Don't Talk to the Police (2012)

Predicting is hard, especially about the future. Countries have gotten much, much worse before collapsing, and there are too many connections with international finance for the world to just let it happen to the US. See also: moral hazard.

In Germany, after §163 StPO and related the police may interview you as part of an investigation but if you are a suspect you must be told so prior to any interview. You are allowed not to make any statements, which is not considered any crime. Additionally, any statements you make may only be used for discovery of the truth but are not in of themselves considered actual proof or evidence in absence of anything else, word of mouth is not fully sufficient with a few minor exceptions outside the scope of the StPO.

The sentiment re. the police in germany is much different than in america, so my initial assertion does not at all equate to "what you say can't be used against you", rather "the police is in general trustworthy and non-malicious", which does not seem to hold true for america.

You should consider that not all countries think like americans and do not hold the same sentiment as americans. People in other countries think different, not the same.

I grew up in a very privileged white world, with an attitude that I could always talk to the police because they were never interested in me. I felt that there would be unlikely to be an outcome where I got in any real trouble even if I had been breaking the law in some childish but “not actually bad” kind of way. Doing some dumb stunt or smoking a little weed - “nothing serious”.

A friend from a different place helped me see that in so many ways that attitude was only one I could hold from my position of extreme privilege. The world was in a sense made for me, or rather people like me. As a “normal” white male the system had built-in leniency. White judges would “understand I was a good kid” who “meant no harm”. The law had a built in amount of forgiveness for me. I could risk doing dumb things and still talk to police.

For everyone who isn’t amongst the class this world was build for, the reality is very different. Even my outlook was a fantasy that may not always hold true, but for others there is not even the comfort of that belief. People like me who are comfortable will perpetuate the system because it “works” for us, but everyone else is terrorized by it.

I have a different outlook now, and I can begin to understand why talking to the police is so risky for most people. I understand too that it is risky for me. The system does not in fact care for me. I am more cautious now. And I desire a system that is more fair - though I have so much more I need to learn, and I need to get more out of my comfort zone to better serve the others most affected by the injustice of our system.

I've been sleeping in my car in Mountain View (it's legal here) for about six months now. A couple things I've learned:

- Police are allowed to lie and coerce. Do not even admit to doing something legal -- if they think you're an easy target, they'll feign ignorance of its legality to blackmail you into talking more. Moreover, good cops only come to get you to talk or gain your trust. Unless you change your behavior, you'll get the bad one eventually, and it might even be the same guy.

- There is no way to structure a good police force without statistics-based enforcement. No cop has stayed on the force after making zero arrests in a year. No cop is there to "make sure everything's okay". Police are going to profile you and there's no way around it. It sounds evil, but it's actually the way things have to be.

> But refusing to speak entirely and pretending you have an attorney is likely to just anger them (if you’re poor), and they do have the power to subject you to our criminal justice system, and people do get treated unfairly and wrongfully imprisoned all the time.

You're not pretending to do anything. You're invoking a right you actually, absolutely have. They know (or should know) the difference and that they have an obligation to do certain things in that situation.

> Being young and poor and interacting with the police. > Their behavior changes when the other upstanding members of society aren’t in the room.

I believe you. But I also believe that you have societal protections you're choosing not to use. I understand that I'm probably not going to convince you of this in the face of your lived experience. I just think that if we continue to perpetuate the idea that some people can't and will never get what in fact everyone is entitled to, we're never going to solve the problem.