What to do if you’re stopped by the police
Good advice, and that &quot;Don&#x27;t Talk to the Police&quot; video is a classic must-watch for everyone who comes of age in the US.<p>One other thing which goes along with being polite and courteous, never lie outright to an officer. Use weasel words like, &quot;not that I can think of&quot; or, &quot;I&#x27;m not sure why you would think that.&quot; That might sound suspicious at first glance, but they&#x27;ll assume in the moment that just about any direct statement is a lie, anyways.<p>And even when you are completely confident in your universal innocence, any direct statement can be made to sound like a lie by an officer who wants to keep you off balance. Think like you&#x27;re dealing with Cardinal Richelieu, who famously said: &quot;If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.&quot;<p>It&#x27;s really best to avoid any encounter with cops in the US; we do not practice &quot;policing by consent&quot;. Obey basic traffic laws and don&#x27;t speak to officers on the street, even if you think doing so might help someone. Here and now, all it takes is one bad apple to give your life a terrible and irrevocable turn for the worse, assuming that you are lucky enough to leave the encounter with your life.<p>Don&#x27;t get me wrong, I&#x27;ve left plenty of interactions thinking about how polite and professional the officer who I had been speaking to was. But I&#x27;ve also experienced plenty of cops who were callous, dishonest, insecure, and predatory, and we do not have any institutional safeguards to remove them from positions of authority. So any interaction with the law in the US is a roll of the dice, with your life&#x2F;career&#x2F;family&#x2F;etc on the line. Are you feeling lucky?