Replay-RPF0456-Arrest_Proof

00:00:00.000 | When you're in winter's favorite town, the snow-covered mountains surround you.

00:00:09.000 | A historic Main Street charms you.

00:00:14.000 | And every day brings a new adventure.

00:00:20.000 | Welcome to Park City, Utah. Naturally, winter's favorite town.

00:00:26.000 | Join the experience at visitparkcity.com.

00:00:31.000 | Today on Radical Personal Finance, we're going to get out of the summer doldrums of mainstreamedness,

00:00:37.000 | back over to the radical side of the Radical Personal Finance equation,

00:00:40.000 | with a discussion of why it's very important that you and your children not get arrested.

00:00:51.000 | And I'm going to teach you how to arrest-proof yourself and them.

00:01:14.000 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,

00:01:18.000 | skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now,

00:01:23.000 | while building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

00:01:26.000 | My name is Josh Rasheed. Welcome to the show.

00:01:28.000 | I'm going to do my best to give you a topic that I'll bet you've never heard on a personal finance podcast,

00:01:34.000 | but I think it's an important one.

00:01:47.000 | Here on the show, the editorial staff is quite extensive.

00:01:51.000 | There is exactly one person on that editorial staff, and that's me.

00:01:56.000 | So I pick the topics. I'm the one who decides what to talk about.

00:01:59.000 | I'm the one who picks the ebb and flow of the show.

00:02:02.000 | I'm the one who picks the topics I discuss. I'm the one who says it.

00:02:05.000 | I'm the one who writes the show. It's all me.

00:02:07.000 | So that means if you love it, you can thank me, and if you hate it, you can blame me.

00:02:11.000 | There's nobody else here to blame.

00:02:13.000 | I do try to keep the show topics varied and interesting, but it's a challenge to constantly be radical.

00:02:19.000 | I could do all kinds of shows on probably more radical topics than I do,

00:02:24.000 | but sometimes I feel like a fraud if I were to do so because I'm probably a radical person,

00:02:29.000 | but in many ways I do a lot of mainstream stuff.

00:02:32.000 | But today we do tackle this question that I believe is very important

00:02:36.000 | and was inspired by this by a recent book that I read called Arrest Proof Yourself.

00:02:42.000 | And I stumbled across this by randomly.

00:02:47.000 | I was in the bookstore and I like to browse around in the bookstore and do my best to support my local bookstore

00:02:53.000 | with physical book purchases as well to help – hopefully help them stay in business,

00:02:58.000 | although I don't think they're going to be able to.

00:03:00.000 | Barnes & Noble is struggling right now.

00:03:03.000 | But I would just like to browse around and I stumbled across this book and started looking through it,

00:03:07.000 | and it really opened my eyes.

00:03:09.000 | It opened my eyes to the impact of getting arrested,

00:03:13.000 | and it opened my eyes to what a big deal it is to get arrested.

00:03:17.000 | And today I want to convey that to you as well as share with you some of the tools and techniques

00:03:22.000 | and tips that are here in this book because I believe it's important for you to know.

00:03:28.000 | Now, I've long been interested in legal theory. If I were to go and start over again and embark on a completely different career,

00:03:36.000 | I would be very interested in the legal field myself.

00:03:39.000 | I think it would be really fun to be a lawyer and I think I'd be a good one.

00:03:42.000 | And there are a few areas of law that I'm interested in and who knows. You never know. Maybe someday I will.

00:03:47.000 | But – so I've long tried to educate myself about interacting with the police and I've long tried to –

00:03:56.000 | let's do a good job there because I do know that it is important.

00:04:00.000 | And apart from some foolishness in college, in college, my school that I went to is right by Palm Beach Island.

00:04:07.000 | And so we'd always wind up at the beach at night and I never was involved in any significant chicanery, but a lot of people were.

00:04:15.000 | And so I always had run-ins with the Palm Beach police.

00:04:18.000 | But aside from that, I've really almost never had any negative problems with the police.

00:04:24.000 | I've had lots of friends who are police officers. I've had family members who've wanted to go into law enforcement.

00:04:30.000 | I've never had any problems with the police. I had one ugly incident one time, but in hindsight, that was my fault because I didn't know my rights.

00:04:38.000 | But I've never had a problem. But I've noticed that a lot of other people don't have that same experience that I have.

00:04:46.000 | And I've often looked at it and said, "Well, why don't I have a problem?"

00:04:49.000 | Well, I know the reasons why I don't. Basically, I don't do stupid stuff and I don't hang out with stupid people and I don't – what's the saying go?

00:04:56.000 | Don't go to stupid places with stupid people to do stupid things.

00:04:59.000 | And if you just stick to that simple rule of thumb, then you can avoid a lot of problems and a lot of unpleasant interactions.

00:05:05.000 | If I know there's going to be problems, I go the other way.

00:05:08.000 | And in fact, that's one of the important things. The author in this book, Arrest Proof Yourself, he being an ex-police officer, ex-FBI agent, and now criminal defense attorney.

00:05:16.000 | He makes a big deal of the fact that something as simple as not being out at night will help you to keep from getting arrested with some surprising statistics.

00:05:25.000 | Well, I'm in my bed sleeping at night, so I don't generally have problems.

00:05:28.000 | But I've often operated under the idea that it's not a big deal if I did have an interaction with a police officer or I did get arrested because after all, I'll have my day in court.

00:05:39.000 | In the United States of America, I'm innocent until proven guilty, and I'll have my day in court.

00:05:44.000 | And having served on juries and having read a bit of law, I have a decent amount of confidence that if I'm judged by a jury of my peers in court, then I'll come out the other side and justice will be done.

00:05:56.000 | And if I'm innocent, then I want to be declared innocent.

00:06:00.000 | And if I'm guilty, I don't think I should – I think I should pay for the crime.

00:06:04.000 | I'm a big believer in justice.

00:06:06.000 | Mercy is also a part of that, but justice is there.

00:06:09.000 | And so I don't think that I should be accepted from the justice system if I'm guilty of a crime.

00:06:16.000 | I should pay the proper price and penalty for that action.

00:06:19.000 | So I've never been that fearful of getting arrested because I don't – I'm not fearful of being in court.

00:06:25.000 | But this book changed my mind.

00:06:27.000 | And it changed my mind by demonstrating to me what a big deal it is to simply get arrested.

00:06:34.000 | It opened my eyes to a world that I have not really interacted that much with, and it caused me to see what a big deal it is to actually get arrested.

00:06:48.000 | And there are a number of reasons for that.

00:06:50.000 | I'm going to read and start by reading a story here, which is one of the profiles from the middle of the book, where the author gives a scenario here of what a big impact it can be in somebody's life for them to get arrested.

00:07:02.000 | And then I'll go back through and walk through this in an orderly way.

00:07:07.000 | Before I read the scenario, a quick ad for today.

00:07:10.000 | Paladin Registry is the financial advisor referral service of Radical Personal Finance.

00:07:15.000 | Guess what? You are not going to get financial advice like how not to get arrested from a Paladin Registry rep.

00:07:20.000 | They're going to wear a suit and a tie, and they're going to sit down, and they're going to look at your 401(k), and they're going to help you balance it and blah, blah, blah.

00:07:27.000 | That stuff is really important, and I don't have any interest in doing that for you, which is why I refer that out.

00:07:32.000 | But it is important that you do it.

00:07:35.000 | If you're looking for a good financial advisor, if you're looking for somebody you can sit down with and review your investment portfolio, someone you can sit down and work on your financial plan, I recommend to you that you start your search for that advisor at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/Paladin.

00:07:48.000 | P-A-L-A-D-I-N.

00:07:50.000 | RadicalPersonalFinance.com/Paladin.

00:07:52.000 | Paladin Registry is a referral service, a registry service.

00:07:55.000 | All of the advisors that are in the service have been vetted and researched, and their backgrounds have been checked, etc.

00:08:00.000 | You can find out more information at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/Paladin.

00:08:03.000 | That will put you right through to a landing page.

00:08:05.000 | You'll put your info in there, your name, your contact information, how much money you have.

00:08:09.000 | They'll connect you with some advisors there in your local area, and then you can take it from there.

00:08:17.000 | You don't have to hire them.

00:08:18.000 | You may have to start there, and maybe you'll find a great advisor.

00:08:23.000 | Maybe you'll have to start there and then move on until you find someone that you click with.

00:08:26.000 | Hiring a financial advisor is a big deal, and you need to interview well during that process.

00:08:32.000 | But I think you'll get a better result there than just starting off with some random web search or some random phone book listing.

00:08:38.000 | Go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/Paladin.

00:08:40.000 | Put your information in there.

00:08:41.000 | Thank you for doing that.

00:08:42.000 | If you do that, I will receive a commission on that referral.

00:08:45.000 | So thank you for using that proper link.

00:08:47.000 | Let's get to the scenario.

00:08:49.000 | Our heroine is a young African-American woman who has clawed her way out of the social service plantation and the welfare system by doing everything right.

00:08:58.000 | When she was younger, she was a heroin addict and a prostitute.

00:09:02.000 | Most unusually, she was never arrested.

00:09:05.000 | She decided to quit the life and get the drug monkey off her back.

00:09:09.000 | Unable to obtain a place in overcrowded treatment centers to kick her habit,

00:09:14.000 | she had a friend lock her in a closet and spent three days screaming, vomiting, and having convulsions in order to quit cold turkey.

00:09:20.000 | After getting clean, she went through vocational rehabilitation training and received her GED at night school.

00:09:26.000 | Her child is in daycare, and she has been working as a cashier for a grocery store chain for several years.

00:09:32.000 | She attends church regularly, never misses her meeting at Narcotics Anonymous,

00:09:35.000 | and will tell anyone who asks that Jesus is her personal Lord and Savior who has given her a second chance.

00:09:41.000 | Unfortunately, the grocery store where she works stays open until midnight

00:09:46.000 | and is frequented by jitterbugs and rock stars who smoke crack and shoplift pseudoepinephrine decongestants,

00:09:55.000 | which they cook into methamphetamine.

00:09:57.000 | Meth makes people crazy, and there have been incidents at the store where street people have attacked shoppers with knives and guns.

00:10:04.000 | One meth head had his veins explode after he injected the drug, and he bled to death in the parking lot.

00:10:09.000 | Grocery store meth has to be injected boiling hot so it cooks the veins going in.

00:10:13.000 | Meth is horrible.

00:10:16.000 | Our heroine can't stand the neighborhood and spends every possible moment planning how to get out.

00:10:20.000 | She has shared slum apartments with a rotating cast of roommates,

00:10:24.000 | but is on a short list to receive a low-cost home from Habitat for Humanity.

00:10:28.000 | If everything goes right, she will own her own home in a better part of town,

00:10:32.000 | be able to care for her baby properly, and have a piece of the American dream.

00:10:36.000 | The key is a job as a teller at one of the national banks.

00:10:40.000 | Such a job pays more than the grocery store and has better hours, nicer surroundings,

00:10:45.000 | and a health insurance plan that will allow her to get her baby treated by a real doctor

00:10:49.000 | instead of the nurse practitioners at the neighborhood clinics.

00:10:52.000 | One night while driving home from a church meeting in pouring rain,

00:10:55.000 | she drives through a stop sign and is pulled over by a police cruiser.

00:10:58.000 | In her vocational rehabilitation classes, she learned to always have her license, insurance, and registration handy

00:11:05.000 | and be polite with police officers.

00:11:07.000 | She hands these documents to the officer.

00:11:09.000 | He goes back to his cruiser and looks her up in the computer.

00:11:12.000 | She is shocked when he returns and arrests her for having outstanding warrants for check fraud.

00:11:19.000 | Because it is late, she is unable to get a hearing or make bail,

00:11:24.000 | so she has to spend the night in jail with prostitutes and drug addicts

00:11:27.000 | who mock her nice clothes and call her "church girl."

00:11:31.000 | Some of them wiggle their tongues at her and make lesbian come-ons.

00:11:34.000 | The next morning, she calls church friends who raise $5,000 to hire an attorney and get her bonded out of jail.

00:11:39.000 | The attorney discovers that the warrants are really a case of identity theft.

00:11:43.000 | A former roommate had copied down her social security number,

00:11:46.000 | opened checking accounts under her name, and bounced checks for thousands of dollars all over town.

00:11:52.000 | The attorney was able to get the indictments quashed and the arrest records expunged.

00:11:56.000 | A week later, she called the bank to ask when she could have her first interview.

00:12:01.000 | The human relations specialist told her that all jobs had been filled.

00:12:04.000 | She thought this odd, since the bank continued to advertise for tellers in the local newspaper.

00:12:09.000 | She called week after week but was always told the same thing.

00:12:12.000 | Finally, she took a day off from the grocery and drove to the bank

00:12:16.000 | and managed to talk her way into the human relations department.

00:12:19.000 | There, one of the women took pity on her and explained that the bank had discovered her arrest on the bad check charge.

00:12:25.000 | The bank had an ironclad policy of never hiring anyone with an arrest record,

00:12:30.000 | regardless of whether the arrest resulted in a conviction.

00:12:35.000 | Devastated, our heroine went back to the grocery store.

00:12:39.000 | At church, she prays now that one day she can get a promotion to assistant head cashier.

00:12:43.000 | This will bring her an additional dollar an hour in wages, qualify her for the Habitat house,

00:12:48.000 | and enable her to transfer to a suburban store away from the hellhole downtown.

00:12:52.000 | She does not – I'll stop there.

00:12:55.000 | So the point is that this story – of course it's a scenario created by the author.

00:13:00.000 | But the story indicates that somebody is doing everything right, everything positively, and yet one arrest goes on the record.

00:13:09.000 | And to start with the importance of why getting arrested is such a big deal,

00:13:13.000 | and then we'll go through to how to not get arrested.

00:13:16.000 | The author pointed out that there has been a massive change both in the number of arrests

00:13:21.000 | that the police and criminal justice system processes and also in the stickiness of an arrest record.

00:13:30.000 | In the old days, if you were arrested in your local town – I live in West Palm Beach.

00:13:36.000 | If you were arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, and in that context, there would be an arrest file.

00:13:42.000 | Let's say we're arrested for doing something dumb.

00:13:45.000 | I was arrested for drunken disorderly conduct.

00:13:47.000 | It never happened, but if it did, pretend I'm arrested for that.

00:13:51.000 | That type of scenario has happened to all kinds of young men throughout their lifetime.

00:13:55.000 | During their stupid years, they go out and do stupid stuff in public and they get arrested for something like that.

00:14:01.000 | Well, they wind up in jail for the night.

00:14:04.000 | They wind up in front of a judge.

00:14:06.000 | Maybe the case is dismissed or they have a – it's just basically let go.

00:14:12.000 | Maybe it's – it doesn't matter.

00:14:14.000 | The point is they were just simply arrested.

00:14:16.000 | In the old days, there would be a paper file, an arrest record in the Palm Beach sheriff's office, in the West Palm Beach Police Department.

00:14:24.000 | That file would be stuck in that jurisdiction.

00:14:29.000 | So yes, if I were arrested for something stupid and I went out and was – came in on an interaction with the police again, then there would be a couple things that would happen.

00:14:42.000 | Number one, the officer on the street who is interacting with me a second time would not have access to the fact that I've been arrested before necessarily.

00:14:52.000 | That would have been stuck away in a paper file and is not necessarily immediately available – not immediately available to the dispatcher.

00:15:00.000 | Well, today that is because now that arrest record has been computerized.

00:15:05.000 | And so at every interaction with a police officer from now on, they're going to see that I have been arrested before and that will impact the decisions that that police officer makes.

00:15:16.000 | Next, that arrest record has gone national.

00:15:22.000 | I read from chapter one which is titled "New Plantations for New Generations."

00:15:28.000 | The author is using this word "plantation" very intentionally to incite a feeling within the listener and the reader to evoke an image of a plantation of slavery because that is what this is.

00:15:46.000 | Everybody knows about the big parts of the system, cops, judges and state prisons.

00:15:50.000 | This chapter is about the parts of the system you don't know about.

00:15:53.000 | I call them the plantations because these hidden parts of the system will keep you in the perpetual servitude of low-wage jobs and constant trouble with police and authorities.

00:16:04.000 | Remember, if you're not really a bad guy, just someone who is clueless or has bad judgment, you're not going to spend time in a state penitentiary.

00:16:13.000 | You will land in the local lockup, then shortly be released on probation or placed in the drug court system.

00:16:18.000 | What no one will tell you is that once the arrest clerk puts your name in the computer, you have just entered the twilight hell of the plantations.

00:16:29.000 | Most arrests are logged at once into the FBI's National Crime Information Center, NCIC.

00:16:36.000 | Even if the prosecutor declines the case or you are quickly released or you are ultimately judged innocent and acquitted, you've got an arrest record.

00:16:47.000 | This arrest record will never go away.

00:16:50.000 | It will stay with you and haunt you for the rest of your life.

00:16:54.000 | It's your entry to the plantations.

00:16:57.000 | In addition to arrest records, there are criminal court records, local, state or federal records, corrections records, prison records and state criminal repository records, statewide records composed of arrest records, criminal court records and correction records.

00:17:10.000 | Certain misdemeanor arrests are not recorded. Others are.

00:17:15.000 | In addition, there is a second national database of criminal information called the National Criminal File, NCF.

00:17:21.000 | But let's keep this simple.

00:17:23.000 | Assume that when you get arrested and fingerprinted, your records are going into the computers and they're never coming out.

00:17:30.000 | The short version, when you're printed, you're toast.

00:17:35.000 | It doesn't matter that you're a juvenile and that your state arrest record at some point is sealed by a judge.

00:17:41.000 | Federal arrest records cannot be sealed.

00:17:43.000 | You hear all the time on TV about records being sealed.

00:17:47.000 | Have you ever wondered how this is done?

00:17:49.000 | What do judges seal them with?

00:17:51.000 | Tape, wax, staples, chewing gum? Everything is on computers.

00:17:54.000 | Do you think a clerk for some local judge whose authority doesn't run past the state line can call the government of the United States of America and tell them to seal your arrest records?

00:18:06.000 | Think again.

00:18:08.000 | It gets worse.

00:18:09.000 | Here's an actual case that illustrates what happens with arrests and computers.

00:18:12.000 | I represented a client who was arrested while driving a vehicle in which police found weapons and narcotics during a traffic stop.

00:18:19.000 | None of it belonged to my client and the state's attorney, prosecutor, dropped all charges.

00:18:24.000 | However, for the rest of this guy's life, every time he's stopped for a traffic violation, the police officers will run his license number through the NCIC.

00:18:35.000 | When his arrest record appears, it will have a heading that says "armed trafficking."

00:18:41.000 | Any cop seeing this will thoroughly search him and his car.

00:18:45.000 | They may handcuff him and draw their weapon because they will suspect that he could be armed and dangerous.

