This is a listed crime?

[Bill Stewart]

At 02:39 PM 9/21/98 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote:
>False.  You are never required to talk to a peace officer, Fed, or
>investigator unless you want to.  They can arrest you of course (with
>probable cause ha ha).  Even then, you still don't have to talk to them.
>In criminal cases you *never* have to talk to anyone.

The Supremes have, unfortunately, decided that police can hold you
for up to 48 hours without getting around to charging you,
and if there's a weekend around they can often stretch that.
Some cops find that an interesting answer to the question
"You've read me my Miranda rights and now you're insisting
that I tell you what you want before I can speak to my lawyer who's
in the next room?" "Yup, you can be as silent as you want in the
county jail, and [since we're charging you with a bogus municipal charge anyway],
we can charge you with a [bogus] misdemeanor instead.",
which had a certain craftiness I hadn't really expected out of them :-)


				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart at pobox.com
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