Have you been arrested?

[Devil's Due]

Snip

First, I was not accusing the person I quoted of being a criminal. Second, if you are taken in for questioning and you really didn't do anything it seems to me the best option would be to tell the truth and get it over with. If I need to call in someone who's entire job is to lie for me even though I'm innocent our system is fucked beyond repair.

And if you knew anything about the Government and the legal system, you would not talk to the police during questioning because very often the police will find some way to get you to confess to something you didn't do to get their job over with.

I call bull on your "I've taken classes things," and I have both taken classes, have real life experience, and family members with lifetimes of experience in this same area. I'm sorry, but until you actually take a class and realize that you shouldn't talk even when innocent if they're taking you in for questioning I will wish you the best of luck. I can only hope that one day your trust in the system doesn't betray you like it has for so many Americans.

PS: The fact you call Lawyer's people who's jobs are to just lie is hilarious. Their jobs are to defend the person regardless if they did it or not, because that's how the law works. Please, tell me again how much experience you have here.

 

[major_chaos]

I responded "Yes officer, about 6 hours ago I smoked a bowl of weed. I'm completely sober now"

I had done nothing wrong, but because I implicated myself I was arrested. If I had remained silent, nothing would have happened.

Important clarification question: Is pot legal where you live?

Another example: Lets say you are a suspect in a murder trial. Being innocent, you want to cooperate with the police, you answer all their questions. You say that you were out of town the night of the murder, but you can't prove it. However a witness swears that he saw you at a gas station near the site of the murder. With a simple case of mistaken identity, the police now have reason to believe you are lying to them, which will hurt your case should it progress to a trial.

As unfortunate as this hypothetical case is, I don't see how a lawyer would help in this case, and refusing to say anything at all would make you that much more suspicious, especially if they have a guy saying you were there.

The bill of rights was designed by the founding fathers as a sword for the innocent, not a shield for the guilty.

Just a shame some people are so dedicated to abusing it for their own ends.

 

[A.A.K]

4 times. I've also received 4 cautions. How did they treat me? Lazily. You're supposed to be locked up after the 3rd. Nope, gave me a fourth.
All of them for street fighting.
Because I was the winner...oh uhm...'survivor', because no-one totally wins a fight, and I was either outmatched or outnumbered all four times, the cops just went "Please don't do this shit again."

And I suppose the rules say that you're not supposed to talk about it either, I take it?


OP: I haven't gotten arrested since I generally know how to behave myself, but I have had my run-ins with the cops, most of them mainly being either traffic-related or airsoft LARP-related.

Insinuating what? I made it up or that I was apart of a fight club?
Believe it or don't, I don't really care.

The most interesting thing I've found with a Geek-Culture site, is that no-one can seem to fathom a world where people choose to fight or be aggressive with one-another.
Another big thing I've noticed is the 'cops wear capes' sort of mentality. The 'cops always win and always do their job' sort of thing.

You know what it was? It was me being an angry teenager, having almost a decade of training at the time, and walking around shitty neighbourhoods being hostile to hostile people.
That moment when you meet a douchebag and he goes "The fuck you looking at?" When you say nothing and walk away to avoid problems, I used to turn to them and say something rather nasty; and when both people have wanted to go at each other, and both people are hostile towards one another, in a shitty neighbourhood, no-one goes to the police.
All four times I've had issues with cops, were because they happened to already be in the area at the time.
- That's it.
No drama, no conspiracy, and it's not even uncommon. Most of my circle, from friends, to students, to even my girlfriend...have done the exact same thing to varying degrees.

 

[major_chaos]

I call bull on your "I've taken classes things,"

What do you want? Tuition receipts? For what its worth both my teachers said the same thing as you, but considering they are both lawyers who talk about their job more in the context of "beating" the police like its a game where the winner gets paid the good money, rather than actually caring about justice, I didn't really consider them an unbiased source.

have real life experience

My "real life experience" is that police are so limited in their ability to act that I know multiple people who break the law frequently and without consequence.

I can only hope that one day your trust in the system doesn't betray you like it has for so many Americans.

I rather doubt it will. I have talked my way out of tickets before, so I guess cops just like me. Possibly has something to do with the fact I don't act like I'm just barely holding back the desire to spit on them.

Their jobs are to defend the person regardless if they did it or not.