00:18:51.000 | For the rest of his life, every routine traffic stop will turn into a nightmarish confrontation with police.

00:18:58.000 | The fact that arrest records are computerized, maintained by the federal government, and accessible to local law enforcement, state agencies, and far too many private employers is the reason you need to arrest-proof yourself.

00:19:10.000 | To keep from ruining your life at a young age, you need to avoid cops like the plague and never, ever get arrested for anything, no matter how trivial.

00:19:21.000 | Still not worried? Of course not. This is America. You have rights.

00:19:25.000 | A good lawyer can get adjudication withheld and the records expunged. The whole thing will be as if it never happened, right?

00:19:31.000 | That was right decades ago.

00:19:34.000 | Prior to the invention of the copying machine, the fax, and the computer, criminal records existed only on paper and only in the jurisdiction in which the person was arrested.

00:19:42.000 | When records were expunged, a clerk tore a page out of a book or tossed out a file folder, and the records were gone forever.

00:19:49.000 | Even when records remained, anyone wanting to discover whether a person had arrests and convictions had to contact each city or state in which the arrests occurred.

00:19:58.000 | To make copies, clerks literally had to photograph paper records, an expensive and tedious procedure.

00:20:03.000 | All anyone had to do to escape youthful indiscretions was blow town. Nowadays, that doesn't work.

00:20:11.000 | Once you're in the computer, my friend, you're there for life.

00:20:15.000 | The federal database, the NCIC, is not your only problem.

00:20:18.000 | Every week, another city or county digitizes its arrest information going back decades and dumps everything onto the internet so everyone, not just cops, can see records any time, day or night.

00:20:31.000 | You can run from your arrests, but you can't hide.

00:20:36.000 | I hope that's enough to convey to you the seriousness of the situation of you getting arrested.

00:20:43.000 | I'm laboring here at the beginning of the show to convince you of a few important fundamentals.

00:20:47.000 | Number one, it's a big deal to get arrested, and you don't want to do it.

00:20:52.000 | Now, obviously, you would know that, but if you're anything like me, meaning that most – if you're like me where you never had a lot of problems with the police, didn't have all kinds of run-ins, I just don't have problems like that generally, then you might have the same attitude that I had in the past.

00:21:10.000 | And I hope to just convince you that it's the wrong attitude to have.

00:21:14.000 | This is a big deal.

00:21:16.000 | The second thing I want to convince you of is that this is a big deal financially.

00:21:20.000 | It's a big, big deal financially to get arrested, and there are all kinds of reasons why it's a big deal.

00:21:28.000 | Now, obviously – and it's a big deal especially.

00:21:31.000 | If you're a woman, this is a big deal because women disproportionately pay the costs for arrested because men are often arrested for more than women are, and yet the women are the ones who have to come up with the money.

00:21:46.000 | As the author makes this point, and he talks about – I'll just read it directly.

00:21:50.000 | Newsflash for American women.

00:21:52.000 | Ladies, you, yes, you are paying for a major portion of the American criminal justice system.

00:21:57.000 | The system is not funded exclusively by that perennially overburdened group, the taxpayers.

00:22:02.000 | A big chunk of system funding comes from defendants' families.

00:22:06.000 | By and large, this means women are paying thousands of dollars to get the men they love legal representation, reduced sentences, and freedom.

00:22:15.000 | Women pay the lawyers, women pay the bail bonds, women pay the drug court costs, and women pay the probation fees.

00:22:21.000 | When men get arrested, women get poor.

00:22:25.000 | Every day at the courts, in attorneys' offices, and in probation departments, one sees a stream of women clutching money orders funded by mortgaging their homes and liquidating their savings.

00:22:35.000 | Often it's more than one woman.

00:22:36.000 | It's mom, sister, aunt, and cousin who have cleaned themselves out to get their man out of jail.

00:22:41.000 | Money that would have funded a new home or car, an education, or a retirement is swallowed up in an instant by the financial black hole that is the criminal justice system.

00:22:51.000 | The system devours the investment capital of poor Americans and is one of the major reasons the poor stay poor.

00:22:58.000 | Elected officials love to describe how much money they pour into poor neighborhoods and community services.

00:23:04.000 | They never ever discuss how much is drained out by the criminal justice system.

00:23:09.000 | Ladies, the best way to keep your savings in the bank and your folding money in your purse is to keep your men away from cops and out of jail.

00:23:16.000 | So read on and prosper.

00:23:19.000 | The author created this term of the electronic plantation to indicate the fact that as you have an arrest record, it becomes permanent.

00:23:27.000 | And that arrest record will be seen by many people as equivalent to a conviction.

00:23:33.000 | When I've been in jury selection in the past, one of the questions that often the judge and the attorneys will ask is your predilection to judge somebody based upon the fact that they have been simply arrested.

00:23:48.000 | And I've – me personally, I work very hard to say, "Well, of course not.

00:23:53.000 | Of course I wouldn't judge somebody because they've been arrested.

00:23:55.000 | They're innocent until proven guilty.

00:23:57.000 | Just because they're arrested doesn't mean they were doing anything wrong.

00:23:59.000 | Cops do things wrong and I'm very much on the side of the oppressed and very much against the man kind of attitude.

00:24:06.000 | And so I don't think that way.

00:24:08.000 | But the vast majority of the courtroom and the jurists generally does.

00:24:13.000 | Not only does the arrest a big deal, but of course if the arrest leads to something more, then we've got a problem.

00:24:21.000 | If there is an actual felony, a felony conviction creates a lifetime ban on holding any job here in Florida that requires a state license like healthcare, law, insurance, real estate, finance, television and radio broadcasting and barbering and hairstyling.

00:24:39.000 | The author is also from Florida, which is convenient.

00:24:42.000 | And so if you actually do face that felony, that's a big, big deal to your life.

00:24:47.000 | When you actually have the costs of getting somebody who is out of jail – when you have the costs of getting somebody who's in jail out, that cost can be a big deal.

00:24:59.000 | And one of the strategies that the author teaches is in the worst-case scenario, ask for a notice to appear instead of getting arrested.

00:25:12.000 | Let me read this section here.

00:25:15.000 | "Why are all these guys in jail?" goes through and talks about how there's no reason for us to be arresting so many of the people that we are arresting.

00:25:23.000 | Again, former police officer, former FBI trainer, now criminal defense attorney.

00:25:28.000 | Flight risk. Most people think that petty offenders are jailed so they will show up for trial.

00:25:33.000 | This is rarely the case.

00:25:34.000 | Most misdemeanor offenders are tossed into the can briefly and then released either on their own recognizance or on a low bail to free up the cells for the next batch of clueless people who are rolled downtown 24/7 in a police cruiser near you.

00:25:47.000 | Most of these guys have to show up for their hearings of their own volition.

00:25:51.000 | So it's fair to ask why they get arrested in the first place.

00:25:54.000 | In almost all states, police, in lieu of arrest, can issue a notice to appear, also known as a penal citation.

00:26:01.000 | This also requires the offenders to show up in front of a judge and get what's coming to them, fines, anger management therapy, drug rehab, restitution, etc.

00:26:10.000 | without getting busted and receiving a permanent arrest record and a lifetime sentence on the electronic plantation.

00:26:17.000 | To get a clueless weed smoker in front of a judge, do we really need to use jailers, bail bondsmen, prosecutors, and public defenders?

00:26:23.000 | In many cases, a citation will do just as well.

00:26:26.000 | Even when the bail is lowered, say to $3,000, the bond, which will be 10% of the bail, or $300, can be disastrous to clueless offenders living on the edge.

00:26:37.000 | For someone working for $10 an hour, $300 is one week's take-home pay.

00:26:42.000 | When this goes to the bondsman, the electricity and water get turned off, the rent goes unpaid, and child support payments get missed.

00:26:49.000 | Of course, before the offender can even get the bond lowered, he has to have a private attorney, and in my state, this costs two grand and up.

00:26:57.000 | Attorney costs, another obvious cost of courts.

00:27:01.000 | You're not going to – none of us, if given the opportunity, would choose to have a private – a public defender.

00:27:10.000 | Public defenders are overworked and underpaid, and they've got a long string of people working with them.

00:27:15.000 | The first thing that you and I would do is pick up the phone and call a private attorney, and even if that attorney does their job effectively, that's going to be a significant bill.

00:27:24.000 | It would be a little bit nicer if we could avoid the arrest in the first place.

00:27:31.000 | This is a big deal, and there's a big cost to it.

00:27:35.000 | Staying off the electronic plantation is important, and it's important for your financial future.

00:27:44.000 | Hope I've made that point.

00:27:46.000 | That's the major points that I wanted to make here at the beginning.

00:27:49.000 | Now from here on out, we're going to be talking about how to avoid getting arrested because that's the major thing that I want to convey to you.

00:27:57.000 | I want to read next a scenario, another scenario that the author wrote.

00:28:02.000 | And notice the importance of being proactive and how being proactive can make a big difference.

00:28:11.000 | Now obviously – well, let me just read the scenario and then we'll talk about it.

00:28:15.000 | Our hero is a 35-year-old construction crane operator who, thanks to an ability to swim long distances underwater, ran into the surf in Santiago de Cuba and swam under a barrage of machine gun bullets from Cuba's Guardia de la Costa.

00:28:30.000 | He arrived freezing but unharmed in the Guantanamo Naval Base, considered US territory.

00:28:35.000 | Thanks to special immigration laws, he quickly became an American citizen and moved to a large southern city.

00:28:41.000 | Here he was happy for steady work with good pay as a construction crane operator.

00:28:46.000 | Every day it was up the high crane with a lunchbox and a jar to pee in, then eight hours lifting loads, then home.

00:28:52.000 | He was proud of his safety record of never having dropped a load or caused an injury.

00:28:56.000 | He had married a real American, blonde and blue-eyed, and had helped put her through college and law school.

00:29:02.000 | She made partner in a large law firm and now they lived in a style that allowed him to drive a luxury car that astounded his truck-driving co-workers.

00:29:10.000 | He had twin daughters of whom he was foolishly fond.

00:29:13.000 | At first, his wife liked the fact that he was big, strong, Latin, and a real working guy unlike her other boyfriends.

00:29:20.000 | After ten years of marriage, however, her attitude changed.

00:29:23.000 | At the last Christmas office party, he had, as usual, nothing to say to the suits who drank scotch, gossiped about judges, and speculated about who juiced who in the last election.

00:29:33.000 | They couldn't understand his accent and anyway, they were uninterested in construction.

00:29:37.000 | His wife said that he had embarrassed her, that he was a nobody, and that he was hurting her career.

00:29:43.000 | The next day, she served him with divorce papers.

00:29:45.000 | He moved out of their magnificent house and into a studio apartment with a chair, a bed, and a TV on cinder blocks.

00:29:52.000 | To console him, his construction buddies took him out to a gentleman's club, really just a glorified strip joint.

00:29:57.000 | He had some drinks, ogled the dancers, and had a so-so night.

00:30:00.000 | His buddies assured him that the divorce wouldn't be too bad since this was a "no fault" divorce state.

00:30:06.000 | They were right. The divorce was simple.

00:30:08.000 | But the child custody proceedings were not.

00:30:11.000 | His wife's attorney subpoenaed the GPS tracking information from his car and discovered his visit to the strip joint.

00:30:18.000 | They also ran a background check and uncovered an earlier arrest.

00:30:21.000 | Years earlier, when he first arrived in America, he had had a passionate romance with an American girl.

00:30:26.000 | He had been 22 and she 16.

00:30:29.000 | The girl's mother, however, had been outraged and had had him arrested.

00:30:33.000 | The charge was lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor.

00:30:36.000 | He was puzzled.

00:30:38.000 | In Cuba, sex is the only activity not regulated by government.

00:30:41.000 | In many states, however, it is illegal to have sex with anyone under the age of 18.

00:30:46.000 | Fortunately, the girl had loved him and refused to testify, so the charges were dropped.

00:30:50.000 | At trial, his wife's attorney described this arrest in detail and kept repeating the words "lewd" and "lassivious."

00:30:58.000 | The lawyer always referred to his former girlfriend as a "minor child."

00:31:03.000 | At trial, no one mentioned that the girl had refused to testify against him and that the charge had been dropped.

00:31:09.000 | His having been to a strip joint, said the attorney, was evidence of sexual maladjustment and a love of pornography and perversion.

00:31:16.000 | The club had a magazine and video rack and sold sex toys, which the attorney described in detail.

00:31:21.000 | As a violator of children and a pornography addict, the attorney concluded our man was an unfit father and should not share custody of the children.

00:31:29.000 | The judge ruled in the wife's favor.

00:31:32.000 | Our man was denied access to his daughters, except under strict supervision, and ordered to pay child support, even though his wife's income was many times larger than his.

00:31:41.000 | He went into a deep depression and spent weeks on sick leave.

00:31:44.000 | His union protected him from being fired, however, and he was able to return to work.

00:31:49.000 | The point of this scenario, the reason I read it, is I think there are some important lessons that are important to point out.

00:31:57.000 | By all accounts, this man was an upstanding man and was doing a good job.

00:32:02.000 | Again, these scenarios are fictional, but the author is trying to make a point.

00:32:06.000 | Although fictional, the scenario is reasonable.

00:32:10.000 | This pattern of events has probably happened to many people, many men, and yet notice how the deeds of the past come back to haunt.

00:32:22.000 | That GPS tracking information is a big, big deal because this is the situation that more and more of us face in the future.

00:32:31.000 | Every single one of you has a GPS tracking device on your hip or possibly in your center car console as you listen to my voice.

00:32:40.000 | That tracking device is a big deal, and it could come back to haunt you.

00:32:47.000 | You should be very careful and proactive.

00:32:50.000 | Now, obviously, the best thing to do is to avoid the misbehavior in the first place.

00:32:56.000 | I don't condone the use of strip clubs to fix your depression.

00:33:01.000 | It's not going to help, but I know a lot of guys in construction, and this is a very normal event.

00:33:07.000 | It would take a big man to stand up to it and to say no, and yet that scenario is very ordinary.

00:33:17.000 | So pay attention and pay attention.

00:33:21.000 | Now, you have to recognize the fact that the most important thing is to never give a police officer a reason or excuse to arrest you.

00:33:35.000 | The author does an excellent job of pointing out how the police officer loves and lives to hunt and arrest people.

00:33:45.000 | That is the type of person who becomes a police officer, and that's what they're paid for is to arrest people.

00:33:53.000 | I have a family member who is the perfect police officer type, the type of person who – upstanding guy, complete – but has a love for justice and wants to see the bad guys put behind bars.

00:34:07.000 | He would make a brilliant police officer if he were to go into law enforcement.

00:34:12.000 | And the author goes through and talks about his own arrest record.

00:34:15.000 | He was a leading arresting officer and talks about, "No, there's no quotas, but yet everything is based upon the number of arrests that you give."

00:34:22.000 | And you've got to – in facing an interaction with a police officer, you've got to have as your number one goal not getting arrested, which means you will have to swallow your pride and do things that are distasteful such as control yourself in every way possible in order to not get arrested.

00:34:41.000 | You can't get into a shouting match with a police officer.

00:34:44.000 | You've got to humble yourself, and you've got to swallow that thing that rises up within you and don't ever let that come up.

00:34:53.000 | Scenario here was – this one was powerful to me.

00:34:59.000 | Our subject is a successful female executive in a large biomedical manufacturing firm.

00:35:04.000 | She has a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering and a master's degree in industrial marketing.

00:35:09.000 | In her mid-30s and engaged to be married, she has just received a promotion to product manager and a substantial raise in her six-figure salary.

00:35:17.000 | She dresses fashionably, drives a luxury car, and lives in an elegant two-story home.

00:35:22.000 | One Friday evening, returning from celebrating her promotion with friends, she is stopped by a police officer.

00:35:27.000 | He approaches with a flashlight and asks her to get out of her vehicle.

00:35:30.000 | He says he is going to cite her for excessive speed and a burned-out rear taillight.

00:35:35.000 | Although he appears to be using the flashlight to get a good look at her black cocktail dress, diamond pendant, and matching earrings.

00:35:41.000 | Suddenly, the officer leans over and whispers that he might consider not writing the citations in return for a date.

00:35:47.000 | Outraged, she slaps him.

00:35:49.000 | Her ring cuts his face.

00:35:51.000 | He arrests her on the spot.

00:35:54.000 | At the police station, she learns that she is being charged with battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, both felonies.

00:36:01.000 | She spends a night in jail.

00:36:03.000 | The next day, with the assistance of an attorney, she is released on her own recognizance.

00:36:07.000 | The state prosecutor reviews a police cruiser videotape, which corroborates her story, declines to prosecute, and dismisses all charges.

00:36:15.000 | She is miffed at the $5,000 bill from her attorney and annoyed that the officer only received a reprimand.

00:36:22.000 | The following Monday, she returns to work but does not mention the incident, which she considers embarrassing.

00:36:28.000 | Six months later, she is called into her boss's office and told that she is being terminated due to an internal reorganization, which has eliminated her job.

00:36:37.000 | She is given a small severance.

00:36:39.000 | Weeks later, she reads in a national business newspaper that her former company has been running background checks on its employees and firing everyone with an arrest record or even an unpaid traffic ticket.

00:36:51.000 | She discovers to her horror that her arrest record had been picked up electronically by a credit reporting company in another state.

00:36:59.000 | She hires a top-flight labor attorney and immediately sues for wrongful termination.

00:37:04.000 | There are months of document discovery, depositions, and motion hearings.

00:37:10.000 | She finds that although the company freely admits running background checks, there is no documentation in which her arrest is even mentioned, nor any record that background checks were considered in terminating her or any other former employees, all of whom came from different departments with different skills and pay grades.

00:37:28.000 | There is, however, a mountain of paperwork, including lengthy memos and emails regarding a complex personnel reorganization.

00:37:36.000 | The company produces multi-page spreadsheets and cost analyses.

00:37:40.000 | The fact that most but not all of the terminated employees had arrest records is, the company insists, just coincidence.

00:37:48.000 | Given the documentation and the company's essentially limitless litigation resources, the woman's attorney persuades her to drop the lawsuit then presents her with a bill for $75,000.

00:37:59.000 | The woman is unable to find work.

00:38:01.000 | The biomed corporations to which she applies will not even give her an interview.

00:38:05.000 | She learns that all have begun to run background checks and they will not employ anyone with an arrest record.

00:38:10.000 | Her education and training have been specific to this industry and within months, finding herself effectively blacklisted, she signs on with a temp agency doing secretarial work.

00:38:20.000 | She is forced to sell her home and now lives in a studio apartment and drives a battered used car.

00:38:25.000 | Her fiancé, a surgeon, has broken off the engagement.

00:38:28.000 | The author is good at writing sob stories.

00:38:31.000 | I'm sure that we would all agree that in that circumstance, in that scenario, the police officer deserved a slap.

