The cops have a plan for you

I've written about police encounters through the general advice of criminal defense attorneys and have shared a particular video that outlined one pretty important rule. You have the right to remain silent, so you should do it. The "Don't Talk to Cops" video was close to an hour. This lesson is not.

I've found another excellent video that covers the same essential bases, but it's much more condensed, yet well articulated and laid out. It's by defense attorney Mary Griego. Her basic message is that police have a plan for you, and that's to make you an informant ... against yourself. Your task is to have a plan of your own ... hopefully before cops come calling.

Instead of rehashing it in detail, I'll give you the recap version. When the cops come knocking, follow these steps to minimize the amount of evidence that is collected and used against you:

1. Shut up! Please shut up!
2. Stay shut up ... unless you're refusing consent, asking what you have to do, asking for your lawyer or giving your name and date of birth.
3. Do as you're ordered and not as you're asked. Make sure you're not being conned into thinking you have to unless it's a command.

Griego suggests you create crime fantasies and practice with friends how you'd handle yourself when police knock on the door. She says to do it with your kids because minors also have civil rights.

Source: Ignite New Mexico. Tags: Albuquerque, New Mexico | Albuquerque Police Department (APD) | Bernalillo County Sherrif's Office (BCSO)

Rights are like soil; mitigate erosion or lose them

I watched a video about a DUI checkpoint where the driver refused to answer questions and some of the subsequent comments were scathing. “All you had to say was that you hadn’t been drinking.” “Dude, you had your kid in the car, so you should have just cooperated.”

It disturbed me most to read some of those ignorant comments, so I made one of my own, thanking the person for posting the video.

[ Watch the video ]

Thank you, Corrie! In my opinion making an oath to the US Constitution means not conning or pressing people into forfeiting the very rights guaranteed by it, whether on a wholesale level such as this or individually. These suspicionless checkpoints are akin to the tactics British and Nazi officials used to use make people prove their innocence.

It's startling to see how many people that comment here lack even a basic understanding of American civics and why the revolutionary war was fought. Because our freedom was paid for with human lives throughout American history, the least we owe to that bravery is to not capitulate when someone with the government tries to trick us out of our just rights -- or at least not criticize people like you who exhibit the courage to stand your ground and refuse to capitulate.

This is how I feel when I believe our rights are being eroded. I see it as a slap in the face to anyone who ever served in our fighting forces because the very thing that’s fashionable to say about them, that “they’re fighting for our freedom,” is completely and irretrievably lost if we continue to bow to those who believe they have authority over us, or who would regard our rights as optional and conditional.

Those of us who self-govern, and would never contemplate trespassing on the rights of others, behave ourselves because we feel it’s a moral obligation to fellow men and women.

As someone who grew up in an agricultural community, I liken our natural rights to the top soil of our land, both of which will erode unless we take careful and deliberate steps to mitigate it.

I thanked Corrie from the video because I see him as one of the good people who is helping to mitigate the erosion of our rights and is very deserving our thanks.

Throughout history, people have paid with their lives so that you might enjoy the freedoms for which they made the ultimate investment. No one is asking that you thank, or even recognize, those brave souls, but you might at least honor them with a little integrity.

Would you rob freedom from your fellow citizen freedom is you were paid to do so? Would you use artificial authority to oppress your neighbors?

Please think before you blindly relay an unjust warrant upon those you pretend to protect.

I will tell you that I cannot afford the cost of your protection if the cost is my freedom.

If the cost of your protection is my freedom, then keep it.

As we bicker with each other, we fail to notice the elephant in the room

I feel somewhat obsessed following some of the partisan bickering I encounter, although I can't say I have a stomach for it.

It sounds like some of you on the right are just as ignorant as your counterparts on the left; you both either have your heads in the sand or have been programmed by your favorite flavor of crony capitalist-owned media, who apparently manage public opinion and subsequent dialog -- which I'm sure is just as the absentee crony capitalists want it.

If they keep us fighting with each other, maybe we won't notice the elephant in the room.

On one end of the economy they pay their workers inequitable wages and on the other they steer Washington by the nose ring on tax (and other) policy, ensuring that they keep the wealth and the power to themselves. All the while we in the cheap seats get squeezed at both ends.

Look around. They don't live here. They're not your neighbors, they don't shop where you do, they don't go to your church, and they're definitely not your friends. They are, however, throwing lavish, celebrity-laced parties for your delegation.

But the poverty they are cultivating ultimately creates no demand ... and that's where we are headed as a collective, thanks to the gutless partisans we keep re-hiring.