Police Interrogations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

When a lying cop interrogator tells you they have all this evidence against you, take a moment to ponder why they haven't charged you yet if that's true

Never, ever talk to the police without a lawyer. Ever. Don’t sign anything. Invoke your right to a lawyer and stay silent.

This episode legit saved me. I was asked to go in for questioning of a crime I wasn’t apart of, and I was told, “it would look really bad on your part if you don’t come in. We’re just trying to help you out.” So I said, “I’m not saying anything at the advice of my lawyer, and only speaking to you if she’s there.” The police left me alone after that, and didn’t want to talk to me.

Saw this posted on Quora one time: "If you’re guilty, don’t talk to law enforcement. Get a lawyer. If you're innocent, REALLY don’t talk to law enforcement. Get a lawyer".

Anytime a confession is used as evidence the jury should be required to view the interrogation in full.

Every false confession means the guilty person got away

As an autistic person, the reliance on body language analysis really concerns me. If I were interrogated, or anyone else with learning disabilities, anxiety or similar conditions, our body language could be strange and unnatural and foreign to the interrogator, and make us look suspicious

It’s ridiculous that the cops can legally gaslight you into believing you are a murderer

According to the "Reid Technique", every Autistic person, and everyone with an Anxiety disorder is guilty as hell of what ever crime they're being accused of. Truly a no win situation for anyone that doesn't fit this extremely narrow definition of normal. This needs to change.

If you lie to a cop, you go to jail. If a cop lies to you, they get rewarded with honors and a pension.

As someone with a BA in Communications one of the MOST BASIC things in nonverbal comm I learned at Uni was that people are very very bad at "reading" nonverbal cues, many are not universal even within a given culture, and there is no way to actually know if someone is lying or telling the truth by where they look or don't look... this was taught to us literally the first week of an intro class. The justice system is so rotten to the core.

My son was arrested at 13. As soon as I heard about it from his brother, I rushed right down there about 6 or 7 blocks away. I told the cop I do NOT want my son asked ANY questions without a lawer or myself in the room. They told him "As soon as you tell us what we want to hear you can call your dad." They had him confess to armed robbery. When I went to court and met the public defender ( public pretender) I told her what happened and I said he was a minor and no one should have talked to him without me present. I said the confession needs to be thrown out he was under age. I was in the lobby and he asked for his father many times. How is any of that legal she said to me. " It's a gray area." Then she said with him confessing the best I can do is a plea bargain. He had to do a few nights in juvenile hall (kid jail) and 3 years probation. He also learned a distrust of copsand a disgust for the judicial system. THE PUBLIC DEFENDER WORKSBFOR THE COURT NOT YOU. He is in his mid twenty now, and it still makes my blood boil every time I think about it. 🤬😡🤬😡🤬😡🤬 🖕 the court system 🖕 the cops 🖕 the prosecutor They don't want the truth they just want a win so they can get a promotion and a raise regardless of who's lide they have to destroy. You go to a cell they go home.

I'm starting to think that the problem isn't a few bad apples in the police. But that the apples are exactly the apples the farmer wanted.

But John, if we don't get false confessions, how can the Prison Industrial Complex function without members?

I remember learning at a very young age that police lie to you. I used to get profiled quite a lot. They aren’t there to be your friend or help you, nor do they even properly understand your rights. If confronted by police follow these steps: 1: Pull out your phone or camera and begin recording (under the 1st amendment you are completely within your rights to record any public official during the course of their duty, if you’re in public. Which includes publicly funded areas of government buildings and facilities.) 2: Ask what their name and badge number is, they should be obligated under policy to verbally identify. If they refuse, ask for a supervisor. They are also obligated under policy to provide one. On the off chance they refuse this as well, evoke your 5th amendment right to remain silent. Speak only when necessary and never answer any of their questions. 3: Ask if you are being detained. They should respond with a yes or no. If no, you are free to leave or stay. To freely move about as you please. If yes, say it is an unlawful detainment and ask for their RAS (reasonable articulable suspicion) that a crime has been, is being or will be committed. If they cannot articulate, then they have no justification and will be violating your constitutional rights. Most will argue you are being “suspicious”, however the Supreme Court has ruled suspicion is not a crime in and of itself and cannot be used to detain or arrest someone. The best way to protect yourself is by knowing your rights and recording, hold your public servants accountable for their actions. Flex those rights

I'm handicapped, and I was arrested a few years ago for something that was physically impossible. Was interrogated by some of the dumbest people I've met. One of the most weird experience of my life.

"innocent people can wind up confessing just to escape the stress of that situation" also describes torture

The #1 advice EVERY laywer will tell you is SHUT THE HELL UP, literally don't say a thing no matter how innocent you are.

When I was in first grade my teacher pressured me into a false confession that I had pulled my pants down in front of the boys. At this time I was a regular victim for bullies who did what they could to make my school life harder. My teacher said that she had a 'lie detector', and even then, I was plagued with the thought that lie detectors might break. It took a year before I told my PARENTS the truth. Pressure led to me lying to my own loving support systems because the structures of the school would not accept my word. I am 21, and I still have a remaining guilt complex that leads me to always be slightly worried that I committed crimes I most certainly did not.

My father was a corrections officer after being a sheriff. He would draw weird conclusions about my friends or people we saw, like the time he was convinced my friend's friend was looking for things to steal because of the way his eyes moved. Apparently looking around makes you a thief... 🙄I knew the stuff he said was ridiculous and just rolled my eyes at him. He had to take a criminal justice refresher course when I was in high school, and I looked through his textbook one day. There was a lot about body language and behaviors, and what they meant. It scared the hell out of me. Many of the behaviors mentioned as signs of guilt or danger were common behaviors for (an innocent) person with autism, ADHD, etc... aka ME! Like not making eye contact. And I could come up with five or ten reasons, other than guilt or bad intentions, why even a non-disabled person would demonstrate many of these behaviors. While working on my psychology degree, I found even more reasons for those behaviors, and also a lack of evidence suggesting they meant what the criminal justice textbook claimed. And that's when it really sunk in. If I ever ended up in an interrogation room with a police officer who was taught and believed the stuff in those textbooks, I was screwed. They could get me to confess. (I know, because a similar situation happened to me in middle school, just not with the police). The only things protecting me in that situation is the fact that I'm white and from a middle-class background (..and maybe if the cops knew my dad). And then I felt absolute rage because I knew there were people who didn't even have those protections; people who were even more screwed that me. And it's all because some a**hole decided who we are is a sign of guilt.