00:38:38.000 | None of us would stand up and tell that woman that she was wrong in slapping him.

00:38:46.000 | But the badge on the man's shoulder means that she was stupid in slapping him because that door to the police cruiser is a magic portal, as the author writes.

00:38:58.000 | The door to the police cruiser was a magic portal through which she passed onto the electric plantation and a life of low-wage labor.

00:39:06.000 | Her arrest record was expunged from state records but not from the servers and databases of the World Wide Web.

00:39:12.000 | It cannot be removed from the NCIC.

00:39:15.000 | That arrest record is viewed by many people as a conviction.

00:39:19.000 | So even though that police officer surely deserved it, one of the things that you must convince yourself of and you must practice is that you never, ever, under any circumstance, touch a police officer, even when they deserve it.

00:39:38.000 | You've got to commit yourself to being beaten.

00:39:42.000 | Protect yourself if you can.

00:39:43.000 | The author talks about if you're in a situation where you're being beaten by the police, try to get near the police cruiser and get your head underneath it to protect your head.

00:39:50.000 | Curl up in a ball and protect yourself, but never even raise your harms because if you do, that will give the benefit of the doubt to the reviewers later on, the supervisor that are reviewing the videotape if it exists, and that will put you onto the plantation.

00:40:09.000 | You've also got to teach this to your children.

00:40:12.000 | In a little bit, we'll talk about traffic stops and things like that.

00:40:15.000 | I'm convinced that one of the things I try to do with young people is I try to teach them how to plan as a driver, how to plan in advance, and how to learn how to handle a traffic stop.

00:40:24.000 | We'll talk about that in a moment.

00:40:26.000 | My children are a little bit young for my teaching that, but I've taught my wife.

00:40:29.000 | Here are the specific steps and actions that you do in a traffic stop so that you don't get shot and you don't get beat up.

00:40:36.000 | Let's talk about some specific behaviors though.

00:40:38.000 | Here are the just normal – here are the clueless behaviors that get people arrested.

00:40:44.000 | Number one, bad manners.

00:40:45.000 | The number one thing the clueless do is to act out in front of cops.

00:40:48.000 | They hit cops, curse, run away, or do something else that turns a conversation into an arrest and a misdemeanor into a felony.

00:40:57.000 | Cops are the archetypal representatives of the American middle class.

00:41:01.000 | They expect people to be reasonably polite and obedient to authority and they punish those who aren't.

00:41:07.000 | So the solution for you to stay out of the back of the cruiser is be polite in front of cops.

00:41:14.000 | You only have to be polite for a few minutes.

00:41:16.000 | That's all.

00:41:17.000 | Once the cops leave, you're free.

00:41:18.000 | But you need to be polite.

00:41:21.000 | So yes, officer, instead of swearing at the police officer.

00:41:24.000 | Problem number two is lousy paperwork.

00:41:26.000 | Because of illiteracy, depression, obstinacy, or some other cause, clueless people are forever committing the crime of ignoring official paperwork.

00:41:34.000 | When they fail to appear in traffic court, for example, a traffic ticket can become, in some states, a bench warrant, which gets clueless types arrested.

00:41:42.000 | Showing up in court and complying with the terms of probation are, for the highly clueless, nearly impossible.

00:41:48.000 | Solution.

00:41:49.000 | Paperwork is crucial.

00:41:51.000 | Start reading your mail.

00:41:52.000 | Get someone to read it to you if you do not read well.

00:41:55.000 | Get teachers, religious leaders, family, and friends to explain things you do not understand.

00:41:59.000 | To stay free in America, you have to pay taxes, obtain driver's licenses, get car insurance, pay fees, show up in court, meet with your probation officer, pay traffic tickets, etc.

00:42:10.000 | All of this stuff comes in the mail.

00:42:12.000 | Read it.

00:42:13.000 | Problem number three, time management.

00:42:15.000 | Clueless people don't have watches, alarm clocks, and calendars.

00:42:18.000 | They show up late or never at judicial hearings, behavior modification classes, drug court, and meetings with probation officers.

00:42:24.000 | This gets them pursued by cops and bail bondsmen and rearrested.

00:42:28.000 | Not showing up is often a more serious offense than the one for which the poor devils were busted originally.

00:42:35.000 | So get an alarm clock and teach people to show up.

00:42:38.000 | That's important.

00:42:39.000 | You got to teach your children.

00:42:40.000 | Show up.

00:42:42.000 | Problem four, low social backup.

00:42:44.000 | Clueless people are often alone in the world with few family, friends, and acquaintances and not much money.

00:42:49.000 | They are less able than others to encounter cops without getting arrested and to mount a stout legal defense.

00:42:56.000 | They have few if any responsible adults to teach them how to behave.

00:42:59.000 | People with sound families and numerous friends are less likely to be arrested and prosecuted.

00:43:06.000 | So the solution is that your family and friends are a big deal.

00:43:10.000 | Having a wide social network of respectable business leaders and solid citizens will help you to navigate through the criminal justice system if you ever have to face it.

00:43:20.000 | Problem number five that gets people arrested, lousy cars.

00:43:24.000 | Clueless people ride around in cop magnets, cars with broken lights and smoking tailpipes, and no valid licenses, tags, and insurance.

00:43:32.000 | Too often they have controlled substances in these beaters.

00:43:35.000 | Police do not generally need a warrant to search a car, so for the clueless, a traffic ticket becomes a ticket to jail.

00:43:41.000 | Because traffic stops are the most important component of the police dragnet that sweeps through your city 24/7.

00:43:46.000 | We talk about it later.

00:43:47.000 | Solution, cars have two types of problems that make them cop bait, mechanical and paperwork.

00:43:54.000 | You know you have to fix the mechanical and safety stuff, headlights, taillights, turn signals, squealing brakes, smoking tailpipe, bowled tires, etc.

00:44:01.000 | What you may not know is that in the computer age, cops can pull up behind you, run your tag through their onboard computers, and instantly discover any paperwork problems.

00:44:10.000 | Suspended licenses, expired insurance, unpaid tickets that allow them to stop and search you and your car.

00:44:16.000 | You do not want cops doing this.

00:44:18.000 | Very important that you pay attention to the details of a vehicle.

00:44:23.000 | If you want to stay out of jail, you need to do a couple of things.

00:44:26.000 | Don't ever give in to the temptation to drive a vehicle that you are not authorized to drive.

00:44:32.000 | If your driver's license is suspended, do not drive.

00:44:36.000 | If your driver's license is suspended or you're on restriction because you got a DUI or you're facing something like that, do not drive.

00:44:45.000 | In a world of Uber, it's cheap.

00:44:49.000 | Even in a world of taxis, it's cheaper to drive right a taxi than to face a secondary arrest.

00:44:56.000 | Do not drive if your paperwork is not in order.

00:45:00.000 | The car must be insured and it must be registered in the license plate up to date.

00:45:05.000 | Teach your children the same thing.

00:45:07.000 | It's not worth the risk.

00:45:10.000 | Just like it's not worth the risk driving home from the bar if you've had more than one or two drinks.

00:45:16.000 | It's just not worth it.

00:45:19.000 | The cab fee is way cheaper.

00:45:21.000 | I've learned this lesson in life.

00:45:23.000 | I've learned it many ways.

00:45:25.000 | But I think of it as something like parking tickets.

00:45:27.000 | Most of us, you get to the place and you've got the meter in the downtown area and you get there and you think, "Ah, the meter ends.

00:45:35.000 | The meter enforcement ends at 6 o'clock and it's 5.15."

00:45:39.000 | Do I risk it or do I go in or do I just pay it?

00:45:44.000 | And I have learned the hard way.

00:45:47.000 | It's always cheaper to feed the meter than it is to pay the ticket.

00:45:53.000 | Feed the meter.

00:45:54.000 | It's one of the models of my life.

00:45:56.000 | Feed the meter.

00:45:57.000 | Pay the tax.

00:45:58.000 | Pay the fee.

00:46:00.000 | Pay for the thing because just following the rules is going to be easier.

00:46:05.000 | This is hard for me because I'm a fighter.

00:46:07.000 | I like to fight against things that I don't think are right.

00:46:10.000 | But I've learned, go along to get along.

00:46:13.000 | It's cheaper and easier to just pay it up front.

00:46:16.000 | A dollar in the parking meter that gets wasted is cheaper than the $35 ticket because if I save that dollar 35 times, there's no chance I'm getting through those 35 times and not getting caught.

00:46:28.000 | Same thing with the car.

00:46:30.000 | This matters as well to the functionality of the vehicle.

00:46:33.000 | Fix the broken light.

00:46:35.000 | Fix the tires.

00:46:36.000 | Fix the stuff.

00:46:37.000 | If you can't afford to fix the stuff, you can't afford to drive.

00:46:40.000 | Problem six, no address.

00:46:42.000 | The clueless often do not have a mailing address.

00:46:44.000 | This is a big deal actually.

00:46:45.000 | One of the things the author is using this term "clueless" because he goes through and based upon his experience and insight as police officer, FBI agent, and attorney, he talks about the fact that one of the biggest crimes that people have – the biggest problems that cause people to be clueless is that they don't have a mailing address.

00:47:02.000 | The cause of people problems in their life is their general cluelessness about life.

00:47:07.000 | Unstable living conditions lead to the fact that they don't have an address.

00:47:10.000 | Not having an address means they can't get noticed to appear in court.

00:47:14.000 | Something as simple as that is a big deal.

00:47:16.000 | So you've got to make sure that you have these little things squared away.

00:47:20.000 | Problem number seven, no attorney.

00:47:22.000 | Clueless people don't understand how to find, use, and pay for attorneys.

00:47:25.000 | They're represented by overworked, underpaid public defenders and naturally spend much time in public jails.

00:47:31.000 | Defend that.

00:47:32.000 | Solution, get an attorney.

00:47:34.000 | More precisely, get the name and business card of a criminal defense attorney who could represent you if you're arrested.

00:47:41.000 | How to do this without spending money we'll talk about later.

00:47:43.000 | The trick is to let cops know you have an attorney so they think twice before busting you.

00:47:47.000 | This has to be low-key to be successful.

00:47:50.000 | What you want to avoid is yelling, "Call my attorney," which annoys cops and makes them want to bust you so you can spend lots of money on your attorney.

00:47:57.000 | He talks about how to do that.

00:47:59.000 | Problem eight, the urban outdoor lifestyle.

00:48:02.000 | Whether from lack of automobiles and air conditioners or social and cultural factors, clueless people hang out on the streets.

00:48:09.000 | There they are visible to and arrestable by police riding around in cars.

00:48:14.000 | Solution, stay out of sight.

00:48:17.000 | Remember, if cops don't see you, they can't arrest you.

00:48:21.000 | If you must be a thug, at least smoke dope and do stupid stuff indoors where police can't arrest you and seize evidence without a search warrant.

00:48:28.000 | This buys you time to stay free, grow up, and wise up.

00:48:31.000 | Warrants are almost impossible to obtain for petty crimes.

00:48:34.000 | Problem number nine, intoxicant of choice.

00:48:37.000 | Clueless people prefer marijuana to alcohol as an intoxicant.

00:48:41.000 | There are obvious reasons.

00:48:42.000 | Dope is tax-free, cheaper than alcohol, and gives a longer-lasting high with no hangover.

00:48:46.000 | Unlike beer, it doesn't make you pee every five minutes.

00:48:49.000 | Dope has two problems.

00:48:51.000 | First of all, it's illegal, and second, it dulls emotions and causes you to not care about anything even when you're straight.

00:48:58.000 | Solution, get a legal buzz and use alcohol in moderation.

00:49:02.000 | Problem ten, bizarre appearance.

00:49:04.000 | One thing you notice at the jail is that most prisoners look like crooks.

00:49:07.000 | They've got weird hair and wild clothes.

00:49:09.000 | Petty offenders often get arrested simply because they stand out like neon lights and are easy to spot by cops driving around in cars.

00:49:16.000 | Solution, tone it down.

00:49:18.000 | Look normal.

00:49:20.000 | Problem eleven, just being plain dumb.

00:49:22.000 | So on these different aspects of cluelessness, one thing that you've got to do is don't be clueless.

00:49:28.000 | Obviously, you're not clueless if you're listening to this show.

00:49:30.000 | Clueless people don't listen to this show.

00:49:32.000 | But help somebody else not be clueless.

00:49:36.000 | This is one of the things that I'm trying to accomplish with today's show is trying to help you so you can help other people not be clueless.

00:49:43.000 | I've done this lots of times.

00:49:44.000 | When I see somebody getting pulled over and being abused and they don't know their rights, things like that, I often pull over.

00:49:50.000 | I'll film, like for example, police, I often film the interaction for them from a distance, arms held down, et cetera, clearly just simply holding a cell phone.

00:49:57.000 | I go and just try to help the person and give them some resources so they can understand.

00:50:01.000 | Try to help clueless people not be clueless.

00:50:03.000 | It's a big, big deal.

00:50:05.000 | One of the most interesting chapters in this book, worth reading for this, was just talking about the lifestyle of the people who are constantly chewed up and spit out by the criminal justice system.

00:50:15.000 | The author does a good job of opening your eyes to just the situation faced by a lot of these people.

00:50:23.000 | It's really, really good.

00:50:25.000 | He talks about minorities, et cetera.

00:50:30.000 | He does a good job of talking about and asking the question about racism and police enforcement.

00:50:34.000 | In today's politically charged question, it's an important discussion to have.

00:50:40.000 | I think he does a really good job with it, really, really fair.

00:50:43.000 | But one of the most valuable things that to me of this chapter, I want to read you a section here called Do White Trash Get a Pass Because They're White?

00:50:52.000 | The author does a good job of showing how the lack of cluelessness helps people to avoid problems with the law.

00:50:59.000 | Listen to this.

00:51:00.000 | "Let's talk about a group people of color often know little about, poor, clueless, white people.

00:51:09.000 | Some black Americans have myths, of course, and think poor whites are bogeymen with white Ku Klux Klan hoods in their pockets, always ready for a nighttime lynching.

00:51:17.000 | On their part, some poor southern whites fly Confederate battle flags at home and on their vehicles to signify a certain disinclination to appreciate the full panoply of America's racial and ethnic diversity.

00:51:28.000 | I live in a neighborhood where poor whites and poor blacks rent rooms in separate rooming houses on the same blocks.

00:51:34.000 | Although on paper the neighborhood is a model of integration, the two groups might as well live on separate planets.

00:51:40.000 | Since it's been my privilege to arrest people of both groups over the years and now to defend them, I know them well.

00:51:45.000 | Let's talk about a subset of poor, clueless whites I'll call seagoing rednecks.

00:51:51.000 | These guys live along the rivers, seaports, and coasts of the South in an astounding variety of boats and contraptions that float but, lacking propulsion, may not actually make headway in a liquid medium.

00:52:02.000 | Some of these guys actually live in truck containers and plywood boxes that bob about on giant blocks of polyurethane foam.

00:52:09.000 | Most of these guys work in fishing boats, boatyards, and marinas.

00:52:12.000 | Some of them supplement their income by running offshore to unload motherships and bring in drugs.

00:52:17.000 | This is sometimes referred to as fishing for "square grouper," i.e., marijuana bales and blocks of cocaine.

00:52:23.000 | In South Florida, if they can afford full tanks of gas for their boat, they cross to Bahamian outer islands to pick up Haitian and Chinese immigrants,

00:52:31.000 | who they carry to the beaches of South Florida and dump overboard just beyond the breakers.

00:52:35.000 | They're fond of the magic herb and can be seen growing their very own shipboard marijuana bushes, which they mist and fertilize lovingly.

00:52:43.000 | Nothing, of course, replaces beer.

00:52:45.000 | They consider the 24-pack and the kegger to be the most important advances in human convenience in the last century.

00:52:51.000 | When in need of jollification, they hive forth to roadhouses and biker bars, where misunderstandings about women sometimes require the intervention of civil authority.

00:52:59.000 | When their women are in need of enlightenment, they improve their ladies' understandings with a few sharp raps to the head.

00:53:05.000 | Their dress code runs to jeans and t-shirts.

00:53:07.000 | Their hair is long or shaved off.

00:53:09.000 | Their beard's scruffy and their skin adorned with tattoos and piercings.

00:53:13.000 | Got the picture?

00:53:15.000 | These are petty criminals, but why aren't more of them in jail?

00:53:19.000 | Because they're not totally clueless.

00:53:21.000 | Using the cluelessness quotient chart and the golden rules for comparison, let's consider manners first.

00:53:27.000 | Although low on the social food chain, these characters don't have a chip on their shoulders about race.

00:53:32.000 | They are less likely to act out in the presence of police.

00:53:35.000 | Generally, they can stifle the profanity during those crucial minutes and mumble "yes, officer" and "no, officer" until the heat has passed.

00:53:43.000 | Most important, they don't adopt the outdoor lifestyle.

00:53:47.000 | They're almost never visible walking on streets where they can be seen by cops riding around in cars.

00:53:52.000 | When they drive, their cars and pickups may be junkers, but they're street legal, so they have fewer traffic stops.

00:53:58.000 | They get wasted indoors where search warrants are required and are less likely to carry dope on their persons or in their cars.

00:54:06.000 | Often, they grow their own marijuana, so they do not buy drugs and fall victim to police stings, undercover cops, and confidential informants.

00:54:13.000 | Their dress is scruffy, but t-shirts and jeans blend in better than gang colors and hip-hop gear, so they don't get targeted as quickly by police.

00:54:21.000 | Once they do get arrested, they have some resources.

00:54:24.000 | For time management, they generally can muster an alarm clock and a watch, and in emergencies, a calendar.

00:54:30.000 | They often marry their women, so they have a wife, the old lady, in addition to mama and sisters to pay legal fees and bail bonds.

00:54:37.000 | When driving, they get their buzz from beer rather than marijuana.

00:54:41.000 | This means that if they're stopped and are not legally intoxicated, they will receive only a citation for driving with an open container,

00:54:48.000 | and not even that if they can slide the can out the rear window and into the truck bed before the cop gets close.

00:54:53.000 | Rednecks have some knowledge of police procedure.

00:54:56.000 | They know that police do not like to find guns, so they carry the all-purpose and legal knife.

00:55:02.000 | When they do carry guns, they are likely to have a permit.

00:55:05.000 | The author goes on and talks about minorities and different aspects of cluelessness and the difference.

00:55:12.000 | Well worth reading. Well worth reading the book.

00:55:14.000 | Let's talk about specific tactics and techniques.

00:55:17.000 | Number one, to avoid getting arrested, keep yourself polite.

00:55:23.000 | Do not allow your emotions to be incited when speaking with a police officer.

00:55:30.000 | Do not allow yourself to become emotional, to become angry, and to start yelling or arguing with a police officer.

