One of the most important things I learned in my Language and the Law class is that law enforcement will intentionally misinterpret every type of statement asking for a lawyer as not asking for a lawyer. Even directly saying it like this “I will not speak to you without a lawyer” can be taken as a simple statement of fact rather than a request for a lawyer. You literally have to state “I am now invoking my right to a lawyer” and every time they try to proceed with an interrogation you have to answer every question with “I am invoking my right to have a lawyer present”. You can’t just tell them you won’t talk without a lawyer or that you want a lawyer. You have to state that you are invoking your rights. Otherwise they could just say “well they just said they wouldn’t speak without a lawyer present. That’s not invoking their rights to a lawyer. It’s just stating a fact.” even just stating your right to a lawyer doesn’t count!

PLEASE share this addition. I am a lawyer who works in criminal defense, and this is one of the most avoidable things that people consistently get wrong about the Miranda rights.

Here are some more “ambiguous” phrases which courts have found DO NOT invoke your right to a lawyer:

“Maybe I should speak to my lawyer first.”

“I might like a lawyer.”

“I think I should have a lawyer present for this.”

“Could I speak to my lawyer first?”

“How long until my lawyer gets here?”

And perhaps most egregiously – “Get me a lawyer, dawg – ‘cause this is not what’s up.”

Here are the magic phrases which you need to know if you want to invoke your Miranda rights:

1) “Am I free to leave?”

It’s worth asking this even if the answer is obvious. Even if the officer does not let you leave, by forcing them to admit that you are not free to leave, you are creating a record which your attorney can use to prove that you were in custody. Miranda rights only apply if the interrogation is custodial, meaning that police officers will frequently claim that their suspects were “not in custody” to get around their Miranda rights.

2) “I am invoking my right to remain silent.”

Simply staying silent will not invoke your right to remain silent. As absurd as this is, you must explicitly say that you are invoking your right to remain silent in order to invoke that right.

3) “I am invoking my right to an attorney.”

As stated above, you must be not only clear and unambiguous, but clear and legally unambiguous. Don’t get cute. Don’t get sassy. And on the flip side, don’t get intimidated and use verbal ticks to minimize your request. Say the line with those words exactly – say it clearly, and say it once, and then say nothing else.

Because even after you’ve done all this, the police can still try to get you to talk. They’re not supposed to interrogate you, but they’re allowed to make casual conversation, and if that conversation just happens to circle back around to the thing they wanted to question you about, well, that’s really your fault for talking after you said you wouldn’t, isn’t it? Can’t possibly fault the poor officers when you initiated – if you really wanted to have your rights respected, you wouldn’t have talked to them in the first place.

The police know this, and they will mercilessly exploit this loophole. So, once you’ve successfully invoked your Miranda rights, any and all conversation you have with police officers will put those rights back into jeopardy. 

Putting it all together:

Ask: “Am I free to leave?”

If they say no, say: “I am invoking my right to remain silent and I am invoking my right to an attorney.”

And then shut up and do not say a single thing to them for any reason whatsoever until you have actually spoken to an attorney. Yes, even if it takes hours. Yes, even if they start talking to you about something else.

Finally, a very important disclaimer:

I may be a lawyer, but I’m not your lawyer, and I cannot guarantee that what I’ve just laid out here will always work for every situation. We didn’t get to this bizarre and absurd place overnight – we built this ridiculous system piecemeal, by deciding on a case-by-case basis that certain phrases were “too ambiguous” or certain types of questioning weren’t actually questioning at all. The law is still in flux, and is still fundamentally out to get you, and willing to bend plain meaning beyond all recognition to do it. Even if you invoke your rights perfectly, exactly as I have specified above, there’s a chance that your invocation of rights will be disqualified on some new technicality that no one’s even thought of yet – and that’s precisely the problem.

Watch this video: “Don’t Talk To The Police”

I am begging my followers to please watch this video from start to finish. I know it’s long, but it is incredibly valuable information that everyone needs to know, especially if you’re involved in any form of activism.

Every single cop lies. Every single cop lies and manipulates and twists the situation around to get a confession. Even when they know that the person is innocent, even when they know that what they have isn’t enough to convict someone, even when they know that that confession has been made under duress or manipulation. All they care about is getting anything to put someone behind bars.

It doesn’t matter how eloquent or innocent or experienced you are. Do not talk to cops.

