Just a reminder... you do not automatically have the right to remain silent in the USA... You must invoke your right to remain silent and if you dont explicitly do so then your silence can be held against you.
No but thats a differnt issue so lets not conflate them…
First what I was saying:
Your right to the 5th is not invoked simply by remaining silent, and your silence alone can and will be used against you… You can only remain silent if you explicitly state you are exercising this right before engaging in said silence.
Second what you asked, no you dont always have the right to remain silent, even if you invoke it. You can only invoke this right under certain circumstances, specifically should you speaking serve to incriminate you. For example if you are called to be a witness against someone else, but you yourself did no wrong doing, you can not remain silent or exercise this right and if you try you will be in contempt of court and locked up till you speak.
**Disclaimer **: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.
Yea and to be honest this is a little caveat that most people dont know, even people who are huge constitutional supporters... It serves to get a LOT of people in trouble when they think all they are doing is exercising their rights.
@realcaseyrollins I mean.. #ACAB and all.. exercising your rights is a sure way to get your rights abused... Best way to make sure our rights are respected is to never exercise them
In all honesty part of me wonders if abuses should be fought in court instead of with officers. Especially since legal precedents are usually used to determine standard operating procedures moving forward.
If you fight a cop, you will likely not win. You might still win in court but why get beat up and win in court if you can win in court without getting beaten, y'know?
@realcaseyrollins Assuming you survive long enough to make it to court... and assuming you have the huge amount of money it takes to fight it in court... and assuming you thought ahead and were smart enough to record everything... then yea, court DOES make sense.
The issue is for the vast majority of citizens court isnt a practical option. And may not be worth the lifetime of disability or death it takes to get to prison.
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