I work at a tobacco shop. And after they said I blown through a stop sign. When asked when drinking I said no. Then he said I smelled, and I quote, “of something suspicious”. I get cops get their paycheck for tickets and such but seriously has it really gotten this bad that for a ticket they try to make it something bigger? and ignoring my rights?
lmao first time meeting a cop?
sorry that happened to you and good luck. hire a lawyer and do not talk to the police. not one word, unless your lawyer tells you to say it.
I got arrested once before with a bunch of other people cause I went to my first protest. We were just protesting more fair wages and that the state become a union/ a non right to work state. I got they didn’t read the miranda then because there was a shitload of us. But how come it is not illegal for them not to read it?
Did they actually charge you? I’ve read that it’s a tactic to break up protests and stifle dissent. Arrest someone with no real intent to press charges. Then keep them in jail for however many days they legally can to scare the shit out of you and ruin your life
Then, “oh you didn’t get your Miranda rights read? I guess you’re free to go”
There was a supreme court ruling on this during Trump 1 I believe. They do not need to read rights any more.
I was wrong, Biden’s term, not that it matters. https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/supreme-court-rejects-promise-miranda-rights
This guy was denied his rights and was ruled against. Constitution be damned. It doesn’t change the golden rule of dealing with cops though: Do not engage in conversations with cops without a lawyer. They can ask you where you’re going and some general questions about what’s in your possession currently. Outside of this it is best to disengage and defer to your lawyer or public defender.
They have to read the Miranda Rights in order for the evidence to be admissible. This ruling removes the ability to sue the people who violated your constitutional rights. Because there is no fear of personal liability, entering inadmissible evidence into the court and using it for the trial has no safeguards other than the judge deciding to accept it or not.
I can’t believe I didn’t see this case, fuck the supreme court man.
They can ask you where you’re going and some general questions about what’s in your possession currently.
They can ask but I’m not answering. “I don’t answer questions. Am I free to go?”
Even before I learned not to talk to them, I’d answer them with non answers.
Cop: “where are you going?” 17 year old me: pointing forward “that way.” Cop: “OK… where are you coming from?” Me: pointing behind myself “That way.”
They wrote the one armed lady a ticket for holding a phone in the hand that doesn’t exist while driving. So yeah. It’s gotten that bad.
Assuming a prosecutor takes this to court, they will have to provide evidence during the probable cause hearing. If it goes that far, it will get dismissed if there is no evidence. It’s more likely that the prosecutor does nothing unless there is something they have unknown to you or you are not telling us something.
I would bet money we are missing the truth here. They aren’t gonna waste time after proving your innocence.
Sure they will. Many prosecutors are so bombastically driven to succeed that they will prosecute a case they can win even if they know it is not justice because winning at all costs is the only thing that matters to some.
You don’t get into a good law school and don’t become a country prosecutor by being a typical person. They are very much driven to succeed and have lived their entire lives that way.
Additionally, since prosecutors are an elected position in many places, they have a serious incentive in locking up as many people as they possibly can, if only because incarcerated people generally don’t make campaign ads.
This is why lawyers exist, and why the court room is the other part of the justice system.
Still bullshit you have to probably pay court and lawyer fees and waste however much time it takes to be detained and in and out of court.
If you’re poor you’re fucked either way. “oh after many stressful months they said I am innocent! As a prize, I owe anywhere from several hundred to several thousands of dollars to the state and/or my lawyer, just because this one jacakss cop was in a bad mood one day and didn’t like my face, or the car I drove, or the way I wore my clothes, etc.”
I have lost all faith or confidence in justice existing within this system. It is incompatible with the possibility of what you described.
While true, cops should have basic competence and not waste the courts time and the defendant’s money.
So this is just to feed lawyers?
Anything you say to a cop, regardless of whether they read you your rights, can and will be used against you.
Do not ever talk to cops. Don’t answer their questions with more than a polite “I don’t want to talk about my day, sir.” If they keep pressing say “I invoke my fifth amendment right to remain silent and want a lawyer”
This message has been brought to you by Shut the Fuck Up Friday.
Did they blood test you? If yes, and you hit for weed in a lame state, still get a lawyer, but also good luck.
If you didn’t get a blood test, get a lawyer, you’ll get off. Like for sure. “I work there of course I smell like it, I don’t even smoke I just like affording ‘food’ Your Honor. They can’t prove I was high without that blood test. Rolling stop at best.”