The video is a doozy. Aside from all the good advice, the racist dog whistling from the officer really jumps out. In fact, his whole segment was pretty effective to drive home the point that officers are literally trained to manipulate you and fuck you over. He does say he doesn’t “try” to put innocent people in prison, but he never says he tries to keep them out either. He also explicitly states that he destroys material that could be helpful to you.

In short, DO NOT TALK TO COPS.

hey y’all please please please read this and watch the video and do research if you can, this is really scary /srs

Remember folls

ALL cops are out to get you. They do not care about you, not do they care about proving your innocence. A cop’s primary concern is painting you as the villain and getting you behind bars so they can look like the fucking hero.

All cops are the fucking enemy, they will take any sound you utter and use it against you.

Do not say a fucking word to them. Not. One.

chai tea (tea tea)

naan bread (bread bread)

sharia law (law law)

sahara desert (desert desert)

lake tahoe (lake lake)

el camino way (the way way)

pendle hill (hill hill hill)

soviet union (union union)

mississippi river (big river river)

the los angeles angels (the the angels angels)

hula dance (dance dance) dc comics (detective comics comics)

shakira (shakira)

moon (moon)

why is finding trans healthcare so complicated can’t someone just hit me up with boy juice and amputitty me already

“you need documentation” ok fine

i have no idea if this will help with your situation, but erin reed has a map with all informed consent clinics- this may be completely unhelpful but i know these clinics make it easier to access hrt with less barriers.

so I made the original post as a joke, but then I saw this and found an informed consent provider in my area and I’m gonna make an appointment. genuinely thank you, this reblog could make my healthcare journey so much easier. hope this helps someone else too <3

Here's the map itself, since Twitter is fucking up and won't let me see the damn tweet.

saying “come over” to someone who lives 92657 miles away

uhh first post about how much i love jack wolfe as it should be

holding the sun 

it's very clear from some communists' visions of future city-planning that they expect disabled people to just shut up and die, lmao

If you don’t mind me adding:

3. Some folks dream of the perfect commune where everyone contributes - specifically with labor. If a disabled person not contributing labor isn’t welcome in your community, you are just repackaging the capitalist “labor = worth” mindset

Ok just for curiosity reasons

I genuinely hate to say this but please reblog if you hit the like button for a larger sample size thank you <3

I transferred because I kept seeing shitposts on pinteresf from here when I was 12 and wanted to feel included

I hope black girls with depression have a good day today.

I hope black girls with Anxiety have a great day today

I hope my black girls with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have a great day

i hope my black girls w personality disorders and PTSD have a good day today

I hope black girls with ADHD and/or autism have a good day

I hope black girls suffering from chronic pain have a good day

I hope disabled black girls have a good day

Amazing how every guide on interacting with police, including ones that are explicitly pro-cop, are indistinguishable from guides on how to avoid being attacked by a wild animal.

Don't make any sudden movements, avoid eye contact, stay calm or you WILL die. Wait, what do you mean this is advice for interacting with a human being and not a hungry bear?

"Keep your hands on the steering wheel and don't have anything in them, a police officer might mistake a cellphone for a weapon." Okay, should I also hold my hand out for him to sniff when he approaches so that he knows I'm not a threat?

Don't worry officer, I'm not reaching into my glove compartment for a gun, I'm grabbing the bag of beggin' strips in hopes that your power trip and homicidal impulses will be appeased with a little treat :3

how can you tell

Forgot “knot” means a big wad of cash and nearly had a fit over this Eminem song

please you can't hide this in the tags

watching fantasy/sci-fi shows from the 80's and 90's is so healing for your brain actually..........

i see people trying to hype them up too by showing off really impressive practical effects for the time, and sure, that's nice. but I unironically love seeing very obvious foam boulders bounce off people, and wooden swords clash, and bright flashes of light from "laser guns"... and it is so much better than 90% of shit today, and you know why?

key fucking difference: they inhabit it. everyone on screen is putting their entire soul into it. and I think people forget that tv is at its very essence theater, you tune in and suspend your disbelief, and you are always aware you are watching a story. if you go to a play and see someone stabbed with a very obvious fake knife, it doesn't fucking matter, does it?

because everyone's forgot that you're not there to see how good of a real-looking fake knife somebody can make, you're there to see people who can make you believe in the emotional truth of a story.

xena warrior princess is superior to every single marvel movie that has ever been made for the key fact that i can watch two actors struggling in "quicksand" which is very obviously just dirt that they were buried in up to their chests, but they are SCREAMING, wailing, crying: they are selling it and I am there for them ---

no marvel movie will ever achieve emotional truth as long as their direction goes: "Alright. So you're trapped in [redacted] next to [redacted], and you feel very [redacted]. And, action!"

