Tip o’ hat to Radley Balko, the Flex Your Rights video 10 Rules for Dealing with Police is now on YouTube in four 10-minute segments.
I haven’t yet seen this and I understand it’s directed primarily at urban minorities who so often find themselves profiled and stopped on flimsy pretexts. But the earlier Flex Your Rights video, Busted: A Citizen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encounters, is excellent and we all need to know the things FYR teaches.
How to:
- Deal with traffic stops, street stops & police at your door
- Know your rights & maintain your cool
- Avoid common police tricks
- Prevent humiliating searches
Both videos use live-action scenarios to show how we do things wrong (e.g. being intimidated into permitting searches, believing police when they claim they’ll “help” us if we just admit wrongdoing, etc.), then repeat the scenarios showing targets armed with better information.
My bad ‘Net connection won’t be friendly to 40 minutes of YouTube video, but I’ve been meaning to order 10 Rules on DVD.
No financial interest here. It’s just that anything that helps good people keep their presence of mind in an encounter with “authoritah” is a godsend. It’s one thing to know our rights — another altogether to assert them in a sudden encounter with someone who views all non-uniformed citizens as an enemy — and who is backed by the full force of the state.
Just be careful who you show that video to. I’ve shown the video “Busted” to my brother, who while not a druggie does like a “weekly” toke. He really ripped into me for “wasting” 40 mins that he’ll “never get back”. He’d let them search his car while keeping his weed in his pocket, just to avoid the cop calling for the dogs to sniff around. He love to BS with people, even chatting up a census worker.
I got a few books on this subject last summer:
You & The Police by Boston T. Party – This was actually a very good book, that I would recommend to anyone. I’ve read a few of Boston’s books and they are small, but filled with some really good information.
Arrest-proof Yourself by Dale Carson & Wes Denham – This is not one I’d recommend. It is written by a guy who was an FBI Agent, SWAT Sniper, and Miami Police office before becoming a defense attorney. It does provide great insight into how police are trained, managed and why they act the way they do. That info. will make you sick at your stomach! If you are looking to find what is wrong with Law Inforcement this does provide some of the best inside information I have ever seen. Some of his other advice is way off the deep end, like using expanding foam to fill in the ash tray, glove box, etc so nobody can plant “stuff” in your car…. can’t say I found too much of that to be helpful.
Dial 911 and Die by Richard Stevens – I had seen some good quotes from this book in other articles, but it is basically just case law and scary examples for each state saying the police are exempt from everything and if it comes down to calling 911 for help your most likely toast.
Not sure if that helps but for anyone else looking to join the Evil League of Evil its always good to be informed.
Of topic but 2 things…
1.) I just received my sweet RebelFire T-Shirt from jfpo.org that I never knew was available till last week (and apparently they are about out).
2.) I’m expecting a major big April 19th post so you might want to start on it now š
But before that comes BAG Day: http://www.buyagunday.net/about/
“Don’t Talk to the Police” by Professor James Duane
Is a good series along the same lines. You can also find a nice 3×5 card with the basic information listed on it. Makes a good field reference. I have always drilled into my daughters, freinds and students that it is in their best interest not to talk to the police except in a formal situation with your lawyer present. Both daughters have had the opportunity to refuse a police search of their vehicles during a traffic stop. The officers didn’t like it, but complied.
Matt, amen. Here are YouTube search results on James Duane + police. Solid stuff.
I really appreciate the way he makes it clear that innocent people have a lot to fear from police, in the way that they’ll twist the meaning of your words & so on.
And kudos to you and your daughters.
Now Claire – you know I don’t sit *quietly* on the sidelines…
Time before last that I was stopped by police for allegedly speeding they got all upset with me because I took my TIME to read *carefully* that piece of paper they shoved at me to sign. The cop writing the ticket got a tad *upset* because of my *slowness* and threatened he would just haul me in. I made the comment back that , “Oh, you’re gonna kidnap me, eh?’ He said No he was going to take me to jail. And I said I saw that as KIDNAPPING because it was taking me someplace AGAINST MY WILL and that is what kidnapping is. I then followed that with, “And I spose you’re gonna hold me for RANSOM too.” That really ticked him off and he started to open my car door and said something about my refusing to sign his piece of paper. I told him I wasn’t REFUSING to sign – I just wanted to read and understand WHAT I was signing. I then signed it as follows:
UNDER EXTREME DURESS
my name.
That REALLY ticked him off – he told me I couldn’t do that and I said I already did and it certainly was UNDER DURESS that I signed it – with threats of kidnapping and ransom and all that stuff.
When I got a court date I had subpoenaed the two cops and all the folks and records involved in calibrating and tracking the uses of the radar unit they had used on me. Needless to say – NOT ONE OF THEM APPEARED. Case was dismissed.
Claire,
Please send me your mailing address, and I’ll ship you a complimentary 10 Rules DVD. Thanks!
Steve