00:55:37.000 | Always, always train yourself or always be calm and polite, and you've got to train yourself for this,

00:55:45.000 | and you've got to train your children.

00:55:47.000 | I've always had it easy in interactions with police officers because I've always trained to be polite to people.

00:55:52.000 | So if you just simply are doing the normal – teaching your children the normal good manners of society,

00:55:58.000 | teaching them to be respectful of other people in general and to be respectful of authority,

00:56:03.000 | you will do yourself a big favor and do them a big favor by allowing them not to anger police officers.

00:56:11.000 | A little bit of respect goes a long way.

00:56:15.000 | All of my friends who are police officers are normal, upstanding, good guys.

00:56:19.000 | I don't know any scum of the earth that work for police departments.

00:56:22.000 | I'm sure they exist, but the author makes a good point of talking about how there's way less corruption in police –

00:56:29.000 | in the forces of the various police departments across the country than there ever was in the past.

00:56:34.000 | He talks about how police officers today are better trained than anybody – than they've ever been in the past.

00:56:39.000 | Most of the friends I have who are police officers and some former clients as well have degrees in criminal justice,

00:56:46.000 | sometimes advanced degrees in criminal justice.

00:56:48.000 | These are professional people who are professional law enforcement officers.

00:56:52.000 | And when it comes to the fact of you're getting arrested or not getting arrested, a lot of it is going to depend upon your attitude.

00:57:01.000 | Now, if you have obviously committed a crime or if they're sure about it, then they're going to arrest you.

00:57:07.000 | So you don't get out of jail free card just because you're polite.

00:57:11.000 | But there are a lot of situations in which if you're not polite, they'll start pushing.

00:57:17.000 | So you must always be calm and respectful.

00:57:21.000 | It's important to recognize that some police officers are not perfectly professional at all times.

00:57:32.000 | And this author talks about some specific tactics that you're likely to face when working with these dirty cops.

00:57:39.000 | He calls them insiders, that police officers have various insiders which are intended to try to provoke you into breaking the law.

00:57:49.000 | You got to remember that standard law enforcement practice is to try to provoke you into breaking the law.

00:57:54.000 | Think about a prostitution sting or a drug sting or various things when police officers and detectives are working together and they're trying to change something.

00:58:04.000 | They will put out – they'll put out bait and they're putting out a police officer dressed like a prostitute on the street corner to try to tempt people into breaking the law.

00:58:15.000 | There are tons of examples of incitement by law enforcement officers that you could go to.

00:58:22.000 | I followed the – all the trials.

00:58:25.000 | If you remember back to that case in the United States here up in Oregon of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, I was amazed to read about a third of the people who were arrested.

00:58:35.000 | It's over a dozen. I forget the exact number.

00:58:37.000 | But about a third of the people who were arrested or who were involved in the standoff there at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon were government informants and agents, primarily informants.

00:58:50.000 | Just remarkable.

00:58:52.000 | So don't be incited by people who tempt you to break the law, to commit crimes.

00:58:58.000 | And don't be incited if you're in an interaction – focusing on the point – in an interaction with a police officer.

00:59:05.000 | The various incitements that you need to be careful of if a dirty cop tries to approach you with is number one, getting screamed at.

00:59:12.000 | The author here, Carson, calls this the in-your-face scream out.

00:59:18.000 | This is the most common and legal inciter.

00:59:21.000 | During a scream out, a cop will get an inch or so from your face and start yelling.

00:59:24.000 | You'll get covered with spit.

00:59:26.000 | Your glasses will fog with hot, humid cop breath and your nostrils will fill with whatever the cop last ate.

00:59:31.000 | Pray it was donuts and not pizza with anchovies.

00:59:34.000 | If you raise your hands to cover your face, you are resisting arrest.

00:59:38.000 | If you run, you're fleeing arrest.

00:59:41.000 | If you shove the cop backward, you're committing battery on a law enforcement officer.

00:59:45.000 | Any of these escalates a simple encounter or a penny anti-misdemeanor into a felony.

00:59:52.000 | More points for the cop and more grief, expense and jail time for you.

00:59:55.000 | So here's what you do.

00:59:57.000 | If you're being screamed at by a police officer, you stand up straight.

01:00:00.000 | You grab the outside of your pants.

01:00:03.000 | So reach your hands down, touch the top of your thighs outside, grab your pants and hold on to them.

01:00:08.000 | Do not put your hands into your pocket.

01:00:10.000 | That would be threatening to the police officer.

01:00:12.000 | You don't lift your hands up as that could be attempted as threatening to the police officer.

01:00:17.000 | It's considered to be resisting arrest in many states.

01:00:20.000 | Close your eyes and mouth and be quiet and do nothing.

01:00:23.000 | You must be entirely passive, and you will have to practice this in advance.

01:00:28.000 | You will have to teach your children to practice this in advance.

01:00:32.000 | Once again, if you're being screamed at by a police officer, you stand still.

01:00:35.000 | Grab your pants on the front outside of your pockets.

01:00:38.000 | Close your eyes and mouth and stand still until the screaming is done.

01:00:42.000 | Other types of incitement, the touchy-feely.

01:00:47.000 | Cops will touch you often with a hand placed softly on the shoulder to check your levels of stress and nervousness.

01:00:53.000 | They may bore in with the finger or give you a shove to incite you to do something that makes you arrestable.

01:00:58.000 | When they search you, they may poke you in the balls or give you a hard squeeze for the same reason.

01:01:03.000 | This inciter is unethical but difficult to use as a legal defense because it's done surreptitiously and is difficult to prove.

01:01:11.000 | You will probably be up against a wall or leaning on the cruiser while you're being searched.

01:01:15.000 | No matter what, stay still and do not respond to this inciter.

01:01:21.000 | If the squeeze hurts unbearably, do not run or resist.

01:01:25.000 | Drop to the ground in the fetal ball position.

01:01:28.000 | Protect your head. Try to get your head under the police cruiser away from batons and steel-capped shoes.

01:01:34.000 | Remember, if cops start beating you, they have to charge you with resisting arrest.

01:01:39.000 | If they don't, they will be admitting to brutality.

01:01:41.000 | This is one of the biggest things.

01:01:42.000 | You must never, ever, ever respond to a police officer physically or aggressively because they will always tack on that charge of resisting arrest.

01:01:55.000 | You have no right whatsoever to resist that arrest.

01:02:01.000 | I wish the law were different, but you don't.

01:02:04.000 | You've got to train yourself and plan ahead to be completely compliant and submissive.

01:02:11.000 | If you do that, there is no case that the police officer can make for their misconduct.

01:02:17.000 | There are a whole lot of good, ethical, honest, upright police officers and judges, etc., who would sure love to see some bad, dirty cops behind bars for some of their conduct.

01:02:30.000 | But unfortunately, a lot of the people who have been abused make that a hard case to make because they resist arrest.

01:02:36.000 | They run. They fight back, etc.

01:02:38.000 | So you've got to plan and prepare in advance.

01:02:40.000 | You never fight back.

01:02:42.000 | Otherwise, you'll just face resisting arrest as well.

01:02:46.000 | And you've got to make that case crystal clear for the cameras, for the bystanders, etc., by not lashing out.

01:02:54.000 | Provocative whispers, lewd comments, racial slurs, ethnic insults, and verbal jabs.

01:02:58.000 | When cops use racial and ethnic insults, it's illegal but difficult to prove.

01:03:03.000 | An adroit cop can give you a verbal shot so quietly and unobtrusively that it cannot be heard or seen by bystanders.

01:03:09.000 | Many clueless people and quite a few otherwise savvy citizens are hot-tempered.

01:03:13.000 | Cops take advantage to whisper an insult to get you to act out and commit a felony.

01:03:18.000 | There are only two defenses.

01:03:19.000 | First and foremost, just stand there motionless and silent.

01:03:23.000 | Pocket the insult. Just take it.

01:03:26.000 | The only way you win in an encounter with police is by staying free.

01:03:31.000 | If your brain is operational and the encounter is being video recorded, a second defense is to position yourself so that the cop stands full face or in profile to the camera and any witnesses.

01:03:42.000 | This means the camera and witnesses will record his lips moving and either discourage insults or give you a stout defense if arrested.

01:03:49.000 | The baton and flashlight poke.

01:03:51.000 | Often, the police officers will stab you with – poke you with a baton or a flashlight in a place where it can hurt.

01:03:58.000 | Again, drop to the ground in a fetal ball position.

01:04:01.000 | Do not respond in any way except passivity.

01:04:06.000 | And then throw down guns and dope.

01:04:08.000 | Crooked cops can plant guns and dope on you to make a felony bust or to justify having beaten or shot you.

01:04:13.000 | This is a high-risk crime for the cops.

01:04:15.000 | If a partner squeals or if the crime scene guys see something odd about the setup and call for an internal affair, internal affairs investigation, the cop faces indictment, dismissal from the force, and a long stretch in the penitentiary.

01:04:27.000 | So once again, you do nothing and do nothing.

01:04:31.000 | Now, what do you do?

01:04:33.000 | Basically, you give the police your name and your basic information and then you shut up.

01:04:38.000 | On tomorrow's show or the next show that I release in the feed here, I'm going to release to you an entire discussion of why you don't talk to the police.

01:04:47.000 | And it's very, very important that you listen to it in its entirety.

01:04:51.000 | You don't talk to police even if you're innocent.

01:04:54.000 | It doesn't matter whether you're guilty or whether you're innocent.

01:04:56.000 | It doesn't matter whether you want to help or you don't want to help.

01:04:58.000 | You don't talk to police.

01:05:00.000 | You give them your name and your basic information and that's it.

01:05:03.000 | More about that in a moment.

01:05:05.000 | Next chapter is talking about the importance of not being seen by police officers.

01:05:11.000 | If you spend your time out on the street or in places and areas that the police are going to see you, then you're going to attract their attention.

01:05:19.000 | If cops can't see you, they can't arrest you.

01:05:23.000 | So you've got to keep a low profile.

01:05:25.000 | It's much safer for you to be inside your house where in order for a police officer to get through and to arrest you, they've got to have a warrant to come in and even get inside your house.

01:05:40.000 | There's nothing going to be visible when you're inside your house.

01:05:43.000 | There's never a reason to be loitering on the street.

01:05:48.000 | There's never a reason to be out in public constantly in places where criminals hang out.

01:05:54.000 | You reach a certain time of night and there's no reason to be out in public unless you're working.

01:05:59.000 | So just think about that.

01:06:01.000 | Don't do stupid stuff with people out in public where the police are likely to see you.

01:06:08.000 | A couple of important things that you can learn is you need to learn and practice some scripts.

01:06:14.000 | I've coached people, other people as well, on these scripts.

01:06:18.000 | It's important that you memorize them.

01:06:20.000 | It's important that you never lie to a police officer.

01:06:24.000 | Lying to a police officer is a crime.

01:06:27.000 | They're allowed to lie to you, but you're not allowed to lie to them.

01:06:31.000 | And so the only safe thing for you to do is to give the most basic information in a polite and simple and civil tone and then shut up.

01:06:42.000 | But in order to do that, you're going to have to have some scripts at your disposal, some words that you've memorized in advance.

01:06:49.000 | And again, you'll need to coach your family members as well.

01:06:52.000 | I've coached my wife.

01:06:53.000 | I've coached other young people, and I'll coach my children in the future and force them to memorize the scripts because when your adrenaline is high and when everything is going wrong, you'll forget it if you don't practice.

01:07:03.000 | So let's talk about the quiz here that's important.

01:07:09.000 | The quiz begins.

01:07:10.000 | When cops stop you, they summon you by saying something like, "Hey, you, come here."

01:07:14.000 | Sometimes they spice it up with something more contemporary like, "Yo, player, what's up?" or Chicano slang such as, "Carnal, por aquí."

01:07:21.000 | All this means the same thing.

01:07:22.000 | March yourself over here and face the man.

01:07:25.000 | You know from the preceding chapter what to do.

01:07:28.000 | Face the officers calmly, hands at sides, and make eye contact.

01:07:32.000 | Here's what you say.

01:07:34.000 | "Officer, have I done something wrong?"

01:07:37.000 | These are magic words.

01:07:39.000 | First, they're polite.

01:07:40.000 | Second, they're submissive in the proper degree.

01:07:43.000 | Third and most important, they're a question.

01:07:46.000 | When you say these words, you toss the ball back to the cops.

01:07:49.000 | Now you're questioning them, politely of course.

01:07:52.000 | Often they will tell you why they stopped you.

01:07:54.000 | This will let you assess how much trouble you're in and how to react.

01:07:58.000 | Now here's the important part.

01:08:00.000 | After you have spoken these magic words, shut up.

01:08:04.000 | Just stand there and let the cops talk.

01:08:06.000 | Do not keep talking yourself as you will tend to babble, confuse yourself, and start to lie.

01:08:10.000 | Here's an example of babbling, exactly what you do not want to do.

01:08:15.000 | "Officer, have I done something wrong?"

01:08:18.000 | "My God, I was just walking down the street, minding my own business.

01:08:20.000 | I mean, I live around here and was just going to see some guys, and why are you questioning me anyhow?

01:08:25.000 | Don't you have real crooks to chase?

01:08:26.000 | I'm not a crook.

01:08:27.000 | I'm just trying to get along here.

01:08:28.000 | Do you know what I mean?"

01:08:29.000 | The technique of responding to police questions is to give them the basic information they ask for truthfully and briefly.

01:08:37.000 | Emphasis on briefly.

01:08:39.000 | Do not volunteer information.

01:08:42.000 | This will stimulate follow-ups, verification questions, and requests for information that can be checked by computer.

01:08:50.000 | You have the right to remain silent.

01:08:52.000 | It is not a crime not to talk to police.

01:08:55.000 | However, if you have not committed a crime at the time of the stop, I advise you to answer routine questions.

01:09:01.000 | Do not assert your right to remain silent because you're annoyed and want to show the cops you have rights.

01:09:06.000 | They already know this.

01:09:07.000 | Remember, in the preceding chapter, I advised you to lose the psychological contest so you can win the custody contest and stay free.

01:09:15.000 | So what do you tell them?

01:09:16.000 | Your name and address, the names of your parents or guardians, and where you're going.

01:09:21.000 | You always want to give cops your basic information, your name, relatives, address, and where you're going.

01:09:27.000 | The reason not to dummy up completely when you have not committed a crime is this appears suspicious to police.

01:09:34.000 | Another script for you.

01:09:37.000 | Why are you hiding?

01:09:38.000 | Trespassing is something boys do.

01:09:40.000 | It's the nature of the male animal to wander patrol territory and take risks.

01:09:43.000 | This means that boys are likely to be caught trespassing on private property where they do not belong.

01:09:48.000 | When police patrols pass and you're trespassing, naturally you're going to duck and hide.

01:09:53.000 | Remember, if you're hiding when police pass, stay hidden.

01:09:56.000 | You might get lucky.

01:09:57.000 | Once police have you in the spotlight, however, you've got to give it up.

01:10:01.000 | When police find you hiding on private property, they suspect two things.

01:10:05.000 | You're casing the place for a burglary or you're a peeping Tom and are looking at women through a window and inappropriately behaving.

01:10:13.000 | Regardless of what you're doing, you're going to get asked, "Why are you hiding?"

01:10:16.000 | You need to give an answer.

01:10:18.000 | I suggest the following, "Because I'm afraid of police."

01:10:23.000 | This reply has advantages.

01:10:25.000 | It's easy to remember, it's submissive, and it lets the cop start winning the psychological context contest from the get-go.

01:10:31.000 | Once you've said these words, give the cops the basic information they ask for.

01:10:35.000 | What to do when you have real problems.

01:10:37.000 | If the police rely on really heavy, now what?

01:10:40.000 | You're getting crowded, pressured, and blasted with cop breath, perfumed with garlic and onions.

01:10:44.000 | The questions are coming thick, fast, convoluted, and inside out.

01:10:47.000 | What are you doing?

01:10:48.000 | Are you lying?

01:10:49.000 | Why are you lying?

01:10:50.000 | When this happens and the questions come faster than you can think, you have to stop the interview, but in a manner that is respectful and will have the greatest chance of keeping you free.

01:11:01.000 | Here are the magic words.

01:11:03.000 | The first one here is for youth and the other is for adults.

01:11:06.000 | "Officer, I'd like to answer your questions, but my mother told me that in a situation like this, I should not say anything unless she and our attorney are present."

01:11:16.000 | If you're young or if you have children, teach your children that phrase.

01:11:21.000 | If you're an adult, "Officer, I'd like to answer your questions, but my attorneys told me that in a situation like this, I should not say anything unless they are present."

01:11:35.000 | One suggestion this author gives in the book that at the beginning I just thought it was silly, but I've come to grow fond of it is he recommends the creation of what he calls credentials, of credentials that you carry with you or that you have your child carry with them.

01:11:51.000 | And this is in addition to your officially issued government ID.

01:11:56.000 | You carry these credentials.

01:11:58.000 | And on these credentials, for example, for children, it has their name, their address.

01:12:03.000 | It has their parent, guardian's name, telephone, and cell phone of the parent or guardian.

01:12:09.000 | And then it has a link with information on their attorney, a friend in a police department, information on a church, mosque, or temple they're a part of and with information for a pastor, priest, imam, or rabbi, and school, homeroom teacher, principal, school counselor, etc.

01:12:27.000 | And he has these things prepared in advance with all of this information.

01:12:32.000 | And then on the backside of this foldable information, it says, "For police use only," it has the script written on it.

01:12:40.000 | "Officer, I'd like to answer your questions, but my mother told me that in a situation like this, I should not say anything unless she and our attorney are present."

01:12:47.000 | And then you glue or staple the attorney's business card there and also a police officer who's a friend of the family put their business card there as well.

01:12:56.000 | Now, in the beginning, I thought this was silly.

01:12:58.000 | You know, why should you – you shouldn't have to carry credentials.

01:13:01.000 | But I realized that given in the context of the goal is not to get arrested, that this is actually a really smart idea.

01:13:12.000 | And he has an official – he has versions for adults as well where, of course, you wouldn't list your school and your homeroom teacher.

01:13:19.000 | That way, you always give the police your credentials as well.

01:13:23.000 | Now, let me read just what this does, and I thought this was a powerful, valuable idea.

01:13:29.000 | "Creds is law enforcement slang for credentials.

01:13:32.000 | Credentials is derived from a word that means believe, and what credentials do is make you believable to other people.

01:13:39.000 | They establish who you are.

01:13:40.000 | The credentials I'm talking about are not an official ID, and they should accompany but not replace a driver's license or other picture ID issued for legal purposes by your state.

01:13:50.000 | The street credentials in this chapter have one purpose only, to help you deal with police questions and avoid being arrested."

01:13:58.000 | How to use the credentials during a police stop.

01:14:00.000 | "One, if police ask you for an ID, hand them your official ID and the street credentials at the same time.

