I get that the rule-of-thumb for talking to cops is that you should have a lawyer present. But like, what if it’s small shit? Hypothetically, what if I witness a hit and run and the cop is asking me what I saw? Should I really insist that I have a lawyer present?
Sorry if this question sounds really dumb, but I’ve always been playing this situation out in my mind. My feeling has always just to say what I saw, like tell the cop “it was a grey Mazda SUV”. Should I tell the cop that I’ll make a statement in the station with my lawyer present?
Also what if there’s currently a crime in progress, like a shooting or something? I guess that’s unlikely, and that cops are useless.
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You can always say “I don’t trust my senses and memory to be able to accurately relate what happened”. Or “I heard something but didn’t get a good view of it”.
“I was around the corner, but it sounded like a grey Mazda SUV.”
I think it’ll be a great idea to continually talk to cops about your routine shits
I mean, in that case, it doesn’t seem like they’d have any reason or ability to try and pin the hit and run on you. So you should be fine in that example.
My rule is if the police aren’t going to help the situation, I didn’t see anything. The only scenario I can think of where they might help is where I saw a violent crime, where the perpetrator could hurt someone else if not stopped.
I developed this rule when I saw some kids smashing out the windows of a car on my street. I felt bad for the owner, but the cops aren’t going to do anything good about it. I don’t want to put more kids in school to prison pipeline.
Good rule. My rule is if a shooting would help the situation or not. In the worst case scenario where someone ends up getting shot, would the situation be better? Procedurals aside, that’s when you talk to cops.
I’m sorry officer, I just got off a long shift at work and was really tired, I don’t remember seeing anything.
no
You should probably tell them if you saw a shooter kill somebody yea
If you were there when an incident happened it’s probably fine.
I think the rule is, if cops spontaneously come to you asking questions about a case, you gotta be super careful and not volunteer anything. That’s where you are supposed to start saying the “am I a suspect in an investigation” “am I being detained” “am I free to go” kind of thing.
They stop you on the street “am I being detained” “no” “am I free to go” “no we need you to answer these questions” “so am I being detained” “well, no,” “so am I free to go” “ugh. Fine. Leave”
Sometimes you have to. My partner was in a car accident that was absolutely not their doing. The car could not be driven off the scene. They had to talk to the cops about it but kept it to “I don’t really know what happened, I’m okay, here are my insurance details” etc. So like…yes you should talk to cops when you need to for capitalism reasons (like so we could file the accident with our insurance to get it fixed) but otherwise no. I’ve had cops ask me on the street if I saw stuff and I literally just tell them I won’t talk to them. They hate that shit but fuck em. Talking to them in that scenario helps nobody and isn’t strictly required by capital so I won’t do it.
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Only if they could be questioning your innocence