And I really don't know how they sleep at night for that very reason. I know if it was my job to try and get unrepentant murders, rapists, and dealers declared innocent, all the money in the world wouldn't bury the self loathing.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Insinuating what? I made it up or that I was apart of a fight club?
Believe it or don't, I don't really care.

Dude, relax, okay? It was a little jab at your tendency to fight, nothing more. I believe your words, because like you I live in an area where violence is king. Your words reminded me a bit of the fight clubs, with how often you said you've been in a fight, and how there are no winners, only fighters.

 

[The Event]

Another example: Lets say you are a suspect in a murder trial. Being innocent, you want to cooperate with the police, you answer all their questions. You say that you were out of town the night of the murder, but you can't prove it. However a witness swears that he saw you at a gas station near the site of the murder. With a simple case of mistaken identity, the police now have reason to believe you are lying to them, which will hurt your case should it progress to a trial.

As unfortunate as this hypothetical case is, I don't see how a lawyer would help in this case, and refusing to say anything at all would make you that much more suspicious, especially if they have a guy saying you were there.

The rationale behind saying nothing is that evidence that you were in the vicinity of a murder being committed is pretty irrelevant on its own. Evidence that you were in the vicinity of a murder being committed and are lying about your whereabouts at the time is suspicious.

You don't just clam up for that question as that might also appear suspicious. You answer nothing no matter how innocuous the question might seem.

 

[Stasisesque]

I was detained a few times as a kid, for things like trespassing, under age drinking and generally being a little shit, but never arrested. I think I was lucky because I grew up in London and the Met understand when something is worth the paperwork and when it's just a bunch of stupid teenagers not hurting anyone. I don't think I'd have got off as lightly if this had been in a small town where the police have (arguably) less to do.

A few of my childhood friends continued the bad behaviour into early adulthood, and three of them are currently in prison for petty offences. It's a shame because they're really nice lads, or at least, they were.

 

[Lilani]

Nope, never been arrested. The closest encounters with the police I've had in my adult life have been getting scolded by university police for going the wrong way up a very short, one-way road on campus, getting a police report written up in two accidents (only one was my fault, but the damage was negligible and neither of us filed for insurance claims), and just this last week I called the highway patrol while I was on the Interstate to report a huge piece of rubber in the middle of the road that was definitely going to cause an accident if it wasn't moved.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

I have never been arrested or have gotten into any trouble with the law, but I have been in contact with the police for other reasons. Each time they've been friendly and helpful, at least to me anyway. So, no real stories to share.

 

[lacktheknack]

I live in a low-police area. There's a few store break-ins, but that's it.

The only time I've even interacted with a police officer is when they took my ticket on the commuter train.

 

[Realitycrash]

Oh yes.
Once and only once, and has been the sole reason for my hatred to police ever since.

I had just gotten out of the navy, and moved to a new state for a new job. Trying to be social, I hit the bar with a co worker. After having a fun night, I decide to head home. The bar is less than a mile from my new apartment, so I head off walking back.I cross the highway right next to the bar, and get stopped by a police car as I come to the other side. Cop asks if I'd been drinking, and being honest, I say yes, that's why I'm walking home. Guess my surprise when I get a drunk in public. I tried to point out that I was carrying on a conversation with him without teetering/slurring, He watched me check that no cars were coming, and crossed right at the red light. I even said I'd go back to the bar and sober up/get a ride back if he wanted. No dice.

Best part of all this, going to make my phone call, I wasn't allowed my cell phone to look up anyone's number. The only number I could remember (new job and a new state) was to work. I thought I was fired when my boss came to bail me out.
(fun fact! If you work at a nuke plant and get arrested, NRC rules state they have to pull your access to the site. Going through security to regain access is a fun and extremely quick process, honest!)

So yea, I don't have any love for police. At all. Those donut munching pigs can all do a swan dive off a cliff as far as I'm concerned. They have the ability to ruin your life/public record, and they do so with no hesitation at all. I decide to walk home instead of chancing it at the wheel, and my reward is the honor of being the first one in my family to be arrested. Not a honor I thought I'd ever have.

(and yes, I am still bitter about it.)

Wait, did the drunk in public go on your official record?
..Wait, you actually needed to be BAILED OUT?
What the hell. I've been caught and detained by police at least five times for being too drunk. They just boot you out of there in the morning. No fuss.