01:14:06.000 | Two, even if police do not ask for an ID, you should say, 'I'd like to give you my credentials.

01:14:12.000 | Is it okay for me to reach into my pocket or my purse and give them to you?'

01:14:16.000 | Do not reach into your pocket or purse without asking permission.

01:14:20.000 | If cops are on edge, they might interpret this as an attempt to reach for a weapon.

01:14:24.000 | Three, once you've handed your credentials to the police, just stand quietly without talking.

01:14:28.000 | Let the police read them.

01:14:30.000 | Do not interrupt.

01:14:31.000 | When police ask you questions based on your credentials, answer them politely and briefly.

01:14:36.000 | Four, police officers will not have seen anything like these credentials before, and they may be curious.

01:14:43.000 | They may also get angry when you hand them your credentials.

01:14:46.000 | They may refuse to read them or toss them aside.

01:14:48.000 | No matter, remain calm and polite.

01:14:50.000 | If they ask you what these credentials are and why you have them, just say the following,

01:14:56.000 | 'I wanted to write down my basic information so I wouldn't make a mistake when talking to police.'

01:15:02.000 | This statement is true, easy to remember, and submissive in the proper degree.

01:15:06.000 | What the credentials do.

01:15:07.000 | The most important thing credentials do is interrupt the interrogation.

01:15:12.000 | They stop cops from starting on their barrage of questions.

01:15:16.000 | They help you keep cool.

01:15:19.000 | Police themselves carry credentials in addition to their badges.

01:15:23.000 | They're used to asking for credentials and showing their own.

01:15:26.000 | Even though you have just interrupted their interrogation, how can they object?

01:15:30.000 | You're being polite and helpful, showing credentials, showing respect.

01:15:35.000 | Presenting credentials changes the balance of power during the encounter with police.

01:15:40.000 | They help you maintain your dignity.

01:15:43.000 | Even though I've advised you to lose the psychological contest with police in order to win the custody contest and keep your freedom,

01:15:48.000 | you want to keep your dignity intact.

01:15:51.000 | One of the most important things that credentials tell cops is that you are not clueless fodder for the criminal justice system.

01:15:59.000 | They show that you have social backup, family, friends, a place of worship.

01:16:04.000 | They demonstrate that you have lawyered up in advance and may even have a friend on the police force.

01:16:09.000 | These factors influence cops' decisions as to whether they want to interrogate you further, search you, or arrest you.

01:16:16.000 | Cops have tremendous latitude in deciding whether to arrest people for petty offenses.

01:16:20.000 | You want to tip the scales in favor of their letting you go.

01:16:24.000 | Credentials also change the balance of power by showing police that you understand something about the criminal justice system.

01:16:30.000 | So the point of this is arrest-proofing.

01:16:34.000 | The point is to do things in advance, to tilt things in your favor so that you are not arrested.

01:16:41.000 | As well, to have that written right there where it says, "Officer, I'd like to answer your questions, but my attorney told me that in a situation like this, I should not say anything unless they are present."

01:16:49.000 | That way, you can remember it.

01:16:53.000 | So the author talks – has a version for carrying in your wallet, and I think this is well worth considering for your children, especially your teenage children,

01:17:02.000 | and for you as well.

01:17:05.000 | I haven't done this yet, but I am planning to do it at least in the car.

01:17:09.000 | Again, I've never had any interaction with a police officer.

01:17:16.000 | My life circumstances have never brought me into any interaction with a police officer that wasn't car-based.

01:17:24.000 | And so I'll do the car credentials. I don't plan to carry these around in my wallet.

01:17:27.000 | But if your life or lifestyle involves your, for example, walking a lot, maybe you don't have a car and you spend a lot of time walking or bicycling, things like that.

01:17:36.000 | Well now, because you're out and you're visible, you're much more likely to have interactions with a police officer and your threat factors may change.

01:17:43.000 | And so you would want to protect yourself there.

01:17:45.000 | Emergency procedures.

01:17:47.000 | If none of these things work and you find yourself about to be arrested, here are a couple of tips.

01:17:53.000 | Ask for a notice to appear.

01:17:57.000 | Most people are aware of notices to appear only when they encounter them in the form of traffic citations,

01:18:02.000 | where the police explain that you've got to go to court with this ticket.

01:18:05.000 | Few outside the criminal justice system know that police can issue notices to appear, also called penal citations, for all sorts of offenses,

01:18:14.000 | including possession of small amounts of illegal drugs.

01:18:18.000 | A notice to appear requires that you go to court where a judge will decide your guilt or innocence.

01:18:24.000 | However, with a notice to appear, you do not get arrested, finger-pinted, photographed, and logged into the electronic plantation at that moment.

01:18:32.000 | Once you sign the citation, you will be set free.

01:18:36.000 | Signing the citation merely indicates that you have received the citation.

01:18:40.000 | It's not an admission of guilt.

01:18:41.000 | So sign it.

01:18:42.000 | A police officer is doing you a huge favor by giving you a notice to appear and giving up the opportunity to arrest you.

01:18:49.000 | To get a notice to appear, begging and pleading are in order.

01:18:52.000 | Tell the officer one or more of the following when applicable.

01:18:56.000 | At all times, be truthful.

01:18:57.000 | One lie at this point will send you to the slammer.

01:18:59.000 | You are not a hardened criminal.

01:19:01.000 | You have never been arrested before.

01:19:03.000 | An arrest will make it difficult for you to get a good job.

01:19:06.000 | An arrest might get you fired from your job or suspended from school.

01:19:09.000 | And you have children and family who need you.

01:19:12.000 | So the goal is ask for a notice to appear and then show up in court and deal with it in court.

01:19:17.000 | If necessary, cry tragically and copiously.

01:19:20.000 | And if all else fails, if nothing else has worked so far, we're in the barf, pee, and poop.

01:19:25.000 | If nothing else has worked so far, you can try this last and most extreme measure.

01:19:29.000 | Foul yourself so that the police will consider setting you free in order not to get their cruiser nasty.

01:19:34.000 | If you've been drinking, throw up all over your shirt, not on the ground.

01:19:37.000 | If you're wasted, this may be impossible because of marijuana's anti-nausea effects.

01:19:41.000 | But don't stop here.

01:19:42.000 | Pee down your legs and poop.

01:19:44.000 | That's right. I said poop into your pants.

01:19:46.000 | After you do it, you must tell the officers what has happened.

01:19:49.000 | They can see you vomit, but you'll have to inform them of what else you've done before they put you into the cruiser.

01:19:55.000 | So say the following, preferably through tears.

01:19:58.000 | I've pooped my pants and peed on myself.

01:20:01.000 | This is for an extreme emergency and although disgusting, fouling yourself is preferable to going to jail.

01:20:09.000 | What about police beatings and police brutality?

01:20:12.000 | Police are better trained, more disciplined, and more honest today, but brutality does occur.

01:20:17.000 | Police officers are trained to fight, shoot, and kill and to become violent instantly if they feel threatened.

01:20:23.000 | In a big city force of tens of thousands of police officers, it would be unusual if a few were not sadists or uncontrollably violent.

01:20:30.000 | By following the procedures in this book, especially by being submissive and polite while police ask questions,

01:20:36.000 | you minimize the possibility of brutalization.

01:20:40.000 | However, if police start beating you, there is only one thing to do.

01:20:45.000 | Curl up into a fetal ball and protect your head with your arms.

01:20:48.000 | If you are already handcuffed with your hands behind you, try to wriggle your head under the police cruiser for protection.

01:20:55.000 | You can survive a tremendous beating, but if you are kicked and beaten in the head, you may be killed or seriously brain damaged.

01:21:02.000 | Once you get stabilized in the hospital, get busy.

01:21:05.000 | Have yourself photographed, preferably before and after surgery, with and without bandages.

01:21:10.000 | Call your lawyer. Do this at once. Do not delay.

01:21:13.000 | Your attorney may need to file motions with the court to get evidence.

01:21:16.000 | If you are ever in an interaction with a police officer of any kind, the first thing you should do is call your lawyer,

01:21:22.000 | and you need to plan for that in advance.

01:21:24.000 | What you need is a criminal defense attorney, and you need to plan for that now.

01:21:29.000 | It doesn't cost you a dime to plan for that.

01:21:31.000 | So first you need to look up a criminal defense attorney.

01:21:36.000 | You will probably not like this person.

01:21:39.000 | I worked with a lot of attorneys when I was a financial advisor, and we always laughed, and I found it to be true,

01:21:44.000 | but we – insurance agents would talk about the fact that we almost never liked the attorneys who were involved in criminal defense.

01:21:51.000 | I don't think that's universally true.

01:21:53.000 | But a lot of times the type of person who is just an absolute bulldog in court, which is what you want,

01:21:59.000 | is also the type of person that's hard to be friends with.

01:22:02.000 | I'm thinking of a friend of mine here where I live and just not a nice person.

01:22:07.000 | But man, do I want him on my side if I'm facing my day in court.

01:22:13.000 | So look up in your local area. Look up in your local bar association.

01:22:19.000 | They're in your town, and try to find an attorney who does criminal law, somebody who is a criminal defense attorney, not another specialty.

01:22:28.000 | When you have a few names, make an appointment. Make sure they're accepting new clients.

01:22:32.000 | Get a quick appointment with either the attorney or with their paralegal.

01:22:36.000 | Explain what you're doing, and then show up and just simply get some business cards.

01:22:40.000 | Interview them. Tell them you're preparing.

01:22:42.000 | It should only take a few minutes. Not going to be any cost to it.

01:22:44.000 | And collect a few business cards so that you have them prepared and have them ready.

01:22:49.000 | You need to have that as part of your preparations in your family.

01:22:53.000 | You need to have an instruct.

01:22:55.000 | If you're a husband or a wife, you need to have and say, for example, for my wife here,

01:23:00.000 | "If I'm ever arrested, this is who you call. My wife knows who to call if I die.

01:23:05.000 | My wife has instructions of where everything is, how to reach everything, and she knows who to call if I'm ever arrested."

01:23:13.000 | So if I'm arrested, this is the person that you call. Here's the cell phone number.

01:23:17.000 | Make the call and let's get it done as quickly as possible.

01:23:20.000 | I do not expect to ever need any of these procedures to be accomplished.

01:23:27.000 | But preparation, prudence, and being proactive is important because if it ever does happen, it's a big, big deal.

01:23:37.000 | You don't have to go as far as having a written checklist.

01:23:39.000 | That's not a bad idea, but at least have it thought about in advance.

01:23:44.000 | Let's talk about cars because frankly that's where I face the biggest danger of police interaction,

01:23:50.000 | and that's where you face the biggest danger of police interaction.

01:23:54.000 | I don't live an out-of-doors lifestyle, loitering on the city streets, nor does anybody in my family.

01:24:01.000 | So if you do or if you know someone who does, you need to instruct them not to do that.

01:24:05.000 | But I don't do that.

01:24:06.000 | But what I do is drive and a few things that are important.

01:24:10.000 | The author of this book does a really great job.

01:24:14.000 | He writes an entire chapter on the fact that you never, ever carry dope or illegal substances with you out of the house.

01:24:25.000 | Some of the best legal advice he can give, keep your dope at home.

01:24:29.000 | Now, I don't use drugs, never have, never will.

01:24:33.000 | I have no intention of doing it.

01:24:34.000 | But one thing I learned with doing life insurance for a living is that a huge percentage of the population uses drugs, especially marijuana.

01:24:43.000 | Keep it at home.

01:24:46.000 | Do not carry it with you.

01:24:48.000 | Make sure that you never have marijuana with you because when you are out from a house, you are vulnerable.

01:24:58.000 | You say, "Well, how do I even – how do I make sure that I have it with me?"

01:25:01.000 | The author talks about upper class criminals.

01:25:04.000 | Do rich people and poor people beat their wives at different ratios?

01:25:09.000 | I don't know.

01:25:11.000 | But poor people, when they beat their wives, are living in an apartment building with thin walls and they get the cops called on them.

01:25:17.000 | Richer people, middle class people, when they beat their wives, are doing it in a three-bedroom, two-bath house on a half-acre lot where nobody can hear it.

01:25:24.000 | So they don't get the cops called on them.

01:25:26.000 | What about marijuana?

01:25:28.000 | Well, a lot of times, richer people grow their own marijuana.

01:25:30.000 | That would be the best thing that you could do.

01:25:32.000 | If you're going to use marijuana, learn how to grow marijuana.

01:25:35.000 | Hydroponics has done incredible advances in the marijuana industry.

01:25:38.000 | We all owe the marijuana industry a debt of gratitude for their perfection of hydroponic growing techniques.

01:25:43.000 | Grow your marijuana plants at home so you don't have to buy it from a dealer on the street who might turn out to be an undercover cop doing a drug sting operation, trying to tempt you and incite you into breaking the law.

01:25:53.000 | So you don't ever have to be outside of your house.

01:25:56.000 | If you're growing a couple of marijuana plants so that you can smoke your dope at home, that's going to be a much better move for you than buying it in the street and being out where you're vulnerable.

01:26:06.000 | So your car makes you very, very vulnerable.

01:26:10.000 | In order to avoid problems in the car, it's important that you keep your car in good working order.

01:26:17.000 | It's important that everything on your car works, that your lights work and that your car is in a reasonable shape.

01:26:22.000 | It might be good to wash it, et cetera.

01:26:24.000 | You want your car to look boring and ordinary and functional.

01:26:27.000 | You don't want your car to stand out.

01:26:29.000 | If you drive a bright red sports car, you will stand out and you will have more altercations with the police than if you drive a boring beige minivan.

01:26:41.000 | You want fewer altercations with the police.

01:26:44.000 | Don't drive a flashy car or you will have confrontations with the police.

01:26:48.000 | Now, what are the indications that will often cause a police officer to pay attention to you?

01:26:55.000 | The head bobble and gooseneck stretch.

01:26:58.000 | When a police officer pulls up behind you and all of a sudden you start moving your head around trying to get a good look at them, are they coming after you or coming for someone else?

01:27:05.000 | It's a big deal.

01:27:06.000 | Reaching in the car while you're driving.

01:27:09.000 | Any kind of unusual motion inside the vehicle by the driver is going to make a police officer presume that you're hiding contraband or acquiring a weapon.

01:27:19.000 | Hitting the brakes.

01:27:20.000 | If you suddenly hit the brakes, cops in front of you will see your front end dip, a tip off that you were speeding.

01:27:25.000 | Perfect driving.

01:27:26.000 | Nobody drives perfectly.

01:27:28.000 | When cops see anyone driving perfectly, they get curious.

01:27:30.000 | They may stop each to see what's up.

01:27:32.000 | Dope flying out of windows.

01:27:34.000 | Clueless people think that if they toss the bags, the cops cannot arrest them for possession.

01:27:37.000 | Wrong.

01:27:38.000 | This is a big one.

01:27:39.000 | Crew cab.

01:27:40.000 | When cops see four young males in a car, they immediately wonder if this is a crew of criminals out to do a job.

01:27:46.000 | They know that with four guys in a car, they are four times more likely to discover outstanding warrants, dope, guns, or stolen property.

01:27:54.000 | Load tilt.

01:27:55.000 | When cops see a car heavily loaded and low on its springs or tilted backward from something heavy in the trunk, they want to stop the car and have a look.

01:28:02.000 | Perhaps there's a dead body in there or some square grouper just unloaded from a mothership offshore.

01:28:06.000 | Dark tinted windows.

01:28:08.000 | When cops can't see inside a car, they like to stop the vehicle and have a look.

01:28:12.000 | This one is important to me because I always like having – I live in Florida.

01:28:16.000 | Everyone has their windows tinted.

01:28:17.000 | But I always like having the dark limousine tint where you can't be seen.

01:28:21.000 | I won't do it.

01:28:22.000 | I won't do it because I don't want unnecessary interaction with a police officer and down here at least, all the police officers carry these little tint meters.

01:28:30.000 | And if they pull you over for another reason, they know what's legal and they know what's not.

01:28:34.000 | They can look at it.

01:28:36.000 | If you have dark tinted windows, then it allows them to get you to roll the window down so they can put the tint meter on it.

01:28:45.000 | And that allows them to have more access to the inside of your car which allows them to look in your car more and look to find contraband.

01:28:51.000 | And it also will wind up in your having to show up in court and prove that you've removed the tint.

01:28:56.000 | So, it's just not worth it.

01:28:57.000 | Keep the tint legal.

01:28:59.000 | Driver slouch.

01:29:00.000 | Don't slouch in the seats.

01:29:01.000 | Overly scrupulous use of the turn signals, brake squeals, inappropriate vehicles, things that stand out, etc.

01:29:08.000 | If you're dirty and wearing scruffy clothes, driving a Mercedes-Benz, driving too slow and giving the finger to police.

01:29:14.000 | So, those things will all bring you attention from a police officer.

01:29:18.000 | So, the most important things for you to do to avoid the attention because you don't want the attention is just fit in.

01:29:26.000 | Go with the flow.

01:29:27.000 | Don't make any major changes.

01:29:28.000 | If a police officer is behind you or shows up beside you, don't change anything.

01:29:32.000 | Don't reach for anything in the car.

01:29:34.000 | If you were speeding, just pull your foot off the gas without touching the brakes.

01:29:38.000 | Don't make any sudden turns or lane changes.

01:29:41.000 | Just sit properly in your seat.

01:29:43.000 | If you were slouched down, then slowly sit up.

01:29:47.000 | Keep your hands up on the steering wheel.

01:29:49.000 | Ease them up slowly.

01:29:51.000 | Make sure that your car blends in.

01:29:53.000 | There's nothing look crazy.

01:29:54.000 | It's not wild.

01:29:55.000 | It doesn't attract attention so you can blend in.

01:29:58.000 | Don't stare at cops.

01:29:59.000 | Don't throw anything out of your car.

01:30:01.000 | Clear glass in your vehicle or only a light tint will allow you to be seen so that you don't have to be stopped, etc.

01:30:11.000 | So, all of these things will keep you from being a target for police interaction.

01:30:18.000 | The less police interaction that you have, the better.

01:30:21.000 | The less police interaction that you have, the fewer problems.

01:30:24.000 | You don't have to use your scripts if you never get caught.

01:30:27.000 | Quick discussion on alcohol.

01:30:29.000 | I think this is one of the most important things as well.

01:30:31.000 | I've mentioned it many times on this show, but I'll just read this paragraph from the author.

01:30:36.000 | Do some thinking about your drinking.

01:30:38.000 | Driving under the influence is a criminal rather than a civil offense.

01:30:42.000 | Arrest and jail time are mandatory in most states.

01:30:45.000 | So, once stopped, you're on the plantations even if you have the $10,000 or so to beat the thing in court.

01:30:51.000 | Here's the most important point.

