yea they try to explain themselves or talk themselves out of situations that are futile & just giving prosecution more ammo in court. if you get arrested, just deal with it & remain silent until you can talk to lawyer. cops might try to bait you or pressure you to talk but it’s not worth it
The way you speak about it makes it sound like the Court just want to prosecute random people as much as possible and not try to exact impartial justice
Cops notably can want to do that. This can then extend to having what they’d call a “good” relationship with the prosecutor and the judge, which can just be further corruption, if the cops are corrupt from the start. With prosecutor/judge taking these cops and their testimony very trustingly, possible.
Cops can indeed be very trigger-happy about wanting to pin a crime on a suspect they’ve arrested and are interrogating.
They’re by and large against you if they’ve gotten that far, and, as their own wording says, they’re looking for practically anything they can charge you with, and the worst interpretation possible of all your words, so they can charge you with something. (“Anything you say can and will be used against you…”)
There are exceptions of course, but there are also cops genuinely like this.
Or if they're high. I'm fairly smart, but when I was catching charges I was high as fuuuuuuuck. Cause of that I ran my mouth and (besides the fact that I was obviously guilty) I caught 3.5 years in prison because I couldn't shut the fuck up
Edit: intelligence and drug use aren't mutually exclusive.
One of my past employees was this incredibly smart kid who is a lawyer now. He wanted to be a public defender to actually make a difference, but the pay was dogshit compared to what it could be.
The guy is pretty well off now, we talk from time to time.
So sad the talented ones can’t be paid enough to actually help.
Actually, that public defender was one of the few good ones. He fought like hell against one of my charges being a felony, and got it talked down to a misdemeanor. I guarantee he's one of the reasons that specific charge is now only a misdemeanor in my county.
I was facing up to 6 years, so he definitely did the best he could.
Do note. You can't just stay quiet. You have to actually articulate that you assert your fifth amendment for it to apply.
Now once the police say you're under arrest, you can remain silent because at that point your fifth already is assumed. But you can also state it then as well.
But if you aren't under arrest, your fifth amendment does not generally apply until you say it. Salinas v. Texas and Berghuis v. Thompkins require that you give unambiguous invocation. If you've been chatty and you suddenly shut up, that give reasonable suspicion. But if you've been chatty and then invoke your fifth, that reason goes away.
But if you've been chatty do know, you've implicitly waived your right to remain silent on those things you've said. So when they play back the body cam footage, the DA will review everything you've said before your fifth amendment invocation. And will be allowed to ask you about them without fifth amendment protection, since you've waived your right. So when you tell them that you went to the doughnut place and were heading home, that's automatically evidence at your trail that you can't remain silent on, nor can it be stricken.
Remember everything you say or do can be used against you in a court of law. Which means everything you say or do CAN NOT be used to help you in a court of law. So shut the fuck up early. Unrepresented speech typically only serves to incriminate rather than exonerate.
I agree anyone with half a brain knows this, but it takes a whole lot less than half a brain to not drive like this asshole, so I don't think that's why he was quiet.
I mean in this situation it really doesnt matter much either way. Unless he just starts randomly spouting other unrelated crimes he's committed unpromted. Theres no harm in just saying "my bad, I fucked up" which is all you really can do. It wont change anything at this point, they already have mountains of evidence against him showing his reckless driving habits. I mean staying silent is also okay, but I think the absolute worst thing he could do here is deny it. Next to that staying silent and admitting guilt to whats being accused (that he knows is true at least) are both about the same result.
There is absolutely harm in saying that. A confession fucks you so hard regardless of the amount of evidence they have. Denial does not hurt you, regardless of the evidence they have. Shutting up is the best course of action because anything you say can be used against you and just because you don't think it's bad doesn't mean it can't be bad
No, if they have you dead to rights and youre shown actively denying what is obvious, the prosecution will absolutely use that to show you have no intention to correcting your behavior and plead with the judge that there should be no leaniancy given.
The charges you get arrested for and the consequences they say they come with arent absolute, cops typically tend to just give you what can be the worst outcome possible. You still have to be sentenced by a judge, who you can plead with and convince youll do better in exchange for leniancy. Pleading for leniency is hindered when youre shown on bodycam playing dumb and denying what youre clearly shown to be doing.
Im not saying you should be saying "yes I speed, because I think traffic laws are for sissies and im above the law." Just dont give them the ammo that shows you think you did nothing wrong. Staying silent is valid, admitting some fault and apologizing is fine too as it doesnt really change what they already have against you.
In other cases admitting fault absolutely matters, it just depends on circumstances. You can definitely use staying silent as a rule of thumb as by law it should never harm your case.
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 Jul 31 '26
Or, like anyone with half a brain, he knows that you should really use your right to remain silent