 

[The Funslinger]

Never arrested, but I have been in trouble for breaking into a camp site and riding a moped drunk, and a seperate occasion where me and 2 mates, whilst at a pre-airshow part on an airfield, climbed a hanger to drink a bottle of Port as the sun came up. Unfortunately this was a high security hanger and alarms went off, which called the police out. That one took a bit of explaining, trying to prove that we were invited to the base, and that we do drink port out of choice... it wasn't stolen!

You RAF guys are so crazy. You nearly got arrested for acting like a bloody Southerner!

OT: Nope. I've always been able to evade the police; even when I stole a boat.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I have never had major run ins with the police. One time when me and my friend were filming a video, we apparently couldn't film there cause it was near a mental institution.

But my er "relationship" with the police has always been one of caution ever since I watched a documentary titled

The Largest Street Gang in America [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qEr_mZf06Y]


Though more recently, something happened.

There was a man driving through my neighborhood and he stopped his car and asked me for directions. Being the helpful sort, I told him I'd tried to find someone who did know.
As I was walking into the nearby store, I turned and saw a police officer driving his car (no siren), and I thought to myself "Ok great, this guy can help him."

The man asks the police officer:
"Do you know where Calklin Road is?"
The Police Officer answers:
"Sorry, I really don't know." and then promptly speeds off.

Now, I have no idea if this made me angry or pissed or just really fucking annoyed. But this triggered something, I said to the guy:

"go wait at the end of the street, I'll get directions from my house."

I ride my bike real fast, go to my house, tell my mother what I'm doing (she gets a bit concerned about how overly involved I am), print out the directions, walk back and hand him to the guy, turns out he was only seven miles away from where he needed to go. He thanks me and I return home.

Why couldn't that police officer have taken the three minutes that it took me to do that?

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Myself and my associates were frequently accused by the police of running a "criminal training centre"

Are they entirely wrong? Hell, out of all the people I have talked to, the one with the most detailed and in depth understanding of his rights was literally a drug dealer.

One day I was told I was a "person of interest" in a case they were working and was brought in for questioning.
I sat in their interview room for a couple hours, told every person who came in that I wasn't saying a word without a lawyer, and was free to go shortly afterwards.

That's right, waste everyone's time and resources by being petulant! stick'n it to the man, man.

Mmm.

We, as a society have given a certain degree of control over our safety and well being to the police. We do so with the expectation that the police force can then be trusted to act with impeccable moral judgement and with the best interests of the populace in mind. However, the fact of the matter is that although police corruption is not the norm, its continued existence means that we as a society cannot assume that any police officer we come in contact with is acting in our best interests.

I wish that weren't the case, I really do...but there is entirely too much evidence to the contrary.

It's not about being petulant or "stickin' it to the man." It's about educating a populace who, at best, might find themselves being arrested for crimes they did not commit and at worst being the target of organized or personal police corruption.

 

[revjor]

Was arrested at 18 after a halloween frat party for intent to distribute(FELONY...yikes). I wasn't even selling weed at the time. I was actually saying goodbye and taking the first step towards home when I hear a siren go, "WHOOP" and a mysterious voice in the dark say, "Stop walking right now." It was tragic. I was arrested wearing a crown and bright blue Hawaiian shirt. The lady cop even said, "It feels like I'm arresting the Burger King."

They put me in a holding cell in the precinct station where a burly mustachioed stereotype of a cop comes in and puts his foot on the bench and his junk in my face and says, "You're Looking at five years. If you give up your dealer then maybe we can talk." I said, "No. This is my mistake not his." and he left me there for a few hours. Later some guys took me from the cell to county jail downtown. Processed, Printed etc. I also had a nice little conversation with the doctor to convince her I wasn't a crazed addict.

I was put in a 20 man cell in a big room with six 20 man cells in a panopticon. It was colder than Iceland. The food was incredibly bad. Any phones or TVs were broken because smokers apparently sneak in cigarettes and light them with wires they yank out of the electronics. But aside from that it wasn't too bad.

I got a sweet jail nickname "Crabcakes", I made a chess set and a deck of cards out of everyone's paper lunch bags(probably why I ended up getting an endearing nickname), I had jail buddies in Papa Bear and Tazerman. Papa Bear was a huge old black guy who pretty much only talked about all the stuff he's stolen and how he stole it. I learned A LOT about how to steal. Tazerman got tazered... a lot. He was covered in tazer burns like some cartoon leopard. Most everyone was surprisingly jovial and civil. Cards and chess helped that a lot.