01:30:53.000 | Even if you're not legally intoxicated, the smell of alcohol will lead police to give you and your vehicle a thorough once-over, which no rational person wants.

01:31:04.000 | Basically, this means that if you're driving, confine your drinking to one drink or less, especially if you weigh less than 150 pounds.

01:31:13.000 | Stop drinking an hour before you leave so alcohol will be metabolized and not on your breath.

01:31:18.000 | If you have any question about your ability to drive, call a cab.

01:31:22.000 | Alcohol is a drug.

01:31:24.000 | When you purchase beer, wine, and liquor for home consumption, put the stuff in your trunk or backseat unopened with tax seals intact.

01:31:31.000 | Keep all your drugs, whether produced legally by liquor distilleries, breweries, and pharmaceutical manufacturers,

01:31:37.000 | or illegally by Colombian, Bolivian, and Afghan peasants at home.

01:31:42.000 | Big, big deal.

01:31:44.000 | One drink, that's it.

01:31:46.000 | DUI is not worth it.

01:31:47.000 | It's not worth it for the lives involved, and it's not worth it for how it will destroy your financial life.

01:31:53.000 | Now, let's talk traffic stops.

01:31:55.000 | There are two kinds of traffic stops, the routine traffic stop and the felony traffic stop.

01:31:59.000 | The routine traffic stop is the thing that most of us have been involved in and most of us have been stopped at one point or another.

01:32:05.000 | Police officer pulls up behind you, turns on the lights, and pulls you over.

01:32:09.000 | What are the rules that you need to do?

01:32:11.000 | This is what I've taught my wife, and this is what I teach other people as well.

01:32:15.000 | First, you pull over quickly, as quickly as possible, no matter where you are.

01:32:20.000 | The only exception would be if it's at night and you are a woman.

01:32:24.000 | That's a big deal.

01:32:26.000 | If it's at night and you're a woman, turn on your flashers and drive slowly to a safe, well-lit place.

01:32:31.000 | In the United States, we don't have this concern as much as many other listeners do in other countries.

01:32:36.000 | Other countries, it's much more common for people to impersonate police officers, but it does happen in the United States.

01:32:43.000 | But in general, pull over as quickly as possible right over to a safe situation.

01:32:50.000 | I always try to pull as far off the road as possible to lower the stress level of a police officer.

01:32:55.000 | Anything you can do to lower the stress level of a police officer is in your best interest.

01:33:01.000 | So think about it from a police officer's perspective.

01:33:04.000 | What are the stresses that they face?

01:33:06.000 | First, many police officers and tow truck operators, et cetera, get killed every single year on the side of the road.

01:33:12.000 | So pull far off the side of the road, or if you have the chance to get into a parking lot, which is right there, someplace out of the flow of traffic, do that.

01:33:19.000 | When you're stopped, they're going to pull in behind you, and they're going to sit in the car and wait for a moment while they run your tag or while they call you in or check the information before they get out of the car.

01:33:31.000 | Just wait.

01:33:33.000 | Turn off the car, put the car in park, turn off the car, roll down the window, either at least halfway or so, roll down your driver's window, turn on your interior lights at night.

01:33:45.000 | I always do this.

01:33:46.000 | Turn on the interior lights at night and put your hands at the top of the steering wheel and grasp the steering wheel and sit and wait.

01:33:54.000 | Again, car in park, motor off, interior light on, hands at the top of the steering wheel where they're clearly visible.

01:34:04.000 | The police officer will come up behind you, protecting themselves behind the A-post, and they will look.

01:34:10.000 | You want them to be able to see you and occupants in the car clearly.

01:34:15.000 | That's why you turn on the interior light.

01:34:17.000 | That way they can see that everyone's hands are clearly indicated.

01:34:21.000 | If you have people in the vehicle with you, instruct them to keep their hands in plain sight.

01:34:25.000 | You want to lower the nervousness, and if you just simply follow the simple procedure of having the car off and in park, police officer's not going to be nervous about you hitting the gas and getting out of there.

01:34:34.000 | If your hands are clearly visible, grasping the top of the steering wheel, they're going to be confident that you don't have anything in your hands.

01:34:40.000 | You can lay them on the dash if you prefer, and they're going to be clearly visible.

01:34:43.000 | And then the interior light, dome light, indicates to them that you know what you're doing, that you're trying to make them calm and comfortable.

01:34:49.000 | If you make the police officer calm and comfortable, you're less likely to get shot.

01:34:54.000 | And I don't want to get shot, and I don't want you to get shot.

01:34:57.000 | Then you just simply greet the officer.

01:34:59.000 | You wait until you're spoken to, and you go into the normal interaction with the police officer, and you follow the instructions.

01:35:04.000 | If they ask you about presenting your license, then you do that.

01:35:10.000 | You don't give anything or you don't move until you're given instructions.

01:35:15.000 | The less you say, the better.

01:35:17.000 | Don't admit to anything.

01:35:18.000 | Sign the ticket that you're given.

01:35:20.000 | Now, that's a routine traffic stop.

01:35:22.000 | The other type of traffic stop is a felony stop.

01:35:24.000 | This is where the police officer is going to have their guns out.

01:35:26.000 | They think that there's been a serious crime.

01:35:30.000 | And in this situation, just listen to what they say and obey and don't say anything.

01:35:35.000 | When a police officer is aiming a gun at you, you don't say anything other than, "I want a lawyer.

01:35:40.000 | I will not say anything unless my lawyer is with me."

01:35:42.000 | That's going to be after you're handcuffed and sitting in the back of the car.

01:35:45.000 | You don't say anything.

01:35:47.000 | Don't talk about your rights.

01:35:48.000 | Don't say anything.

01:35:49.000 | "I want a lawyer.

01:35:50.000 | I will not say anything unless my lawyer is with me."

01:35:52.000 | That's it.

01:35:54.000 | Now, what about car searches?

01:35:56.000 | It's important that you do not give consent that your car is searched.

01:36:03.000 | Before 2009, police often and routinely searched vehicles just simply because they were involved in traffic stops.

01:36:10.000 | And they were continually arresting people based upon the drugs or illegal firearms or stolen merchandise that they found in the car.

01:36:16.000 | But there was a court case before the Supreme Court in 2009 where they said that individuals who are guilty of nothing more serious than a traffic violation have their constitutional right to the security of their private effects violated by just simply having a search.

01:36:32.000 | And so it's important to you that you do not give consent to search your car.

01:36:38.000 | Even if you have nothing to hide.

01:36:41.000 | And the key is that they can search your car if you give consent.

01:36:46.000 | And this is what I see constantly and this is the one interaction that is not particularly unpleasant but it's the one regret that I have of an interaction that I had with the police years ago with the police department here where I live in South Florida.

01:37:03.000 | My wife and I were out and we had parked in this place where there's not a lot of parking.

01:37:09.000 | It was later in the evening.

01:37:10.000 | We were having a nice stroll later in the evening before heading home.

01:37:15.000 | So we're out in the dark.

01:37:17.000 | It was about 8.30, 9 o'clock at night, something like that.

01:37:19.000 | I parked in a place that was very quiet, side Cul-de-sac Street but it wasn't particularly illegal.

01:37:24.000 | There wasn't a parking space there.

01:37:26.000 | There were intentionally no parking spaces there but it was parked on the street and no cars were passing by, etc.

01:37:31.000 | And we're walking back to the car.

01:37:33.000 | We're out of the car for about 7 or 8 minutes and we're about 100 yards even though probably about 70 yards from the car.

01:37:38.000 | Well, police officers come and they stop and we just start walking over and we figured it would probably happen.

01:37:44.000 | It was on Palm Beach Island.

01:37:45.000 | I guess I can say where it was.

01:37:46.000 | It was on Palm Beach Island.

01:37:47.000 | And on Palm Beach Island, the rich people on Palm Beach Island pay for the heaviest police of – I don't know if it's anywhere but it is a lot of police officers.

01:37:56.000 | And they don't have a lot to do because usually it's pretty quiet.

01:37:58.000 | So it's almost guaranteed that if you stop in this one place that you're going to talk to the police.

01:38:03.000 | So that was my first mistake.

01:38:05.000 | Went over.

01:38:06.000 | They asked – talked for a moment.

01:38:08.000 | They asked for identification.

01:38:09.000 | Clearly, my wife and I don't stand out.

01:38:11.000 | We're normal.

01:38:12.000 | I just told them we just stopped to look at the water here for a couple of minutes.

01:38:15.000 | So it was probably not a big deal.

01:38:17.000 | I forget the circumstances but basically they ran the tag, looked at the identification, and then they asked me something about –

01:38:26.000 | they did this question.

01:38:28.000 | Let me read here from the book and then we'll go into my situation.

01:38:31.000 | "When they stop you for a traffic violation, cops can always search your car if you agree to let them.

01:38:37.000 | Police will induce you to consent by asking the famous cop trick questions.

01:38:42.000 | You will hear these words on your next traffic stop.

01:38:45.000 | They go like this.

01:38:46.000 | 'Cop, by the way, you don't happen to have any guns or narcotics in the car, do you?'

01:38:50.000 | 'You, who, me?

01:38:52.000 | No.'

01:38:54.000 | 'Cop, then you don't mind if I make a search, do you?'

01:38:57.000 | 'You, well – of course I don't mind.'

01:39:01.000 | 'When you answer this way, you consent to a search and effectively waive your constitutional rights.

01:39:06.000 | Don't even try to answer these questions.

01:39:08.000 | Simply repeat the magic words, 'No, you can't search my car.'"

01:39:11.000 | So this is what happened to me.

01:39:13.000 | The police officer said, "You don't have any guns or narcotics in the car – guns or drugs in the car."

01:39:18.000 | I had guns in the car.

01:39:19.000 | I had I think three or four or something like that.

01:39:21.000 | I don't remember why I had so many guns in the car.

01:39:23.000 | But I had a bunch of guns in the car.

01:39:25.000 | And so I don't lie to police officers.

01:39:28.000 | I said, "Yes, I do."

01:39:29.000 | "Oh, well, you don't mind if we search the car, do you?"

01:39:32.000 | And I consented to the search.

01:39:34.000 | Now at the time, I did not understand – I was not aware of the fact that I didn't need to give them consent.

01:39:41.000 | Well, I gave them consent, which was really annoying, and they were fine about it.

01:39:45.000 | They were perfectly professional.

01:39:46.000 | I told them where the guns were.

01:39:47.000 | They took them out, made sure everything was unloaded, laid them all out on the hood.

01:39:50.000 | But it was embarrassing and it was annoying to have a police officer go through my vehicle with a flashlight and a fine-tooth comb.

01:39:57.000 | I don't have – I don't hang out with people who leave drugs in the car.

01:40:01.000 | But a lot of people do have people who leave drugs in the car.

01:40:04.000 | And it's important to know – I learned even by reading this book that even if you are not regularly transporting illegal substances, you can have a lot of problems.

01:40:14.000 | For example, if you have a child who has ADHD and they take narcotics for that, Ritalin or something like that, it's very common if you transport children.

01:40:23.000 | Sometimes you might be transporting children with ADHD.

01:40:25.000 | Well, that pill falls out of their pocket or they just leave it there in the seat.

01:40:29.000 | And now all of a sudden, you have drugs in the car and because that pill is not with its prescription-labeled bottle, you've got a problem.

01:40:36.000 | Lots of people do this all the time.

01:40:38.000 | You're breaking the law if you have pills that are narcotics such as Ritalin and you don't have it in the original bottle with the prescription with it.

01:40:47.000 | So I stood there and watched the police officers go through my car with a fine-tooth comb, doing everything out.

01:40:54.000 | They didn't find anything.

01:40:56.000 | And it was not a huge deal.

01:40:59.000 | I loaded everything back up, took my guns back off the hood, very low-key and left.

01:41:05.000 | But, man, it was annoying.

01:41:08.000 | And many people would have something in that situation, some kind of – something in that situation that would cause them to be a problem.

01:41:21.000 | If those police officers had found anything in my car, whether it was from me or from anybody else, they would have had cause to possibly arrest me.

01:41:30.000 | And just the fact that I was not schooled on my rights at that point in time and I gave consent, that consent very well could have caused me to go on the electronic plantation.

01:41:41.000 | I'm thankful there was nothing in my car.

01:41:43.000 | But it was the point was that I gave consent.

01:41:46.000 | Now, just because I had guns in my car didn't matter.

01:41:49.000 | That makes no difference.

01:41:51.000 | In the state of Florida, you don't even have to have a license, a concealed carry license.

01:41:55.000 | In the state of Florida, any person who's not a felon can carry firearms in their conveyance without any need for licenses or permission whatsoever.

01:42:05.000 | That means that if you live in – I don't know the laws of your state.

01:42:08.000 | In the state of Florida, you can carry a gun in your car concealed, by the way.

01:42:11.000 | It doesn't have to – concealed in your car, in your airplane, in your boat.

01:42:15.000 | You can carry a gun in your car in your conveyance without any need for a license.

01:42:20.000 | So, even – so the point is that just having guns in the car is not probable cause for me to have a search.

01:42:28.000 | It was the fact that I gave consent.

01:42:30.000 | And my answer should have been, "No, you may not search my vehicle."

01:42:35.000 | I would have been perfectly fine.

01:42:37.000 | So never, ever give consent to the police officer to search your vehicle because you don't know what they might find that you might not have known about.

01:42:48.000 | There was just a guy in New York this week, a guy named Simeon Mokiber in Niagara Falls, New York.

01:42:56.000 | He was convicted April 21 – I found the article here real quick – was convicted April 21 on three felony counts of possessing "large capacity ammunition feeding devices" under Governor Andrew Cuomo's SAFE Act.

01:43:12.000 | Mokiber served nine years in the US Army and participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

01:43:17.000 | He subsequently worked as an armed private security contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan and was formally licensed as an armed security guard in New York.

01:43:25.000 | He's the father of an eight-year-old with disabilities and had no prior criminal record.

01:43:29.000 | Mokiber was pulled over for speeding in April 2016.

01:43:32.000 | Although Mokiber had not been drinking, police performed field sobriety tests.

01:43:37.000 | When Mokiber requested that officers turn on body cameras, he was arrested and his vehicle was searched without a warrant.

01:43:44.000 | Police found three 17-round Glock handgun magazines in a locked container that was opened without Mokiber's consent.

01:43:52.000 | Although Mokiber was the owner of a licensed and registered handgun, no gun was present in the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop, only the magazines.

01:43:59.000 | Under New York law, possessing an "ammunition feeding device" capable of holding more than 10 rounds is a felony carrying a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

01:44:11.000 | If Mokiber is sentenced consecutively, he faces up to 21 years in state prison for possession of the magazines.

01:44:18.000 | So this story is just – is insane and there's – it's just an example of so many types of stories that can happen.

01:44:30.000 | I read a book. What was it? I can't remember the name of it.

01:44:33.000 | I read about a book that talked about the fact that most of us commit three felonies a day and we don't even know about it.

01:44:39.000 | So you and I are committing three felonies today that we're probably not even aware of.

01:44:43.000 | Now, in this situation, I have no idea if the guy knew that he was committing a felony by having capacity of the "large capacity ammunition feeding devices," which is stupid because it's just standard capacity for a Glock 17.

01:44:58.000 | It holds 17 round magazines and doesn't have the gun, has license and registered, etc.

01:45:03.000 | And he has – but simply because he has possession of the magazines, he is now convicted of a felony and his life will never be the same again.

01:45:11.000 | Now, what were his mistakes?

01:45:12.000 | All I know about this is the one news story that I've read here.

01:45:16.000 | But the mistakes – it doesn't sound like he did anything.

01:45:18.000 | He wasn't drinking.

01:45:19.000 | But I don't want to get waylaid into that.

01:45:23.000 | Don't consent to search.

01:45:27.000 | Now, in this case, he didn't consent to a search.

01:45:29.000 | He asked them to turn on their body cams, which to me seems totally normal, but he was arrested.

01:45:36.000 | I only read the one article.

01:45:38.000 | I didn't do my fact-checking on that.

01:45:40.000 | I simply used it as an example.

01:45:41.000 | You don't know what the laws may have changed in.

01:45:44.000 | You don't know what the laws are that you may or may not be aware of.

01:45:48.000 | You don't know that you let your kid – your car and one of your kid's friends was a druggie in the backseat.

01:45:56.000 | It doesn't mean your kid is a druggie.

01:45:58.000 | But now all of a sudden that there's a few grams of marijuana underneath the backseat that you don't know about.

01:46:03.000 | So never, ever consent to a search of your vehicle.

01:46:06.000 | If the police officer has probable cause for the search of your vehicle, you will not be able to – you'll not be able to deny them that case.

01:46:15.000 | So a couple of the reasons why they actually can search your vehicle, if there are probation and parole waivers.

01:46:22.000 | In most jurisdictions, there's a condition of probation or parole.

01:46:28.000 | You have to waive your rights against warrantless search and seizure.

01:46:31.000 | During any traffic stop, police will run your license and tag.

01:46:34.000 | If you're on probation and parole, they will know and they will search.

01:46:37.000 | So if you are on probation and parole, your car will be searched because you signed a paper that you didn't read and you waived your right against warrantless searches.

01:46:47.000 | Warrants, if the check of your license and tag reveals an outstanding warrant, you will obviously be arrested.

01:46:52.000 | And if you are arrested for an activity for which your vehicle could have been used, it will be searched.

01:46:59.000 | Evidence in plain sight.

01:47:01.000 | When police stop you for a traffic violation and see dope in plain sight, they can retrieve the dope and arrest you.

01:47:06.000 | Officer safety.

01:47:07.000 | Officers can make a cursory search of the interior of your vehicle if you are inside of or alongside the vehicle and they suspect it may contain weapons you might use to attack them.

01:47:16.000 | They can't however open the trunk or truck box, rummage around under the seats, pop panels or grope around under the hood.

01:47:22.000 | So don't give the police cause for alarm is the lesson.

01:47:25.000 | So that's why it's important that you make sure that you calm the police officer down.

01:47:29.000 | Pooch pops.

01:47:30.000 | Police can always whistle up a canine unit to sniff your car for dope, exclusives and dead body decomposition.

01:47:35.000 | If the dog alerts, that's probable cause for search, seizure and arrest, typically without a judge's warrant.

01:47:40.000 | Vehicle inventory.

01:47:42.000 | Cops can no longer routinely tow and inventory your car when they arrest you or declare your vehicle unsafe to drive.

01:47:48.000 | They have to ask you what you want to do with the vehicle.

01:47:51.000 | Always arrange for a friend or relative to pick up the vehicle.

01:47:55.000 | This is important.

01:47:56.000 | Always arrange for a friend or relative to pick up the vehicle.

01:47:59.000 | If you consent to have your car towed by police, you have also consented to an inventory which is a search.

01:48:07.000 | Amazingly, tow yard employees sometimes forget to report large quantities of dope, cash and guns they find.

