On 7/13/2011 3:06 PM, HeyBub wrote:
The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 7/13/2011 8:05 AM, HeyBub wrote:
The Daring Dufas wrote:

Harry, did you know that her in The US it's perfectly legal for our
lawmakers and law enforcement agents to lie to Joe Citizen but it's
a crime for Joe Citizen to lie to them. If Joe Citizen is called
before a Congressional hearing and swears to tell the truth and
doesn't, he is charged with the crime of perjury. If police are
interrogating Joe Citizen, the police can lie to him but if Joe
Citizen lies in return, he is charged with a crime. Poor Joe
Citizen, he has it rough at times

Which underscores the notion that you should say NOTHING to the
cops, even if you believe it to be the truth.

"What do you know about the bank robbery on 1st Street?"
"Nothing. I've never even BEEN on 1st Street!"
(later)
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the defendant claimed in a police
interview that he'd never been on 1st Street near the location of the
robbery. You've just seen footage from a security camera clearly
showing the defendant driving down 1st Street in 1982! He was
clearly lying during the police interview and you can legitimately
infer he was lying when he claimed he was not involved in the
robbery..."
but Joe Citizen does have a right to remain silent guaranteed by our
Constitution. I wonder, does Harry Citizen have the same sort of
right in The UK?

No. If a suspect clams up, that silence may be offered in evidence
against him at trial.



Darn HB, I wanted Harry to dance around that one. I know you have a
great deal of legal knowledge. I remember you writing about being a
LEO for a while but didn't you also teach law at a college?

No, not law. I did go to law school, but never took the bar exam ("My
lawyer's a prince and yours is a nice guy, but the rest of them are
thieves"). I taught computer science and mathematics at both the university
and community college.

And, yeah, I was a deputy sheriff in my youth. I learned right away that
police work is not like it's mad out to be. It's more like being a Boy
Scout. With a gun. To a cop, taking a residence burglary or stolen car
report is routine - you can do it in your sleep. To the citizen whose home
was burglarized or whose car was stolen, it's often a life-changing event!

Maybe this will put things in perspective: The cop seldom sees the perp, but
the cop ALWAYS sees the victim.


Well, my mistake, perhaps I read about you teaching and bestowed super
powers upon you that you did not possess. That's why I asked, I'm sure
Mr Bubbles will butt in and accuse me of lying. I had law enforcement
folks in the family. My father was a Regular Army MP sergeant during
WWII, he got royalties from DOD for cuss words he invented and he yelled
every single one of them at me when I put a JFK For President bumper
sticker on his '51 Dodge. The Irish nuns at the Catholic Parochial Gulag
had given them to us kids to distribute. I didn't know
what a Southern Republican was. Dad made Yankee Republicans look like
fairies and I may be worse now than he ever was. :-)

TDD