Because Of The Fifth Amendment, No One In The U.S. May Legally Be Forced To Testify Against Himself,

Because of the Fifth Amendment, no one in the U.S. may legally be forced to testify against himself, and because of the Fourth Amendment, no one’s records or belongings may legally be searched or seized without just cause. However, American police are trained to use methods of deception, intimidation and manipulation to circumvent these restrictions. In other words, cops routinely break the law—in letter and in spirit—in the name of enforcing the law. Several examples of this are widely known, if not widely understood.

1) “Do you know why I stopped you?” Cops ask this, not because they want to have a friendly chat, but because they want you to incriminate yourself. They are hoping you will “voluntarily” confess to having broken the law, whether it was something they had already noticed or not. You may think you are apologizing, or explaining, or even making excuses, but from the cop’s perspective, you are confessing. He is not there to serve you; he is there fishing for an excuse to fine or arrest you. In asking you the familiar question, he is essentially asking you what crime you just committed. And he will do this without giving you any “Miranda” warning, in an effort to trick you into testifying against yourself.

2) “Do you have something to hide?” Police often talk as if you need a good reason for not answering whatever questions they ask, or for not consenting to a warrantless search of your person, your car, or even your home. The ridiculous implication is that if you haven’t committed a crime, you should be happy to be subjected to random interrogations and searches. This turns the concept of due process on its head, as the cop tries to put the burden on you to prove your innocence, while implying that your failure to “cooperate” with random harassment must be evidence of guilt.

3) “Cooperating will make things easier on you.” The logical converse of this statement implies that refusing to answer questions and refusing to consent to a search will make things more difficult for you. In other words, you will be punished if you exercise your rights. Of course, if they coerce you into giving them a reason to fine or arrest you, they will claim that you “voluntarily” answered questions and “consented” to a search, and will pretend there was no veiled threat of what they might do to you if you did not willingly “cooperate.” (Such tactics are also used by prosecutors and judges via the procedure of “plea-bargaining,” whereby someone accused of a crime is essentially told that if he confesses guilt—thus relieving the government of having to present evidence or prove anything—then his suffering will be reduced. In fact, “plea bargaining” is illegal in many countries precisely because it basically constitutes coerced confessions.)

4) “We’ll just get a warrant.” Cops may try to persuade you to “consent” to a search by claiming that they could easily just go get a warrant if you don’t consent. This is just another ploy to intimidate people into surrendering their rights, with the implication again being that whoever inconveniences the police by requiring them to go through the process of getting a warrant will receive worse treatment than one who “cooperates.” But by definition, one who is threatened or intimidated into “consenting” has not truly consented to anything.

5.) We have someone who will testify against you Police “informants” are often individuals whose own legal troubles have put them in a position where they can be used by the police to circumvent and undermine the constitutional rights of others. For example, once the police have something to hold over one individual, they can then bully that individual into giving false, anonymous testimony which can be used to obtain search warrants to use against others. Even if the informant gets caught lying, the police can say they didn’t know, making this tactic cowardly and illegal, but also very effective at getting around constitutional restrictions.

6) “We can hold you for 72 hours without charging you.” Based only on claimed suspicion, even without enough evidence or other probable cause to charge you with a crime, the police can kidnap you—or threaten to kidnap you—and use that to persuade you to confess to some relatively minor offense. Using this tactic, which borders on being torture, police can obtain confessions they know to be false, from people whose only concern, then and there, is to be released.

7) “I’m going to search you for my own safety.” Using so-called “Terry frisks” (named after the Supreme Court case of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1), police can carry out certain limited searches, without any warrant or probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed, under the guise of checking for weapons. By simply asserting that someone might have a weapon, police can disregard and circumvent the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches.

U.S. courts have gone back and forth in deciding how often, and in what circumstances, tactics like those mentioned above are acceptable. And of course, police continually go far beyond anything the courts have declared to be “legal” anyway. But aside from nitpicking legal technicalities, both coerced confessions and unreasonable searches are still unconstitutional, and therefore “illegal,” regardless of the rationale or excuses used to try to justify them. Yet, all too often, cops show that to them, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments—and any other restrictions on their power—are simply technical inconveniences for them to try to get around. In other words, they will break the law whenever they can get away with it if it serves their own agenda and power, and they will ironically insist that they need to do that in order to catch “law-breakers” (the kind who don’t wear badges).

Of course, if the above tactics fail, police can simply bully people into confessing—falsely or truthfully—and/or carry out unconstitutional searches, knowing that the likelihood of cops having to face any punishment for doing so is extremely low. Usually all that happens, even when a search was unquestionably and obviously illegal, or when a confession was clearly coerced, is that any evidence obtained from the illegal search or forced confession is excluded from being allowed at trial. Of course, if there is no trial—either because the person plea-bargains or because there was no evidence and no crime—the “exclusionary rule” creates no deterrent at all. The police can, and do, routinely break the law and violate individual rights, knowing that there will be no adverse repercussions for them having done so.

