as small as a world and as large as alone

3:44pm November 7, 2011

duyukdv:

epicinvain:

liquornspice:

duyukdv:

Unable at the moment to transcribe this, unfortunately. :(

I’m almost positive there’s already a transcription out there! Anyone have it archived?

When dealing with the police…

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT…

• to be in a public space and to observe police activity

IF THE POLICE STOP ANYONE…

• STOP AND WATCH
• Write down officers’ names, badge numbers, and car numbers. Sometimes it can be difficult for a third party to get close enough to an officer to record their information without needlessly escalating the encounter. COPS CAN BE IDENTIFIED BY THE NUMBERS ON THEIR VEHICLES.
• Write down the time, date, and place of the incident and all details as soon as possible.
• ask if the person is being arrested, and if so, on what charge
• get witnesses names and contact information
• try to get arrestees’ names, but only if they are already known to the police
• document all injuries as soon as possible. Photograph them and prepare a medical report describing details of the injuries.

IF THE POLICE STOP YOU…

• ask, “AM I FREE TO GO?” If not, you are being detained. If yes, walk away.
• Ask, “WHY ARE YOU DETAINING ME?” To stop you, the officer must have “reasonable suspicion” to suspect your involvement in a specific crime (not just a guess or a stereotype)
• It is not a crime to be without ID. If you are being detained or issued a ticker, you may want to show ID to the cop because they can take you to the station to verify your identity.
• If a cope tries to search your car, your house, or your person, say repeatedly that you DO NOT CONSENT TO THE SEARCH. If in a car, do not open your trunk or door—by doing so you consent to a search of your property and of yourself. If at home, stop outside and lock your door behind you so cops have no reason to enter your house. Ask to see the warrant and check for proper address, judge’s signature, and what the warrant says the cops are searching for. Everything must be correct in a legal warrant. Otherwise, send the police away.
• The cops can do a “pat search” (search the exterior of one’s clothing for weapons) during a detention for “officer safety reasons.” They can’t go into your pockets or bags without your consent. If you are arrested, they can search you and your possessions in great detail.
• DO NOT RESIST PHYSICALLY. Use your words and keep your cool. If officers violate your rights, don’t let them provoke you into striking back. Wait until you are out of custody, then organize for justice. 

• Police can arrest someone they believe is “interfering” with their actions. Maintain a reasonable distance and if cops threaten to arrest you, EXPLAIN THAT YOU DON’T INTEND TO INTERFERE, BUT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBSERVE THEIR ACTIONS.

IF THE POLICE ARREST YOU…

• You may be handcuffed, searched, photographed, fingerprinted
• Say repeatedly, “I DON’T WANT TO TALK UNTIL MY LAWYER IS PRESENT” Even if your rights aren’t read, refuse to talk until your lawyer/public defender arrives
• Do not talk to inmates in jail about your case
• If you’re on probation/parole, tell your PO you’ve been arrested, but NOTHING ELSE.

REMEMBER

You have legal rights, but many police will not respect your rights.

BE CAREFUL—BE STREET SMART

Thank you! (Reblogging the whole thing because it’s that important.)

Another reminder to me of why I should rarely if ever get into a position where the police can detain or arrest me. (As if I don’t know this already. And as if walking out my door isn’t often reason enough to attract police attention, for some reason. I haven’t been able to safely move around on my own outside since my early teens, because someone always calls the cops to report someone “wandering”, and it only gets worse from there.)

Even when I could talk some of the time, I often wasn’t able to talk at the time when cops were bugging me. (And when I could talk, I couldn’t always answer questions with anything better than “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember” or something along those lines. Not because I didn’t know, but because I couldn’t match words to the thoughts inside my head very reliably.) And now I can’t talk at all.

Yeah, do not resist physically. I see. But if they put my arms behind my back, I can’t communicate. And if I try to resist them putting my arms behind my back, then I’m doing something wrong. And if I can’t talk, they may see that as resistance as well. I saw plenty of footage of Occupy Wall Street where cops were screaming at people to tell them their names (or some similar thing), while sitting on them in a rather dangerous restraint hold that would not allow me to say a word at all. (And upping the level of violence if they didn’t respond. Makes me wonder if something like that is why they ended up pepper spraying a deaf woman in the eyes, thereby depriving her of all receptive communication.)

Also, on a more minor note, “Use your words” is a really good way to piss me off. That’s what they say (in the most condescending voice possible) to anyone in institutions or special ed or anything along those lines, when we try to use anything other than words for communication. (Because, you know, words are hard for a lot of us.) That would be #1 or close to #1 on my top ten list of annoying condescending statements that (disability-related) staff tend to make.

And of course, I can only ask things like “Am I free to go?” and “Why are you detaining me?” and “I do not consent to the search” if (a) I’m capable of using words at all, and (b) I am not being physically prevented from using my hands to communicate.

And how I’m supposed to “keep my cool” when someone’s preventing me from being able to communicate while simultaneously demanding that I communicate and behaving in various ways that are highly threatening, I have no idea.

So all this really tells me is that the cops are more dangerous to me than to the average person, and that there’s not a lot I can do about that.

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