaware that the right to silence is with us at all times, and especially before arrest in that interval between the stop and an arrest. Not remaining silent in that interval (police code for “cooperating”) is what gets you arrested — gets you the Miranda warning. What good is being told you can remain silent after you have not been silent, run your mouth, and thereby given the evidence for that arrest; the same evidence that will convict you.
When we teach our young people to stand up for themselves and their rights and what is right, to a cop who stops them, we are teaching the wrong lesson — we are teaching engagement with the cop. The correct lesson is disengagement. That’s what the Fifth Amendment right to silence means and allows — DISENGAGEMENT. When you engage with an officer by talking you are giving evidence against yourself which cannot be compelled. You may be tricked or deceived by the cop into talking or voluntarily having a discussion with him or her, but you cannot be forced to talk, nor are you required to talk — give evidence against yourself.
Our rights are simple and familiar. The problem is knowing when and how they should be exercised. This is the big problem because we have not recognized the deadly combination of not teaching the power of the Fifth Amendment and the steady drip of entertainment media misinformation, which for generations has conditioned us not to know when not to speak, not to give evidence. When you speak to a cop you only empower them more, making them something they are not — your judge. They are mere evidence collectors. Judges are found in courthouses, not on the street. A cop’s main source of evidence is your mouth and the words that come out of it.
Standing up for your rights in the interval between the initial encounter and an arrest accomplishes nothing unless the right stood up for is the one right that counts the most and does you the most good at the courthouse — remaining silent on the street. If our young people want respect from the police and to survive, start with self respect. Respect yourself by exercising your right to disengage, to remain silent. I have a friend who is a retired state trooper with whom this topic , and “A Toast to Silence” is discussed every time we meet. We often clash verbally from our seemingly opposite viewpoints. When he was on the job and having street encounters with folks, the ones he released after a stop did three things; they were calm and polite, they identified themselves, and then were silent. This is one thing we always agree upon — silence works!
You are not going to change the world, or a cop’s attitude no matter how nasty or nice or correct you are in telling them your rights. You want power? Watch what happens when you show power with disengagement by silence. The Fifth Amendment (silence on the street) always finishes well at the courthouse; the First Amendment (talking to a cop on the street) does not. The best lesson our children will ever get to prepare them for when they meet the police has two words — remain silent, or if you prefer, SHUT UP!
