How NOT to Incriminate Yourself
How to Protect Your Rights
Pre-Frame
The following information is not intended to provide legal council. It is a collection of data points and some thoughts to consider. My sources used for providing this information were the ACLU’s website and several of my Law Enforcement Officer friends and colleagues within various departments in the Denver metro area. Laws change and when they do you usually lose your rights… So be careful who you vote for, check a politician’s voting record before you vote! Be part of the solution not the problem, after all, you are protecting YOUR rights.
The Scenario
You are going about your business when suddenly a man rapidly walks towards you brandishing a gun. He grabs your shirt, shoves the gun in your face and demands that you give him your money.
For a moment you freeze, caught in state of disbelief, then you come to your senses and realize that you have trained for this. You ask your attacker if he wants your whole wallet (as a distraction), he demands, “Hurry up and give me the fu…” BAM you have the gun!
You move back, tap the magazine, rack the slide, aim the gun and tell him to stay back. The man reaches back behind him as if to pull an additional weapon as he moves towards you… you have no choice, you fire.
I don’t know how many shots, and likely you won’t remember either, you will be in a panic. You look down, your attacker is lying motionless on the pavement… Now what?
The Immediate Aftermath
First and foremost make sure the threat is over. Are there other assailants closing in? Is there a weapon close to the downed attacker? Is he still moving?
Are there witnesses that just saw what happened? Does your current body language dictate that you are a bad guy or a good guy, remember, you are holding a gun… and as much as I hate this phrase, “perception is reality.”
Do you feel safe? Should you stay there or leave and go somewhere safer before you call 9-1-1?
Make sure you are calm when you call 9-1-1. You don’t want to call while still hyped up on adrenaline and say something stupid like, “yeah I got that SOB, he won’t be stealing anyone else’s wallet now!”Remember, you are being recorded!
When the police arrive it is advisable to NOT be waving a gun around, they might mistake you for someone they want to shoot. Instead if you are in a safe location putting the gun inside of a car trunk might be a good idea.
Calmly… calmly wave to the police, don’t move toward them. Calmly, calmly point your finger at the downed assailant to draw their focus toward him and off of you. You are showing who the bad guy is, you have just become more like a witness or police informant in that instant.
Obey the police, if they want you on the ground, get on the ground; they don’t know good guy from bad at this point.
Treat the officers with respect and you are more likely to get it, treat them with contempt and I can pretty much guarantee what you will get in return.
Your Rights
Don’t volunteer too much information. Keep it simple. “Officer I’m so glad you are here, this guy attacked me, I was scared for my life.”
They will ask you for more information, don’t give them anymore without a lawyer present. Just say something like, “you know officer this has nothing to do with you, but I’m really shook up right now and I’d rather not say anything without my lawyer present.” (whether you have a lawyer or not)
Be respectful. They can’t force you to say anything at all except your name, contact info, etc. If you say anything it is likely to be held against you rather than in your favor… remember that!
In today’s world cameras are everywhere so assuming you did everything correctly from a self-defense perspective they will all show you being attacked and doing the right thing… make sure you do the right thing.
Now you may think you have nothing to hide because what you did was justified, moral and legal… and it was! But the problems come later. You see just because you know that you did the right thing does not mean that the police will or the district attorney will, they weren’t there and only have an armchair quarterback’s perspective. Why couldn’t you have run? Why couldn’t you have done a flying wrist lock? Etc. etc.
Also, research shows that recollection of events immediately after are very poor, most people need to rest, relax and calm down before their brain starts piecing elements together. Even a good night’s sleep is advised before complete recolection, your brain is replaying events and plugging in pieces while you sleep.
Was it in the right or left hand? You may change your mind later after you realized that “duh! it could not have been in that hand because of xyz” or whatever… but you have already made your statement to the police. Now if the D.A. decides to press charges and you are in court and tell your lawyer that it was in the other hand (or whatever) then the D.A. will tell the jury that your testimony is inconsistent and thus you must be lying. In reality you just needed time for your brain to calm down and replay the event to get your facts straight.
After incidents where police must use violence the suspect is always questioned ASAP while the officer is typically given 24 hours to make their report or get questioned. That way the officer has the opportunity to chose his words wisely and get his story straight while the suspect is more likely to blab words that will make him look bad, get his facts confused and change his mind later thus looking inconsistent in front of the jury.
Good police officers will understand and respect your polite refusal to say anything else. Bad police officers don’t really have a choice, legally they can’t force you to say anything.
You will likely be arrested and taken to the police station for further questioning, that doesn’t mean charges will be pressed. They are only holding onto you until they have a chance to figure out if you are the bad guy or not. Same story, give your name, contact info, etc. but don’t give any details about the incident without an attorney/lawyer present.
The police can only hold you for so long before they must decide to either let you go or press charges, this can be up to 48-72 hours max but usually far less. If they decide not to press charges they will let you go, if they press charges then you will be processed to the county jail, given your phone call and the opportunity to speak to a lawyer.
If you do not have a lawyer they must provide you with one. You will typically be put in contact with that attorney the same day or next business day at which point you can tell them exactly what happened and let them tell you what to say to the police and they will advise you of what will happen next.
Prior to the attorney showing up the police might try to buddy up to you and get you to talk. This is a tactic they use so don’t fall for it. How do I know about all of this you ask? From my police friends and colleagues. They do this for a living.
The police might use a line like, “hey John I can tell you are a good guy, a family man, a professional. Clearly a guy like you wouldn’t have attacked someone without a good reason. So what happened did the guy say something about your mother, throw a punch at you, push you, tell me what happened I’m curious?”
Just politely hold your ground until a lawyer is with you. I know it sucks, you want to believe that justice will prevail, that the law will protect you, that the universe will somehow see through to your just cause and you will shine as a hero… and indeed it might, but I can tell you there are more than a few people with criminal recrods, and some in prison due to self defense.
Don’t get me wrong, I would not expect in the scenario I painted above that you would be procecuted or even arrested… but you never know. Better safe than sorry. AND unless you are a super smooth talker you will probably blab something that won’t bode well in your favor. Just keep your big mouth shut and tell the police how much you appreciate the work that they do and don’t sass them at all.
Conclusion
This is America and our forefathers created rights to protect us from government tyranny; so don’t be afraid to exercise your rights. Many people died and were persectued for those rights.
Hopefully you can see that sometimes even if you win a fight (or attack) you might still have a fight before you. Normally this may not be the case but as I mentioned before, better safe than sorry.
Include mental role play scenarios with police into part of your martial arts training so that God-forbid if you ever are in this situation you handle it like a champ.
