No I don’t know how fast I was going….

There are a lot of “know your rights”/”how to deal with the police” videos floating around the internet, some of which are entertainingly cheesy with enactments of possible scenes. While a bit longer and less dramatic, Boing Boing recently linked to a nice team lecture by a law professor and a cop about why you should never talk to the police, even if you are innocent. The law lecture component has nice historical and legal context about the fifth amendment, but also a really nice explanation of why you should take advantage of your fifth amendment rights even if, or especially if, you are innocent. Both speakers are entertaining as lecturers. The cop shares some nice anecdotes of the legal but misleading methods that he would use during interviews to encourage self incrimination. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’ve never watching one of these – it is a nice debunking of the belief that the only people who invoke the 5th are people who have something to hide. It would be lovely if it had included some advice on how to refuse to talk, though I’m pretty sure a polite “I’m sorry but I need to talk to my lawyer” repeated as necessary will work.