I GOT FROGGED???

Anyway guys don’t let this equivalent of a bunch of car keys dangling in front of a baby to distract you from the fact that Tumblr’s latest update removed the short cut to access people’s reblogs and original posts. Remember to file your complaints through Tumblr’s support ticket system.

Oh for fucks sake

EDIT: It seems Staff just decided to change more shit that’s worked a certain way for about a decade just because…. I dunno…. they’re not stimulated by the 9000 spam bot reports we send daily?

the “old” way is that you clicked on the reblogger’s username and it would take you to the original reblog. this now just takes you to their blog:

the “new” way is that you click on the empty space above the post:

I think @staff grossly underestimated just how many tumblr users routinely use this feature to get rid of dumbass comments at the bottom of bad reblog chain (while preserving the good part of the reblog chain). I spent 5 frustrated minutes clicking random shit before finally working out what I needed to press.

THATS TUPPERWARE

i thought delaware was a place in ohio? why are there so many things named delaware?

delaware is too powerful

what the fuck

Wait what? I thought Delaware was a store with building supplies. Like paint, wood, nails and stuff?

THATS HOME DEPOT ???

I know home depot, but dude I don't know anything about America mad have never been there. Are you sure there is not a some sort of store called something close to Delaware!?!

.....ace hardware....?

this post has only been around for a few hours but could very well be a world heritage post

but at what cost

This post launched at 8am PST on 12 Feb 2021. The above conversation has happened in 3 hours.

he WHAT? i thought he was from. w. wait. ???

delaware stole the presidents shoelaces for clout and became too powerful

From the UK- and what do you mean Delaware isn't a type of ceramic?

it is now

@hellsite-hall-of-fame is it too early?

Isn’t delaware what they make computers on???

software ??

I think they meant Dell Ware, a specific computer type. We had a Dell computer once.

I thought Delaware was that famous singer they spoofed in Zootopia.

gazelle??

oh i thought delaware was that one british singer lady, you know, the one from chasing pavements

that's fucking adele

isn’t delaware that place you go when you die

youre thinking of superhell and all of you are going there

how the fuck did any of you come to the conclusions you all made

we live in america?

I thought Delaware was that food delivery service that keeps interrupting youtube videos with their ads when I'm trying to have a good time

..... are you talking about Doordash???

Isn't Delawere the name of that one girl in the song that goes "Hey there, Delawere"? She's from NYC or something.

THATS HEY THERE DELILAH

Pausing here to point out that op is “dear-AO3″ and now I’m wondering if Delaware fanfic would be categorized as RSF (real state fic) or AU (alternate unitedstates)

stop i do not want to think about this 

Isn’t Delaware that SPN ship that exploded the internet

Everyone on this post:

I love that the “no, that’s [x]” meme is making a comeback here and only here and nobody has any idea what’s going on

Keep up the good work, we can make poor OP have a melt down yet. 

Isn't delaware that one brand of pizza that's like "it's not delivery, it's delaware."

isn't delaware the god of the sea

Isn't Delaware the name of that guy who painted the Mona Lisa?

delaware is that one evil cyborg guy that has a son named Luke and a red laser sword

Thats Darth Vader. Im pretty sure Delaware is that other red-laser sword guy. You know. The one that stabbed Qui-Gon.

what have i created

I usually only reblog older posts, but this definitely deserves to be in every tumblr hall of fame

this post has only existed for 8 days. 

This is fantastic because it goes great with my theory that Delaware only exists for tax purposes. Like, all the states really only exists for Tax Purposes, but Delaware is particularly fake because back in 2012 I got lost in the Alleged Delaware Area looking trying to get to a family reunion, but every time I pulled over for directions, I would ask what the hell state I was in now, and I went through Mayland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey AND Virginia and I never fucking found Delaware but I did eventually find the Family Reunion and earned the repsepct of my then-prospective- Great-Grandmother-In-Law by saving her favorite grandchildren from a furious oceangoing horse so I’m convinced that not only is the state a purely legal construct, they didn’t even dedicate any landmass to it, or it’s a gov’t blackzone where the carnivorous horses live.

World Heritage Post

fun fact, i actually drove through delaware on this posts 6 month birthday. i hate it here.

This post literally fills me with life,tysm.

This post confused the heck out of me, I don't even know what's going on in this post, why the hell am I rebloging it?

there should be plushies of the strange but endearing creatures that live in medieval texts margins

HE!!!!

HE!

but also, they

HER 💜