Breathalyzers are not admissible in court, btw.
This day and age you should be grateful you only got a ticket and you’re not in a concentration camp somewhere.
In all seriousness, yes cops suck. Go to court, if they got nothing, you may be able to get out of it.
If he wasn’t taken to the station for the real breath test and blood or urine, he isn’t being charged with DUI.
If you’re in the US, in states I know of, at least, if you weren’t taken back to the station and had another DUI test done and took two other chem tests such as blowing in their big machine (not that little roadside one), a urine sample, and\or a blood draw, then I doubt you’re getting charged with DUI. The roadside breathalyzer and heel to toe bullshit is just stuff used as a precursor to your arrest and you don’t even have to do either of those. The tests to take you to court and charge you are all done after you’ve been arrested and are at the jail. The testing back at the jail house is what you aren’t allowed to refuse without losing your license. You don’t have to do shit roadside and there’s no consequences, despite the lying shit the cop will tell you. Not the lil breath test, or walking a line, or following the officers finger or nothing. All that can be refused. It’s all just so the officer has standing for being able to arrest you. Before you’re at the jail, you don’t have to participate in ANYTHING that is trying to determine your sobriety.
As the top commenter said. Don’t consent to search. Don’t resist. Get out if asked to get out, but close and if possible even lock your door. Exercise 4th, 5th, and 6th. STATE that you’re exercising your right to remain silent and not answer questions and then STFU till you talk to a lawyer.
I could make this a list of shit and things to do like a mile long, but that’s the highlight reel.
I’m not a lawyer. I’m not your lawyer. This is not law advice. I don’t know if there’s any exceptions to this in your particular state.
you can decline a field sobriety test of any sort. They need probably cause to stop you, reasonable suspicion to arrest you. They also can’t detain you for an unreasonable amount of time.
Cops trample over these rights regularly. Get their camera footage and you might have a way to get the case dismissed.
They need more than reasonable suspicion to arrest you. The bar for arrest is probable cause.
Thanks, I got the terms reversed.
Something similar happened to me once. I was driving back from my friend’s house a state away, and had just taken a passenger ferry to cross a large sound. I had my dog with me, who was sleeping in the passenger seat at the time, and the back of the car was full of luggage.
Of course, as I’m about to get home I get pulled over and accused of drinking. I hadn’t had a single drop to drink that day. What followed was a 20 minute interrogation on the side of the road trying to get a confession that never came. The pigs kept trying to put words into my mouth. They insisted repeatedly that I had been on a party boat (with my dog somehow), and kept implying that my dog was dangerous (she was asleep). I legitimately feared they were trying to fabricate a reason to shoot her.
Then they returned to their cop car and spend ages doing whatever it is pigs do in their mobile pen. I assume talking and checking my background for any criminal activity (I have none). Finally, they returned in a huff, gave me my license, and sent me off
As for Miranda rights, there’s a comic here https://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=2637 that explains how those work.
In general it doesn’t matter if they aren’t read to you unless the prosecution wants to use your self-incriminating statements against you in a criminal case. Then those statements might not be usable as evidence, but that’s the only consequence.
They don’t need to read you your rights for a field sobriety test. I believe every state has laws that make consent a condition of the drivers license and establish that the tests aren’t self incrimination.
They should have read you your rights but if they didn’t question you after arrest it’s probably academic, since failure to do so would mean the answers you didn’t give to the questions they didn’t ask were inadmissible.
A dwi doesn’t require alcohol. They could just say you were on “something”. It’s a catchall for not being in a fit state to drive.
Anything anyone says here is pointless. You need to talk to a lawyer.
Get a good lawyer yesterday, don’t talk to the cops.
Cops are allowed to lie to you relentlessly. Even if they do something illegal like questioning you without reading you your rights, they know you’ll have to fight it in court. Things are stacked in their favor pretty strongly. Even if you end up fighting them in court over a Miranda violation, that’s a problem for the prosecutor, not the cop arresting you.
Be relentlessly polite to the cops while admitting nothing. They usually don’t deserve politeness but it lessen the chance of them harming you.
Just wait until they start screaming “Stop Resisting” for no reason. That’s when you’re either going to end up in a hospital or a grave. Get a lawyer and good luck.
