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Comment by wilfra | Hacker News Reader

I've never seen a clearer demonstration of why you shouldn't say a word to the police if you ever come in contact with them. Those kids unwittingly admitted to crimes when explaining to the police what happened, and were arrested on the basis of things they said. If they had just shut up and asked if they were under or arrest or if they could leave, they all would have walked away.

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Yea a little brother future won't change these cases for most people. If everything is recorded you won't have to say anything to the police, you'll be arrested anyway.

That's a very cynical view, isn't it ? That was a correct arrest.

Sure if you regularly commit crimes, never cooperate any more than the law requires with anyone, least of all the police or anyone in official function, as any criminal lawyer will tell you a million times. IANAL, but that's probably good advice.

Relevant : Don't Talk to Police (especially if you're innocent) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

Everybody in the United States needs to watch this video. Thank you for posting it.

Sure. Problem is when things are crimes but are not wrong. If the guy in the linked "don't talk to police" video is right, everyone in the US is commiting felony every day. But are they doing something wrong?

silence is considered a commercial dishonor, and allows the other party to dictate the terms of the contract you're negotiating. Police are excellent contract negotiators ("you are under arrest" is a contract offer, legally), and are trained that if you're not in acceptance with their offers/orders, they pretty much get to do whatever they want to/with you.

Seems the Supreme Court disagrees with your opinion as well [1].

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/supreme-court-silen...

> ("you are under arrest" is a contract offer, legally),

Could you, uh, expand on this?

This looks like some http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemen_on_the_land which is a fringe belief in how the law operates.

First of all, those guys are terrorists. That's extraordinarily rude to lump me in with them.

Second, Your comment is an ad-hominem [1], unless you can provide evidence that I believe what they believe.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

I am not saying you are an adherent to this movement, but to my uninitiated eyes, it looks like some thing I have seen said or written by FOTLer, namely the reference to contract, etc, but I agree this was bad form to infer that you were a supporter of all or any idiosyncrasies of these groups.

I'd love to in private. saying things in public seems to bring out the ad-hominem brigade. I would suggest Brian Blum's "Contracts: Examples and Explanations" [1] as a good first step, and start applying the knowledge therein to your local acts/statutes regarding law enforcement. Further, I would advise looking up the rules of conduct for your local BAR, so you understand the motives behind "Don't Talk to Cops".

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Contracts-Examples-Explanations-Series...

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