10 Rules for Dealing with the Police Summary

Tiffany Thee

Professor Troy Smith

POSC 110

10 Rules for Dealing with the Police Summary

Throughout this video there seemed to be a main theme tying all of the rules together. The police are prone to jumping to conclusions and in every situation presented, it seemed as if the police try to anticipate the worst scenario when stopping a citizen. Although wise to do so, it is sometimes unfair when police act on those assumed allegations. Many of the rules had to do with stating your rights rather than just saying that you know your rights. When asserting your rights cops are less likely to accuse you and “legally lie” to you to try to trip you up and trick you into giving up some of those rights. The first rule is to remain calm, cool, and collected as to not raise any further suspicion. Though staying calm and not retaliating is one of the most difficult, a lot of real life situations are caused because people have a hard time staying calm and not overreact. In today’s world many people do not understand their rights as well as the cop’s rights. With knowledge comes power and with power comes the ability to avoid any problems that come up.

We as citizens of the United States of America are given these rights and it's a shame when we don’t utilize the liberties that we have. We have many rights to refuse things which can help in avoiding false accusations and detainments. I didn’t know until watching this video that I had the right to tell police that I don’t consent the search of my vehicle, body, or home. It’s also helpful to know that I don’t necessarily have to stay and talk to police because we have the right to ask them whether we’re being detained or if we’re free to go. It’s reassuring that police don’t have complete freedoms to do what they please. It’s also good to know that as a citizen I should be a good witness if there’s a sketchy situation. I look at the news today and there are so many stories about police shooting, killing, and hurting individuals and I wonder if the individuals who are getting hurt know their rights or not. But I also wonder if the police are violating their authority because sometimes the situations seem to escalate rather quickly. The police force in America seems to be rather complicated when people are uneducated and abuse their authority and I think that they should be teaching what are right exactly are in the schools. Instead of learning rights through media and news and becoming ignorant from learning from exaggerated examples we should teach the truth and be prepared for whatever we may encounter in the world.