As someone said in another post, if you get into a pissing match with a LEO your likely to spend the night in a cell waiting to explain things to a judge.
Certainly. That video didn't say "Get in pissing matches with LEOs every chance you get!" Quite to the contrary, it was very clear on the fact that you should be polite, respectful and cooperate as much as you are required to cooperate. It
did explain that you are not required to give police full access to your vehicle, home or person just because they ask to conduct a search. It also said that if they decide to conduct a search anyway, you should never attempt to physically stop them or verbally abuse them. It just said to not give consent.
LEOs may not automatically be your friends, but if you start out as viewing them as enemies your likely to have a self fufilling prophecy.
I agree completely. They aren't automatically your friends or your enemies. They are humans with authority and the capacity to use that authority for good or evil - even well-intentioned evil.
Probably best to view LEOs and gov in general as akin to fire, dangerous but quite useful if respected. Sorta like firearms
You're completely right, police should be treated with the respect and care one would treat firearms. The video seemed to give some good advice about some of the "Four Rules" that apply to safely handling police officers. Think of the concepts in the video as being the police equivalent of "Never point a firearm at something you're not willing to destroy." Readily consenting to searches without warrants and so forth can be equated to sweeping yourself or someone else with a gun. Sure, 99% of the time the moment will pass without harm but it isn't worth the risk when simple precautions can be taken to avoid it.
A big way to limit risk is - as you pointed out - to not break the law. Great! That's like keeping your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot. That is one
very important element of handling police safely. Unfortunately, trying to avoid breaking the law doesn't give complete protection against being arrested. One reason is that police don't just arrest people who are guilty, they arrest people for whom they have sufficient probable cause to suspect of a crime. So, just being innocent isn't good enough. You'll probably win the trial if they decide to prosecute, but you'll still be arrested and have to worry about hiring a lawyer and everything else that goes along with being arrested. Even if it were just a case of not breaking the law, I propose that it is impossible to even be aware of every law that could apply to you. If you aren't aware of all the laws that apply, you can hardly expect to be perfectly capable of complying with all of them. Even lawyers have to specialize to know a particular section of the law inside and out. All you can do is your best, but your best isn't guaranteed to keep you from being arrested. So, in addition to not breaking the law, it can be helpful to adopt some reasonable procedures that can add to your safety.
I didn't see anything that was suggested by the narrator of the video that would be inappropriate for any one of us to follow as an additional precaution. Be polite, be respectful but don't be ignorant of what consenting to searches can lead to.