01:48:12.000 | Felony stops.

01:48:13.000 | As explained in the previous chapter, when police make a felony stop, they're looking for you specifically or are searching for a vehicle whose description matches yours.

01:48:21.000 | If they arrest you, they can search your vehicle if it's reasonable to assume that it may contain evidence specific to the crime which you are being charged.

01:48:28.000 | So, always, always refuse vehicle searches.

01:48:32.000 | It's your right.

01:48:34.000 | It doesn't imply guilt in any way.

01:48:36.000 | Always refuse the vehicle search.

01:48:39.000 | Remember this.

01:48:40.000 | If the police officer has legal justification, they know the law, you don't.

01:48:45.000 | If the police officer has legal justification to search your vehicle, they're going to search it no matter what you say.

01:48:51.000 | Your job is to never give consent to a search of your vehicle.

01:48:56.000 | Don't fall for the idea of thinking that just because you're innocent, just because you have nothing to hide, that you should give consent.

01:49:05.000 | I could sit here and give you case after case after case.

01:49:08.000 | Talking about money, I know of a case.

01:49:11.000 | A Mexican guy had a cooler full of cash in the backseat which was completely, completely legal.

01:49:17.000 | He had something like $98,000 in it and he was going to go and buy a truck with it which is normal in the Mexican community.

01:49:23.000 | He pulled together the money.

01:49:24.000 | It was -- everything about it was completely legal.

01:49:27.000 | But the fact that he had a bunch of cash caused the police to be suspicious of it.

01:49:30.000 | They arrested him.

01:49:31.000 | They sued him.

01:49:32.000 | In the court case, he lost control.

01:49:35.000 | He lost the cash.

01:49:36.000 | The case went through the courts.

01:49:37.000 | I don't remember the name of it.

01:49:38.000 | He lost the cash even though the entire thing was legal.

01:49:43.000 | So if you carry large amounts of cash with you, that's indication of just don't consent.

01:49:50.000 | And the next audio that I'll release with the speech by James Dwayne called "Don't Talk to the Police" will disabuse you of the notion that even if you're innocent, you never, ever talk to the police is the point.

01:50:03.000 | Don't ever give consent to your vehicle, to have your vehicle searched.

01:50:06.000 | It's important that you memorize that and that you know that.

01:50:11.000 | The author recommends that you carry with you your car credentials, which are longer than the street credentials, but that contains information on you, your attorney, your friend in the police department, what religious church or mosque or temple you're part of, who your pastor or priest or imam or rabbi is, et cetera.

01:50:34.000 | And it also has you put on there information about the vehicle and permission for the vehicle.

01:50:41.000 | You put "Keep with the car credentials," a photocopy of the owner's driver's license, a photocopy of the insurance card and the vehicle registration, which of course you have to have with you.

01:50:51.000 | You give written permission to operate the vehicle to somebody who is operating the vehicle.

01:51:09.000 | So reading here from the book, "There are spaces for you to make copies of prescriptions for medicines you or passengers may be carrying in containers other than the orange plastic containers that have legal prescription labels on them.

01:51:22.000 | You must make these copies before you hand in the prescription to the pharmacist.

01:51:26.000 | If you carpool, make sure to get photocopies of prescriptions from passengers or insist that they carry medicines in legally labeled containers.

01:51:34.000 | Anyone taking prescription meds for long periods for chronic conditions is likely to ditch the orange bottle and put pills in handy or shatterproof containers that do not have legal labels.

01:51:44.000 | This is a problem.

01:51:46.000 | Remember, some prescriptions should not be taken when operating machinery like a car.

01:51:50.000 | If you take such a medicine, do not include it in your car credentials.

01:51:53.000 | Moms, be ultra careful about kiddie narcotics.

01:51:56.000 | Kids who have been prescribed stimulants and tranquilizers frequently carry the pills loose in their pockets where they fall between the cushions in the back seats.

01:52:04.000 | Kids also sell these drugs and give them to friends who want to get high, often unseen by you in your very own car.

01:52:10.000 | You, not the child, will get hammered during a police search.

01:52:14.000 | Syringes used for injections of insulin, which is legal, or performance-inheriting steroids, which are not, also fall out of book bags and show up in cars."

01:52:23.000 | The author talks about the importance of actually searching your own car when you allow your children to drive your car, if you allow friends or relatives to drive your car, if you drive passengers who enjoy the magic herb or other controlled substances,

01:52:37.000 | if you drive children who take kiddie narcotics such as Ritalin or Valium and you leave your vehicle unlocked at work so people can get tools,

01:52:45.000 | or if you actually lent your car to somebody even though you were recommended not to, or if your car was stolen and returned to you by police.

01:52:51.000 | It's important that you search the car yourself.

01:52:54.000 | He gives instructions on how to do it.

01:52:56.000 | But one of the most important sections that I really learned something from was about what to do if you find drugs in the car.

01:53:02.000 | What do you do?

01:53:03.000 | So you're searching your car.

01:53:08.000 | You got it back and you find a problem.

01:53:09.000 | What if you find something?

01:53:10.000 | What follows is very important.

01:53:12.000 | Do it right and you stay free.

01:53:14.000 | Do it wrong and you've got problems.

01:53:16.000 | So obviously you want to search your car or somewhere you're not visible to police or nosy neighbors who would love to dial 911 when they see you taking something illegal out of your vehicle.

01:53:25.000 | Even though you're the innocent victim here, you can get hammered for possession.

01:53:29.000 | Always wear gloves.

01:53:30.000 | Leather gloves will not only prevent you leaving fingerprints and DNA on anything you find but will also protect you from needle pricks from syringes.

01:53:37.000 | If you discover drugs or guns, throw away your gloves after the search.

01:53:40.000 | You do not want to possess gloves that contain traces of illegal drugs or gunpowder residue.

01:53:45.000 | If you find drugs of any kind, weed, powder, crystals, blotter, spliffs, roaches, pills, here's what you do.

01:53:51.000 | One, put them into an opaque plastic bag so nosy neighbors can't see what you're up to.

01:53:56.000 | Two, take them indoors into your own house where police cannot search without a warrant.

01:54:02.000 | Grind up everything in the disposal if you have one.

01:54:05.000 | Otherwise, flush the stuff.

01:54:07.000 | If there is any quantity, dispose of it a bit at a time so as not to stop up the pipes.

01:54:12.000 | Pipes, plunging up plumbing with dope comes under the heading of hitting the fan.

01:54:16.000 | Wash out three, wash out any bags with soap and water, then toss them.

01:54:20.000 | After you find dope in your car, ban any passenger who left it from ever entering your home or car again.

01:54:28.000 | If you find paraphernalia of any kind, here's what you do.

01:54:32.000 | Place glass or ceramic bongs between cardboard pieces and smash them with a hammer.

01:54:37.000 | Two, place metal pipes and bongs on a hard surface and smack them with a hammer.

01:54:41.000 | Three, if you find a syringe, pick it up carefully, it can kill you.

01:54:45.000 | Pull out the plunger and soak everything in undeleted liquid bleach.

01:54:48.000 | Squirt some bleach through the needle.

01:54:50.000 | Now place the nasty thing between cardboard and give it a smack with a hammer.

01:54:53.000 | Four, place paraphernalia in an opaque bag so nosy neighbors can't see anything.

01:54:58.000 | Five, don't put it in your own garbage or your neighbors.

01:55:01.000 | Use a municipal dumpster only.

01:55:03.000 | Many dumpsters are filmed by video cameras, so you want to be seen or photographed tossing a bag, not the paraphernalia itself.

01:55:10.000 | Wear a hat. Most security cameras take low-resolution images.

01:55:14.000 | You cannot be easily identified while hatted.

01:55:17.000 | The reason you destroy paraphernalia is that you may have to carry it in your car for disposal.

01:55:22.000 | You do not want to have usable paraphernalia in your car or you're subject to being stopped and searched.

01:55:28.000 | If cops do stop you and find this stuff, explain what you're doing.

01:55:32.000 | If you find stolen merchandise, call your attorney.

01:55:36.000 | Willful destruction of evidence is a crime.

01:55:38.000 | Ask first, dispose second. Don't keep the stuff even if you want it.

01:55:41.000 | Now this is the section that to me was a huge deal.

01:55:44.000 | If you find a gun, let's just tell in terms of teaching about a way of proceeding that protects your legal rights that I didn't know about.

01:55:51.000 | If you find a gun, this is a dangerous situation.

01:55:53.000 | Of course, unload it.

01:55:55.000 | If you're competent of it, if not, don't touch it.

01:55:57.000 | You do want to turn this weapon into police because to dispose of it on your own may cause you to commit the crime of withholding evidence.

01:56:04.000 | If you turn in the weapon in person, however, you risk being arrested as an accessory to a crime, arrested as a material witness,

01:56:11.000 | interrogated by police, named in police reports and in police databases and questioned about similar crimes or subpoenaed to testify in court.

01:56:18.000 | Remember, you don't want to get into disputes, get arrested, and then be subjected to the usual pile on charges.

01:56:23.000 | So here's what you do.

01:56:24.000 | If you're familiar with weapons, uncock and unload the weapon.

01:56:28.000 | Two, do not talk to anyone about the weapon.

01:56:30.000 | Not now, not ever.

01:56:32.000 | If the weapon was used in a crime, anyone you talk to can be compelled to testify against you and connect you to a weapon used in a crime.

01:56:40.000 | Three, call a criminal defense attorney.

01:56:43.000 | Hire him or her to arrange to have the weapon removed and turned in to police.

01:56:49.000 | The attorney may send a private investigator to handle this, which is okay.

01:56:53.000 | Here's why you do this.

01:56:55.000 | When your attorney or your attorney's employee turns in the gun to police, neither can be forced to reveal who found it, where it was found, or under what circumstances it was found.

01:57:07.000 | Your attorney and your attorney's staff have ironclad legal protection against police interrogation.

01:57:12.000 | This is called attorney-client privilege.

01:57:14.000 | The cops will have the gun, but they won't know who found it.

01:57:18.000 | By hiring an attorney to turn in the gun, you've done your legally required civic duty.

01:57:22.000 | You also have an attorney to protect you, extremely credible witnesses to back up your story, and an expert mouthpiece to do the talking in case the gun is ever linked to you, and there's blowback from cops and prosecutors.

01:57:33.000 | Paying the attorney's bill will annoy you, but go ahead and fork it up.

01:57:37.000 | Until you've been grilled by homicide detectives about a murder weapon, you don't know what real annoyance is.

01:57:42.000 | Don't even think about keeping a weapon you found, no matter how valuable it is and how much you need the money.

01:57:48.000 | Gloves, gang. Wear gloves. Talk only to your attorney.

01:57:52.000 | When you find a gun, be quiet. Never talk about it except with your attorney or pursuant to a court order.

01:57:58.000 | Hugely valuable information.

01:58:01.000 | If you're ever in a situation where you face something questionable like that, call an attorney and use the attorney-client privilege to protect yourself.

01:58:09.000 | One of the most amazing suggestions, if you have a child who has a teenager and your child is having problems, and I think this is funny.

01:58:21.000 | I've never heard it anywhere, but I see the value in it.

01:58:24.000 | If you have a child who is using drugs or involved in drugs, etc., and if you worked with them and they're not responding to you and they're simply not doing it, they're still concerned that they might be using drugs or they might use drugs again.

01:58:38.000 | I thought this was really insightful of a way to protect them and to protect you.

01:58:44.000 | And so this is an emergency procedure for arrest-proofing a vehicle.

01:58:49.000 | And this is – use this procedure when your vehicle is driven by friends or relatives who may carry drugs, guns, or stolen property, people whose passengers may carry drugs, guns, or stolen property, or a young guy who carries three of his buddies in the car, creating a four-male passenger crew cab that is of a high-value target for police.

01:59:06.000 | So obviously you're going to use a cheap car.

01:59:09.000 | And what he recommends is go into the car.

01:59:11.000 | It's hard on the car, but it will help keep your kid from getting arrested if you've got a problem driver.

01:59:16.000 | Get some of that expanding foam that you can get from the hardware from the store that you usually use to fill holes.

01:59:22.000 | Say for example if you're putting a plumbing pipe out of your house and use that foam to seal it off.

01:59:27.000 | You remove the back seat from the vehicle.

01:59:29.000 | This makes it impossible to stash drugs under the seat and make sure that only two people can use the vehicle.

01:59:36.000 | Thus it is impossible for four young men to ride in the car in a crew cab formation that attracts police.

01:59:41.000 | Two, fill every space where drugs and guns can be hastily secreted with gap filler.

01:59:47.000 | So use that yellow foam.

01:59:49.000 | You do it under the seats, in the glove box.

01:59:51.000 | You do every single space in the car that has a void or a hole that can be used to hide drugs or guns.

01:59:58.000 | Remove the tire and tire tools from the trunk.

02:00:00.000 | Put them in the back where you remove the seat.

02:00:02.000 | Secure them so they don't become projectiles.

02:00:04.000 | Then weld or super glue the trunk lock so the trunk cannot be opened.

02:00:09.000 | And then you fill out an additional page of credentials.

02:00:11.000 | And the credentials that you carry have this statement on them.

02:00:14.000 | "I affirm that I, Joshua Sheets, am owner of this vehicle.

02:00:17.000 | I do not want anyone to be able to conceal illegal substances or items in this vehicle.

02:00:22.000 | In order to make concealment more difficult, I have done the following.

02:00:25.000 | I have filled voids throughout the interior with gap-filling foam.

02:00:28.000 | I've removed the car seat.

02:00:29.000 | I've glued or welded shut the trunk.

02:00:31.000 | You have my permission to search this vehicle to cut out all the foam to assure yourself that nothing is concealed within and to open the trunk by force."

02:00:38.000 | I was just struck by how extreme of a situation that is but how valuable it is if you have a teenager

02:00:45.000 | and you want to help protect your teenager's future by helping keep them from getting arrested

02:00:49.000 | while you're still dealing with the problem of getting them off of drugs and helping them to avoid hanging out with druggy friends, etc.

02:00:56.000 | That might be a useful tip for you.

02:00:59.000 | One last thing on bicycles here.

02:01:01.000 | I've got to read you this which just really opened my eyes and made it – I thought it was another very useful tip.

02:01:08.000 | And then we'll wrap up this marathon of a show.

02:01:12.000 | It's important that you know this information.

02:01:14.000 | "One of the advancements in law enforcement that truly disgusts me is the extension of vehicle laws to bicycles

02:01:20.000 | and the use of proactive policing techniques to pile felony charges onto children.

02:01:26.000 | Every criminal attorney in my city has cases of children arrested and jailed for such crimes as riding a bicycle at night without a light,

02:01:34.000 | riding without a helmet, and riding with their buddies on the handlebars.

02:01:37.000 | This enforcement is highly selective and never, ever occurs in wealthy neighborhoods.

02:01:42.000 | Poor kids, primarily poor black kids, are just hoovered up into the system in industrial-sized quantities.

02:01:48.000 | Poor kids often buy bikes at flea markets or pawn shops or from street vendors.

02:01:53.000 | Kids and their parents can be unaware that these bikes are often stolen

02:01:57.000 | and that police have records on their computers of the vehicle identification numbers of stolen bikes,

02:02:02.000 | especially the expensive ones.

02:02:04.000 | When a cop stops a kid on a bike and runs the VIN and finds the bike was stolen,

02:02:08.000 | the child is immediately charged with possession of stolen property.

02:02:13.000 | Middle-class and wealthy people ride bicycles for fun and exercise.

02:02:17.000 | Poor people ride them out of necessity.

02:02:20.000 | Many poor people ride bikes to work and to stores because they have neither cars nor valid driver's licenses.

02:02:26.000 | Poor children ride bikes because they're their only means of transport.

02:02:30.000 | Their mothers often cannot drive or are at work or at home taking care of other children.

02:02:35.000 | There are no soccer moms hauling kids around in shiny vans in the ghettos, barrios, and trailer parks.

02:02:40.000 | Children have to ride bikes or walk to get anywhere.

02:02:43.000 | Poor kids are more likely than middle-class kids to be afraid of police.

02:02:47.000 | They have been told scary stories by adults.

02:02:50.000 | Like their parents, they often do not have good manners and have no idea how to speak and behave around police.

02:02:56.000 | They are more likely to flee police or to flail their arms while being taken into custody.

02:03:01.000 | This will get them charged with battery on a law enforcement officer,

02:03:04.000 | on top of the usual charges of fleeing, resisting, and lying.

02:03:08.000 | Thus, one moment a kid is riding down the street,

02:03:11.000 | the next he's in the slammer facing a long list of felony charges,

02:03:15.000 | a stretch on the criminal justice and social services plantations,

02:03:18.000 | and a lifetime on the electronic plantation.

02:03:21.000 | This outrage can only be removed by legislation at the state or city level.

02:03:25.000 | In the meantime, you've got to protect your kids or your younger brothers and sisters.

02:03:30.000 | Buy only new bicycles from stores.

02:03:33.000 | Make sure that the bikes have lights and that the children use them.

02:03:37.000 | Instruct the children to wear helmets where required and not to carry people on the handlebars.

02:03:43.000 | Naturally, this takes much of the fun out of riding bikes,

02:03:46.000 | which for most kids is their first taste of freedom from their parents

02:03:49.000 | and an important stage in growing up.

02:03:51.000 | These bicycle laws were passed by city commissions and state legislatures to protect children's safety.

02:03:56.000 | Unfortunately, the welfare state has an unfortunate tendency to morph into the police state.

02:04:01.000 | For police, bicycle safety laws have become another means of making more arrests and racking up more points.

02:04:07.000 | Children need to stay free and out of jail long enough to grow up, straighten up, and become citizens.

02:04:13.000 | Help them out. Help yourself out as well.

02:04:15.000 | Don't tool around on a stolen bike and don't forget to use the light at night.

02:04:19.000 | To get arrested and dumped on the plantations due to a bicycle infraction is beyond tragic.

02:04:26.000 | The book has a fourth section that talks about self-defense and knives and guns

02:04:32.000 | and if you want to carry a gun, what kind of gun to carry and what kind of ammo to have.

02:04:35.000 | Then it talks about Big Brother and all the digital information that you give away.

02:04:41.000 | It's worth reading. It's good stuff, but I don't want to go into it in the context of the show.

02:04:45.000 | I've already turned this one into a marathon.

02:04:49.000 | Here's what I've done today's show.

02:04:51.000 | If you've gotten to this point, you are committed to the subject and it's either because you have an interest in the subject like me

02:05:01.000 | and you've done research outside of this or it's because you're probably surprised at what's out there.

02:05:09.000 | Now, I don't think that you're ever really going to have problems with the police with the exception of that one relatively minor incident I described,

02:05:18.000 | which again, I was just annoyed because I didn't even realize at the time.

