You have the right to remain innocent
"Using actual case histories of innocent men and women exonerated after decades in prison because of information they voluntarily gave to police, Professor Duane demonstrates the critical importance of a constitutional right not well or widely understood by the average American. Reflecting the most recent attitudes of the Supreme Court, Professor Duane argues that it is now even easier for police to use your own words against you. This lively and informative guide explains what everyone needs to know to protect themselves and those they love." -- Back cover
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5recommend
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11people
2016–2026years
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What Hacker News says
- James Duane, the lawyer from the famous video about never talking to the police, wrote a book called You Have the Right to Remain Innocent. It’s a great read if you want to feel very sad.
- a lot of the 'oddness' of american 'policing' gets cleared up when considering one of the main origin stories of policing in America.
Across the "american south"/the american slaveholding states, police departments were "founded" when municipalities printed metal stars ('sheriff's badges') and handed them to the _existing_ slave patrols. (plenty of other police departments beyond the american south started in the same way, but to appreciate the energy of it all, the place it started matters.)
these deputized slave patrols were given badges, presumably budgets, and the message: "keep on doing what you're doing, which is, among other things preventing slave rebellions and retaining 'human capital'.".
It's not easy for that 15% of the people, keeping the other 85% of the population from walking away or rebelling.
Oh, the book "You Have the Right to Remain Innocent" by James Duane is very short, less than 100 pages, and is worth the read. It rounds to "do not talk to the police", and 'viewing the police as adversarial agents is the only correct view, both in their own words and the words of their victims'.
- It can in fact. You should read "You Have the Right to Remain Innocent" by James Duane - the guy who went viral on youtube for explaining why you should never talk to the police and later tried very hard to delete all uploads of this video. Because in the real world that strategy is more likely to get you convicted after all. Especially since the Supreme Court massively weakened the Fifth Amendement in 2013.
- Asking police to stop lying to suspects belies an expectation for police to act contrary to human nature for _many well known reasons_.
It's less of a problem that police lie if everyone adopts the very clear advice given by every legal professional:
> Never, ever, talk to police.*
* You can give them your name, and if they ask "what are you doing", a tolerable answer, but any further questions are to be met with "I have been advised to never speak with police, and I can answer no further questions."
Here's an entertaining lecture on the topic, for anyone not convinced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE&t=11s
And he wrote a very short (single-sitting) book titled: "You Have The Right To Remain Innocent": https://www.amazon.com/You-Have-Right-Remain-Innocent-ebook/...
Do. Not. Talk. To. Police. They are not your friend.
If you're reading this and about to hit the "reply" button explaining why I am wrong, will you please, please say in that comment if you watched _any_ of the lecture by Regent Law Professor James Duane?
- James Duane recently updated his advice, incorrectly restated in the article and in many places in this thread, in a book entitled You Have the Right to Remain Innocent. There is a long and short of it, but I'd rather see you buy the book, so I'll just mention a few things. First, "I'd like to see a lawyer," is not nearly succinct nor strong enough, as per recent case law and Supreme Court rulings. Second, the Supreme Court has ruled that invoking the 5th Amendment can be admitted as evidence of guilt, especially if you say it wrong, as is simply remaining silent. Finally, the people in here saying to, for example, just assent to a search in order to be on their ways are hopelessly naive about the frequency of evidence planting, the potential to be misheard, misremembered, or deliberately misquoted by cops looking to get a tidy resolution to whatever messy situation confronts them. Not all of them, but enough of them and often enough that I cringe at most of the advice in this thread, much of which you (Yes, you!) personally think is great.
Buy the book. It's cheap, and an engaging quick read. Good luck to you all!
- Here's quite a few, but they might be of interest to others.
1. You Have the Right to Remain Innocent: great advice that I had never seen anywhere else (except his video that started the whole thing).
2. The Vital Question: good overview of origin of life research.
3. Fragment: hard science fiction (is that the term?) that delved into evolution and dovetailed with some of the reading I had been doing around that subject.
4. The Science of Navigation: delved into the wonder of current navigational technology and how we got to here.
5. The Lost City of the Monkey God: bought on a lark, made me realize that archaeology can still find new things nowadays.
6. Island of the Lost: historical account of two shipwrecks on the same island at the same time that knew nothing of each other.
7. Protecting the Gift: another eye-opener about being more aware of the ways people _can_ prey on children.
8. Wondrous Contrivances: how people reacted to new techologies in the past.
9. Rig Ship for Ultra Quiet: submariner's account of life during a Cold War operation.
