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Comment by jhgb | Hacker News Reader

Why would government officials be allowed to lie to anyone in the public?

My understanding is that there is a class of criminals who are so bad, yet so gifted, that you couldn’t hope to prosecute them without deception. So in Canada at least, police can do things to civilians that would be called obstruction of justice if we did them to the police.

In a nutshell, we can stay silent so who cares?

The problem with that is that everyone should care. By the nature of their jobs, police deal with people with a variety of disabilities, levels of education and language comprehension. I don’t know that it’s reasonable to expect people to have the presence to remain silent. Yet if they don’t, we’ll happily incarcerate them. I don’t like crime but I hate innocent people being punished for crimes they didn’t commit.

Pleading the 5th wouldn't be an issue if I didn't lose my job in the process and didn't have to leverage my own legal costs knowing I'm innocent. That is why I like the german legal system where prosecutors are much choosier over cases and also reimburse the defendants for being held if found innocent.

Very well said. As Immortal Technique said, in the North American legal system, "it's better to be rich and guilty than poor and innocent." If the state chooses to prosecute, it's impossible (edit - for most people) to match their resources unless you're both incredibly lucky and prepared to have to start over from $0 after the trial with no job.

At the very least, an employer cannot fire you unless there is a guilty verdict (plea or not). Like that should be a basic worker protection. Companies shouldn't be allowed to fire you based off of state speculation.

Why do you lose your job for pleading the fifth?

If you plead the 5th, there is almost a 100% chance a cop is going to arrest you. Lawful or not, a cop can do that and charge you with whatever they want to. Doesn't mean it will stick, but you can still end up in jail.

Likewise, say it happens on a Monday. Your work is gonna wanna know where you are. They can definitely get away with firing you simply for getting arrested due to "At Will Employment" since you can't really go to work while in a jail cell.

While pleading the 5th protects you from the government forcing confessions or something similar, it doesn't save your job.

In theory, to get people to inadvertently give out evidence thereby furthering justice and protecting people. I'm not sure how well this translates to practice.

I would imagine that ideally any extraordinary circumstances like that would have to be individually rubber-stamped, and not some kind of default.

Well, I'm theory again this applies to any case in which a cop is interrogating someone who isn't simply free to go, for that there must be probable cause of something illegal.

Sadly, they have way more discretion than that. A police officer can lie to encourage you to waive any constitutional rights…

To uphold the domination of said government over the public. Why do you think most revolution are started?

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