02:05:23.000 | I was annoyed because I felt violated and then when I went and found that I didn't need to give consent, I wasn't doing anything wrong

02:05:28.000 | and I realized how dumb I had been.

02:05:31.000 | I was just annoyed at myself for being stupid and not recognizing what I should have known.

02:05:35.000 | But I've never had a negative interaction with the police.

02:05:39.000 | Never had a problem.

02:05:41.000 | My wife's never had a problem.

02:05:43.000 | I've always had positive interactions with the police and you're exactly the same way.

02:05:50.000 | You've always had positive interactions with the police.

02:05:54.000 | So why did I do this show?

02:05:57.000 | It's because you know people in your life who don't have positive interactions with the police.

02:06:05.000 | I know people in my life who don't have positive interactions with the police

02:06:10.000 | and it's my responsibility to help those who are not as fortunate as me.

02:06:17.000 | I had a friend of mine that I was working with and is amazing.

02:06:20.000 | Talk about visibility.

02:06:22.000 | One of the most valuable things is to be invisible to the police.

02:06:26.000 | My friend is an illegal immigrant to the United States.

02:06:28.000 | He overstayed his visa.

02:06:29.000 | He's from a South American country and he overstayed his visa.

02:06:33.000 | His reason for doing it is primarily to stay out of crime.

02:06:37.000 | His mother was a drug dealer in Colombia and he has been working really hard to try to live on the up and up.

02:06:46.000 | In Colombia, he was not able to find any way to support himself or his girlfriend and child in Colombia without going into crime.

02:06:55.000 | He saw what it did to his mother and he has this deep, deep conviction not to go into a life of crime in Colombia,

02:07:04.000 | not to get involved in the drug gangs, etc., which ruined his life.

02:07:07.000 | He was just abused as a child.

02:07:09.000 | So he came to the United States, came on a visa, couldn't – overstayed his visa.

02:07:14.000 | So he's an illegal immigrant now in the United States.

02:07:17.000 | For his transportation, he purchased a scooter to get around.

02:07:24.000 | Here in South Florida, most illegal immigrants ride bicycles or if you can get up a ways, you can get a scooter.

02:07:31.000 | He was given bad information and with his bad information, he thought that if he bought a scooter that he didn't have to have a license.

02:07:42.000 | He lost his US – sorry.

02:07:45.000 | He lost one of his identification licenses, cards, etc.

02:07:48.000 | And anyway, point is, drove a scooter, registered with a friend and he faced all of the problems that people who are in this very fragile existence face.

02:07:57.000 | With no place to be, you have to rely on other people who sometimes take advantage of you.

02:08:03.000 | People stole stuff from him.

02:08:04.000 | People stole his money.

02:08:05.000 | People stole his scooter.

02:08:06.000 | The guy who he was working with, it's just a disaster.

02:08:10.000 | And it's really, really hard when people are in a fragile living situation like that to survive.

02:08:17.000 | But because he was on a scooter, he wound up getting pulled over and he got pulled over and he got a ticket for not having – riding without a license.

02:08:26.000 | He didn't have a license and he got a ticket for it.

02:08:29.000 | And then he got pulled over and he got ticketed again and he wound up in a situation where he was in serious problems.

02:08:39.000 | And it was just this cycle of degeneration where you get a ticket, but you've got to get to work to try to get a ticket and you can't get work.

02:08:48.000 | And it's like, well, if I don't get work, I'm not going to get paid.

02:08:50.000 | And so you wind up riding the scooter again and committing the crime.

02:08:55.000 | I worked with him, went to court with him, translated for him, went to court with the judge, and thank god.

02:09:01.000 | It's been a long time, but we were able to get through a lot of the problems.

02:09:06.000 | But getting – the secret was getting rid of the scooter and getting a pickup truck.

02:09:13.000 | By getting rid of the scooter and getting a pickup truck, we got him invisible to the police.

02:09:20.000 | Now he can drive with the pickup truck.

02:09:22.000 | He was able to get his Columbia driver's license in.

02:09:25.000 | So at least he isn't going to get arrested on the street for driving without a license.

02:09:34.000 | At least he has his driver's license.

02:09:36.000 | He has the registration.

02:09:37.000 | He's properly insured, etc.

02:09:38.000 | So at least in this situation, he can continue to do that.

02:09:42.000 | He's got the court costs paid, paid the tickets, did his community service, etc.

02:09:46.000 | So he's still in, of course, this terrible place to be of an illegal immigrant, but at least with regard to local police who are not enforcing immigration law systematically based upon a traffic stop.

02:09:59.000 | At least he's back out of the woods there.

02:10:01.000 | But the whole thing came from being able to get invisible to the police, from getting off of a scooter where he could be seen and was pulled over I think three or four times within a few-week period just because he's on a scooter, visible to the police and hidden inside of a cheap $700 pickup truck that we found.

02:10:23.000 | I believe that one of the best things that you and I can do is to help educate other people who are clueless, to help educate other people who are in fragile situations, who are in fragile living situations because a lot of these scenarios that the author paints are heartbreaking.

02:10:45.000 | I want to close by reading you one final scenario here, and this is what I'm hoping you will help avoid.

02:10:52.000 | But this to me is something that we've got to do.

02:10:56.000 | We've got to help people.

02:10:58.000 | The scenario is written by the author.

02:11:00.000 | It's called "The Dayglo Rabbit."

02:11:02.000 | "Our subject is an 18-year-old African-American boy who lives with his mother in an apartment in a marginal area of town.

02:11:09.000 | His mother, an English teacher and staunch Baptist, works hard to support herself and her son and insists that he attend church at least twice a week.

02:11:17.000 | She does not allow him to use obscenity or profanity in the house and requires that he speak standard English.

02:11:23.000 | She calls the use of the double negative "I didn't say nothing" a misdemeanor and the present subjunctive "I be going" a felony.

02:11:31.000 | She insists that he wear neatly pressed slacks and a button-down dress shirt to school, and she has ignored his protests that this makes him uncool and a wimp.

02:11:42.000 | Naturally, he is teased by other boys who wear hip-hop slacks, sideways baseball hats, and gigantic sneakers.

02:11:48.000 | He is razzed for his high grades.

02:11:51.000 | The other students don't understand that making straight A's is actually easier than facing his mother with a B.

02:11:57.000 | Girls are not impressed by his brains, and they torment him by ignoring his attempts at conversation and by going out with tough guys who've been to jail.

02:12:06.000 | After listening to several thousand repetitions of his mother's insight that idle hands are the devil's plaything, our subject has obtained a part-time job on weekends at an ice cream store in a suburban mall.

02:12:17.000 | He has saved several hundred dollars from his wages and tips and has, after much importunity, secured a promise from his mother that he can spend it on anything he wants as long as it's legal.

02:12:29.000 | At last, his big day has come, and he sets out to shop that mall for once instead of being a worker bee.

02:12:36.000 | He buys the coolest Kangol beret to set off an authentic NBA jersey, which is the real thing with the heavy mesh nylon as worn by the superstars and not a cheap knockoff from the flea market.

02:12:47.000 | He buys giant below-the-knee pants with pockets everywhere and a crimson nylon windbreaker with the embroidered signature of his favorite NBA center.

02:12:57.000 | The topper? Limited-edition sneakers, fewer than 5,000 pairs for the entire United States, that are the signature design of the most famous power forward in the history of the game.

02:13:09.000 | The tab is near $600, more than three times what his mother pays for his Sunday suits, but he's proud of how authentic everything is.

02:13:19.000 | He knows that many of the kids at school wear clothes that are shoplifted by their girlfriends. These clothes are usually too big.

02:13:27.000 | He's proud that his NBA clothes are all the real thing and that they actually fit.

02:13:33.000 | So this Saturday afternoon, he's decked out in all his glory back in the neighborhood, and he's sure one of the girls will notice. He's strutting, not on the sidewalk, but in the street, just like the tough guys, and making cars slow or stop in order to get around him.

02:13:49.000 | This game is called "Make Whitey Stop." It's a rush. All the people who generally ignore him in this part of town have to look up and show some respect. They've got to stop.

02:14:01.000 | So he's getting off doing the hoodlum strut with cars swerving right and left, and he's giving the wink to the startled girls who do a double take when they see him and all that money he's wearing.

02:14:11.000 | Suddenly, in a car heading toward him, a driver, distracted by a cell phone, slams on the brakes.

02:14:17.000 | The car swerves, then fishtails, and his rear quarter panel brushes our subject before the car slams into a streetlight.

02:14:24.000 | The car's front end crumples, oil pours onto the asphalt, and a geyser of green fluid boils out of the radiator.

02:14:31.000 | The airbag deploys, and the car alarm starts an ear-splitting wail as the vehicle skids to a stop.

02:14:37.000 | Our "hero" is momentarily frozen by the crash and doesn't see a police car race around the corner with lights spinning and siren whooping.

02:14:45.000 | The cops jump out. One heads for the car as he calls in the accident on the shoulder microphone. The second officer spots our subject and yells out, "Hey you, come here!"

02:14:54.000 | Our guy panics. He just can't get arrested. What would his mother say?

02:14:59.000 | So he bolts down the street. He hears a police officer running behind him and shouting "Foot pursuit!" into his radio just as other cruisers pull up and more cops jump out and run after him.

02:15:08.000 | How can the cops get organized so fast? They're coming out of nowhere, cruiser after cruiser, lights flashing, sirens wailing, and beefy guys in blue thundering down the pavement.

02:15:17.000 | He's pulling ahead. Those NBA sneakers have heels like springs, and the cops are wearing crazy leather clodhoppers and dragging around a lot of iron on their belts.

02:15:26.000 | Still, he regrets the clothes. All those colors. He's a day-glow rabbit with a pack of mastiffs in hot pursuit.

02:15:33.000 | All at once, a cop, who had jumped from his cruiser several blocks ahead, is coming toward him.

02:15:38.000 | Our hero swerves, trips, and takes a header into the dirt, which grinds into his fancy threads.

02:15:46.000 | Now, all $600 of clothes, all those thousands of ice cream cones worth of work, look like they came off a ditch digger.

02:15:55.000 | They're torn, filthy, and ruined.

02:15:59.000 | He gets jerked to his feet and surrounded by cops. One of them is shouting at him something about an ID.

02:16:05.000 | All he can think about, however, is the ruined clothes, all that work.

02:16:09.000 | He's weeping with shame and anger. One of the cops puts his hand on his chest with his fingers outspread.

02:16:15.000 | The cop doesn't ask permission, just pokes his hand out and touches him.

02:16:20.000 | This is too much. Our hero grabs the cop's hand and struggles to get away.

02:16:25.000 | Within seconds, he's back on the ground, handcuffed, then frog-marched into the police cruiser.

02:16:31.000 | He's taken downtown and charged with resisting arrest and felony assault on a law enforcement officer.

02:16:38.000 | Later, he is taken to the juvenile detention center, where he is strip-searched.

02:16:43.000 | When the corrections officer puts on a glove and touches his scrotum, he starts screaming and struggling.

02:16:48.000 | Without saying a word, corrections officers strap him down in a plastic chair and lock him into a soundproofed cell, where he cries for hours.

02:16:57.000 | It takes two days for his mother to get money from her church friends and hire an attorney.

02:17:02.000 | At a preliminary hearing, after the attorney reviews the facts with the prosecutor and the judge

02:17:08.000 | and presents the boy's stellar academic record and character references from teachers and ministers, the charges are dropped.

02:17:15.000 | Total cost is about $5,000 and a juvenile arrest record.

02:17:21.000 | The morals of this story.

02:17:24.000 | Here's a kid who has everything going for him, brains, education, and a strict loving home.

02:17:28.000 | He's the kind of minority youth that the best colleges would throw money at to get him to matriculate at their institution.

02:17:34.000 | In many states, lottery funds would pay his tuition at state universities.

02:17:38.000 | Two, like too many bright minority children, he is ostracized socially for doing well in school.

02:17:45.000 | The road to freedom is paved with education, but that doesn't mean it's not a hard road.

02:17:49.000 | Three, did he commit a crime?

02:17:52.000 | In most states, walking in the street is stupid, but not illegal.

02:17:57.000 | Whether he or the driver is responsible for the car wreck is debatable.

02:18:01.000 | Four, the most serious crime the kid committed is panicking in the presence of cops.

02:18:07.000 | The number of people who get arrested and jailed for this is astonishing.

02:18:11.000 | If our hero had simply stood still in front of the cops, he probably would not have been arrested.

02:18:17.000 | Five, basically this kid is a goofy teenager trying to attract girls, which is hardly a crime.

02:18:23.000 | The education this child needs most is arrest proofing, which is not taught in Sunday school or Monday to Friday school.

02:18:31.000 | Six, few people understand police operations.

02:18:34.000 | Touching a suspect to check his fight or flight status is standard police procedure.

02:18:39.000 | Those clunky cop shoes are generally steel-tipped for fighting, and although cops are slowed down by their equipment,

02:18:45.000 | they generally stay in shape and can run longer, if not faster, than adolescents.

02:18:49.000 | Cops practice foot pursuits, so unlike suspects, they do not panic and can think on their feet.

02:18:56.000 | Cops hunt in packs and are difficult to elude.

02:18:59.000 | Chasing and arresting people is what they do. They enjoy it.

02:19:03.000 | Seven, it's unfortunate that wearing certain clothes and acting in certain ways predisposes police to consider you a criminal.

02:19:10.000 | But if you dress like a crook, strut like a crook, and run like a crook, what else are cops supposed to think?

02:19:17.000 | Cops spend every day trawling the net through the seething metropolis.

02:19:22.000 | All day and all night they round up clueless gorks with drugs and guns in their pockets,

02:19:27.000 | stolen merchandise in their cars, and loud clothes on their bodies.

02:19:31.000 | Usually the suspects are in some state of drug and alcoholic inebriation and are foul-mouthed or incoherent.

02:19:38.000 | Cops generally don't make fine distinctions in the heat of making arrests

02:19:41.000 | and may not recognize a straight-A student pretending to be a thug.

02:19:46.000 | They simply deposit their prisoners, tally the points scored, and let prosecutors and judges sort things out later.

02:19:53.000 | Eight, the system isn't fair. It's just there.

02:19:59.000 | My point in doing today's show is to hopefully protect you and your finances from a possible interaction with the police.

02:20:09.000 | When in today's world I recognize the danger that I was in for that altercation that I described where I consented to a police search of my vehicle and they went away and everything was working out fine.

02:20:23.000 | When I realized the danger that I was in, if a friend of mine who had been driving in the car had left drugs in my car or if there had been something out of the ordinary,

02:20:33.000 | I shudder to think of how stupid I would have been.

02:20:38.000 | I can't – with a criminal record, if I had been arrested, that would have brought major problems into my business and my young marriage and all kinds of issues.

02:20:48.000 | So since then I've gone and educated myself.

02:20:51.000 | And now that I'm educated, I don't anticipate having any more interactions with the police than I ever had in the past.

02:20:59.000 | I follow all the laws. I don't commit any crimes knowingly.

02:21:03.000 | I'm sure I commit three felonies a day just like everyone else does, but I don't knowingly break the law.

02:21:08.000 | I drive the speed limit. I'm a very ordinary person.

02:21:12.000 | So I'm seeking to avoid any interaction with the police whatsoever.

02:21:18.000 | But there are lots of people who don't do that and there are lots of people who don't know.

02:21:24.000 | So my hope is that you'll take the information that I've shared with you.

02:21:28.000 | You'll start by getting this book because this is a great book.

02:21:31.000 | The book is called Arrest Proof Yourself, second edition.

02:21:36.000 | An ex-cop reveals how easy it is for anyone to get arrested, how to just say no to car searches, how to legally defend yourself with firearms and how to keep lawmen out of your phone and computer.

02:21:46.000 | I could do whole shows on phone security, computer security.

02:21:50.000 | If you want me to do that stuff, let me know. I'd be happy to do that more in the future.

02:21:53.000 | But get the book, read it, and help somebody.

02:21:58.000 | Help somebody who's a little bit clueless.

02:22:02.000 | Let's try to see if you and I can make a dent in some of the tragedy that comes on the TV so often.

02:22:11.000 | A lot of times, the guy who just got shot by the police deserved it, so to speak.

02:22:19.000 | But a lot of times, they didn't and they were just clueless about it.

02:22:27.000 | I tried very hard to avoid a lot of the political commentary about law enforcement, etc.

02:22:33.000 | I don't wear a thin blue line. I don't have a thin blue line bumper sticker on my car, nor do I go out marching with Black Lives Matter, nor am I an anarchist opposed to the police.

02:22:43.000 | I have my own opinions on it, but it's not relevant here.

02:22:46.000 | The point is that you need to know the law. You need to know your rights.

02:22:50.000 | I need to help other people to know.

02:22:53.000 | Just something as simple as helping to train somebody not to be an idiot and start swearing at a police officer and get their hackles up may help them keep from getting arrested.

02:23:05.000 | Training somebody not to fight back may help them to keep from getting shot.

02:23:13.000 | So my hope is that if I educate you, then you can go and personally interact with someone and help educate them.

02:23:22.000 | Unfortunately, clueless people don't listen to my show.

02:23:26.000 | I had a dream that they would, but unfortunately, they don't.

02:23:30.000 | But I do talk to clueless people and so do you.

02:23:34.000 | So go and help them.

02:23:36.000 | I'm going to release a couple of pieces of audio into the RSS feed.

02:23:41.000 | I want you to listen to them.

02:23:43.000 | I've pulled these audios from YouTube videos with the exception of one video that's acted out where it talks about different – with the exception of one video.

02:23:55.000 | All you need to do is listen to the audio.

02:23:57.000 | But educate yourself on these topics.

02:24:03.000 | I've done my best to give you an overview from Arrest Proof Yourself to help you keep from getting arrested.

02:24:08.000 | That, when I've stumbled across this book, opened my eyes to what a big deal it is to get arrested.

02:24:16.000 | So don't get arrested.

02:24:18.000 | And if you are arrested, make sure you listen to the lecture called "Don't Talk to the Police."

02:24:24.000 | And do yourself a favor.

02:24:26.000 | Don't ever talk to the police.

02:24:29.000 | If they arrest you, the only thing you say is, "I'd like to speak to my attorney.

02:24:35.000 | I will not answer questions without my attorney present."

02:24:38.000 | You've got to learn that.

02:24:40.000 | It doesn't matter whether you're guilty.

02:24:42.000 | It doesn't matter whether you're innocent.

02:24:43.000 | It doesn't matter whatsoever.

02:24:45.000 | So listen to the audio files that I'm releasing for you this week and educate yourself.

02:24:49.000 | And then go out and educate somebody else.

02:24:53.000 | Please. Thank you for listening.

02:24:56.000 | This show is part of the Radical Life Media Network of podcasts and resources.

02:25:02.000 | Find out more at RadicalLifeMedia.com

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