I saw the funniest fight ever not fought when a crazy schizo guy lost his shit on a guy who was asleep and started screaming that he stole his lunch bag. The crazy guy started pacing around ripped his shirt off and was wildly windmilling his arms screaming "YOU STOLE MY LUNCH. I'M GONNA WHOOP YOUR ASS." while the sleepy old guy woke up and put his glasses on and said, "I'd love to see you try." Then took a stance where everyone in the room knew the old guy was a boxer or something. Much windmill pacing and screaming ensued. The guard is on the speaker yelling "PUT YOUR SHIRT ON." over and over. Everyone was dying laughing. Then guards came in and dragged him away. Old man turns and says "I'd have kicked his ass." One of the Top five funniest things I've ever seen.

At court they dropped the charges because Seattle doesn't care about weed. FREEEEEEEDOM.

6 years later I was in the backseat when my friend got pulled over for speeding. They checked my ID and told me I had a warrant out for my arrest for that whole thing but they let me go because we were pulled over hours outside of Seattle and the rural counties can't afford to extradite you. When I get home I set up a court date to sort my warrant out. I get to court and they separate me into my own waiting area. The lawyer tells me she's gonna ask them to just drop the charges and I ask her what the sentence would be if i'm convicted, she says "one day." I reply, " Mam I did 3 days for this 6 years ago." She re-reads the paperwork and realizes the case is really that old gets up and goes to the prosecutors to explain everything. They drop all charges and send me home less than ten minutes after court opened.

Now the best part of all of this... As I'm leaving court victorious a nice lady asks if I'd like to do a survey on my court experience. In a good mood I'm Like, "Absolutely Ms. Nice Lady!" I do the survey and then she lets me choose a king sized candy bar for doing the survey. Also now I don't have to worry again because my state legalized weed. I LOVE YOU SEATTLE!

tl:dr Yes, Jail was a fairly fun circus, even though I was guilty and admitted it the charges got dropped and I got a free candy bar for my trouble.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

None of your business. At all. I'll let the rest of you think I have something to hide and some of you think I'm just a prick who doesn't like prying.
Or a third inexplicable reason...

 

[rednose1]

Oh yes.
Once and only once, and has been the sole reason for my hatred to police ever since.

I had just gotten out of the navy, and moved to a new state for a new job. Trying to be social, I hit the bar with a co worker. After having a fun night, I decide to head home. The bar is less than a mile from my new apartment, so I head off walking back.I cross the highway right next to the bar, and get stopped by a police car as I come to the other side. Cop asks if I'd been drinking, and being honest, I say yes, that's why I'm walking home. Guess my surprise when I get a drunk in public. I tried to point out that I was carrying on a conversation with him without teetering/slurring, He watched me check that no cars were coming, and crossed right at the red light. I even said I'd go back to the bar and sober up/get a ride back if he wanted. No dice.

Best part of all this, going to make my phone call, I wasn't allowed my cell phone to look up anyone's number. The only number I could remember (new job and a new state) was to work. I thought I was fired when my boss came to bail me out.
(fun fact! If you work at a nuke plant and get arrested, NRC rules state they have to pull your access to the site. Going through security to regain access is a fun and extremely quick process, honest!)

So yea, I don't have any love for police. At all. Those donut munching pigs can all do a swan dive off a cliff as far as I'm concerned. They have the ability to ruin your life/public record, and they do so with no hesitation at all. I decide to walk home instead of chancing it at the wheel, and my reward is the honor of being the first one in my family to be arrested. Not a honor I thought I'd ever have.

(and yes, I am still bitter about it.)

Wait, did the drunk in public go on your official record?
..Wait, you actually needed to be BAILED OUT?
What the hell. I've been caught and detained by police at least five times for being too drunk. They just boot you out of there in the morning. No fuss.

Yes, and like I said, it damn near screwed me over royally. I was still in probationary period at work, so they could have fired me for any reason they wanted. I spent the whole night terrified I had just made a big move for nothing. I guess I was lucky enough that cops are universal assholes, so my boss had enough bad deals with them to know exactly what I was going through.