Likewise, the police can lie under oath, plant evidence, falsely charge people with “resisting arrest” or “assaulting an officer,” and commit other blatantly illegal acts, knowing full well that their fellow gang members—officers, prosecutors and judges—will almost never hold them accountable for their crimes. Even much of the general public still presumes innocence when it comes to cops accused of wrong-doing, while presuming guilt when the cops accuse someone else of wrong-doing. But this is gradually changing, as the amount of video evidence showing the true nature of the “Street Gang in Blue” becomes too much even for many police-apologists to ignore.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/7-ways-police-will-break-law-threaten-or-lie-you-get-what-they-want

hello everyone

i am a proud mixed Indigenous lesbian. i struggle to announce this. i know my issues are not that big compared to what is going on globally. it’s hard to see your life as worthwhile when, in the grand scheme of things, it is insignificant. but i fear for my life.

yesterday (9/7) i found out i have cervical cancer. after months of waiting for an appointment, despite having known since something was wrong, due to the injustice that is the American healthcare system. it has completely turned my world upside down + shaken me to my core. with every breath i fear the cancer is spreading. i don’t know how long my own body has been killing itself, all i know is that i need to hurry to get the injured parts of it removed. 

my family has built itself from the ground up and is barely managing. especially with the pandemic.. which has taken a tremendous toll on the alaskan economy.. and as farmers, we lack the means to afford the medical care i’m in dire need of. i struggle with my mental health during a normal day, and this news has virtually killed any light i had left. my waking moments have felt like a nightmare. a nightmare with no foreseeable end in sight. 

if there is anyone out there who reads this, by offering your help you are saving me. whether it be by thoughtful sentiments or contributions or spreading this post wherever you can. my life is not in my hands anymore.

thank you for taking the time to read this. i appreciate all of you

paypal: banhmibaby037@gmail.com 

venmo: mercurialgirl

“Taylor Enterline was arrested Sunday night after peacefully protesting in Lancaster. She was working as a medic, running around helping those that were hurt and or tear gassed. She was then charged with guns by police along with another person from her activist group. She is being held under false charges that all witnesses protest against, She was denied her family lawyer and charged with a $1,000,000 bail that is a direct violation to her 8th amendment rights. If we can raise $35,000 then we can get her out. Please share, donate, do whatever you can to get her message out !!!”

https://gf.me/u/yy2x67

gofundme.com

Bail & Legal Fees Fund for Taylor Enterline, organized by Hailee Paige

Taylor Enterline was arrested Sunday night after peacefully protesting in La… Hailee Paige needs your support for Bail & Legal Fees Fund fo

the USPS is now REMOVING MAIL SORTING MACHINES. the shit is hitting the fan. i need to reiterate that signing petitions or texting a number that sends an email isn’t going to cut it. dont send complaints to louis dejoy’s office or any bullshit like that. don’t waste your time. people who live in the US need to CALL their Senators and House reps. you need to post about this constantly. you need to make a big deal about this with friends and family. get them do it too.

if you want to save the USPS i am BEGGING you call your representatives directly to DEMAND they co-sponsor and vote for:

1. the Delivering for America Act (call HOUSE reps). This attempts to reverse the bullshit Trump is doing.

CNN

House Oversight chair introduces new bill to reverse organizational changes at USPS

A new bill aimed at reversing organizational and structural changes undertaken at the United States Postal Service by the new postmaster gen

2. USPS Fairness Act (call SENATORS). This is a MAJOR repeal of the bullshit the Bush admin and the Republicans did in 2006 that fucked over the USPS in the first place.

congress.gov

All Info - S.2965 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): USPS Fairness Act

All Info for S.2965 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): USPS Fairness Act

3. HEROES Act (call SENATORS). This is the coronavirus omnibus that includes IMMEDIATE USPS relief. Make it clear you want the USPS portion to be included.

Don’t worry Bro , Black Tumblr got you and your Sister.✊🏿

Can we find her a donor please ✊🏿🙏🏿

since @one-time-i-dreamt is a fan of tiny fucking pans, i thought “hey, why not give her a whole TINY DAMN KITCHEN??” and by that, i mean HowToCookThat’s teeny weeny cooking video playlist!

Ann Reardon (the lady of the channel) is a lovely Australian baker known for lots of cakes, fixing “failed” cakes and showing you how to fix them too, and debunking videos of content farm “YouTubers” with lots of dumb “hacks” that are sometimes kinda dangerous

anyway!! here is the playlist of your tiny fucking dreams !!

go forth and enjoy some tiny baking (and possibly her other things too she’s very cool)