Those are New Jersey State Police
Anytime you interact with the police, of course, you can remain silent, but it’s also easy enough to just be respectful and answer them. Your answers don’t need to be good - they just need to be respectful. There’s a power dynamic at work and they need to feel in charge.
Q: "Do you know why you were pulled over?"
A: “No officer, I don’t”
Even if they have an ax to grind, you don’t have to play the part of an ax.
That’s a pretty rural area, so there’s a chance there isn’t a local department and I’m not aware of state police being restricted from doing policing just because there’s also a municipal department in the area.
There is an excellent episode of Ironside like this.
Sgt. Ed Brown from SF is mugged while in LA. He has no money or ID. When he encounters two of LA’s finest, rather than trying to find out what happened, the two patrolmen treat him like an uncooperative criminal for refusing to show ID. He is so disgusted with their attitude that he remains silent. He ends up being treated like dirt by the system for a week until Ironside is able to track him down.
Nothing’s changed.
Yep. Things have changed. That was controversial once.
The cops who knew me as a Commissioner on the Police Review Commission treated me with respect.
The ones who hassled me for being a trans person walking to her car in the gayborhood on a Saturday morning- not so much.
I assume the worst because I’ve had a cop twist a gun in my ear for doing nothing.
Your experience may differ.
Yes and no. That is, you can be respectful to them and not have to answer their questions.
I believe in treating everyone in a respectful manner, particularly when they’re at work, so I wouldn’t ignore a cop who has pulled me over. But that doesn’t mean you can, or should, give a direct answer to their questions.
Remember that when a police officer has pulled you over, they have done so for a reason that is not in your favor. If you answer their first question, then they have immediately established a pattern of dominance over you, whatever your answer is (e.g. “No, I don’t”).
That means that if you’ve answered their first question, even if it’s a seemingly innocuous one, then they know that you are primed to be likely to continue answering their questions after that, and run the risk of saying something incriminating.
So I would probably answer a question like “Do you know why I pulled you over?” by saying “Please tell me why.” or “I would like to hear your reason for pulling me over.” This shows the cop that I can be respectful but won’t be dominated by their questioning.
Which of those four would stand up to another cop who was evil, or just out to ruin someone’s day?
Which of them would give tacit approval by inaction when one of their colleagues violates the rights of someone that neither of them know?
No one who isn’t speaking in polemics asserts that all cops are bad.
The problem is that too often, the good cops fail to police their own ranks. They put intra-tribal loyalty ahead of their lawful duty.
They did not follow the process. They arrested this woman without any lawful reason and after they arrested her they forgot to mirandize her.
These policemen showed a terrible lack of courtesy to this woman. She didn’t answer their questions, but she didn’t show them any discourtesy. They didn’t know anything about this woman. She happened to be a lawyer and they are going to get sued. She might as easily have been a disabled person who might have been injured. Or she might have been an armed person who was emotionally disturbed. These clowns could have gotten themselves shot. The process and the courtesy really matter.
Process and courtesy is what distinguishes a good traffic stop from a police state. What these guys did was way outside the pale.
“Because you have a quota to meet?”
“Because you’re a racist?”
“Because you were bored and wanted to push someone around?”
Rookie for 3+ years, retired after 20 - that leaves a pretty short “effective” career time.
Except the Supreme Court has decided that Police are under no legal obligation to either protect or serve. I’m afraid you’re living in a bit of a fantasy land.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html
Well no, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that maintaining a healthy suspicion of them and their motives is generally good for society.
KISS. If you say anything at all, Keep It Short and Straightforward.
“Hello, officer.”
“Yes, officer.”
“No, officer.”
This, though. When cops pull you over then ask that question, they’ve started out by denying you honesty or respect, and instead choosing to play messed up (yet all to common) mind games. Like @davide405 says:
It’s not that they’re necessarily evil or out to get you, but they’re entering into the interaction in a shitty, disingenuous way. And while it might not be the smartest thing to stay mum, it sure is appealing.
Or you know, cut the snark and just say:
Why officier?
Being silent when someone asks you a question is rude and antagonizing. Deliberately antagonizing people does not usually result in good interactions with them. Bad interactions with police are not in your interest. Why not just say “I have a right not to answer any questions, so I’m not going to answer any questions”?
This woman might get some compensation but I’m sure this thing ruined her evening and she has probably invested quite a bit of time and emotional energy in this whole thing. Worth it?
If you’re not in police custody (a traffic stop isn’t considered police custody) you can’t just refuse to answer questions that have no risk of self-incrimination and the police aren’t allowed to ask them. In this case you can be compelled to answer and punished if you don’t.
The “do you know why I pulled you over” question could have been shot down by expressly asserting Fifth Amendment rights. If you don’t do that, this is a case where your silence can actually be used against you since you’re not protected by Miranda at this point.
lawcomic.net has a great flowchart about self-incrimination here:
…which makes them bad cops.
I offer the compromise: one for things to make it go bad, the rest to make it worse, also known as standard operating procedure.
I cannae diagram that sentence cap’n
