Re:Remembering the Murder You Didn’t Commit (2017)
by stephen_g on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @08:53AM
(#19198913)
I wouldn’t say never, but you do have to be extremely careful and say as little as possible.
I didn’t really get it until I came into a situation where a policeman was convinced I was up to something (not realising there was a breath testing station set up a few hundred metres up the road, I pulled over to make a phone call, and they came over convinced I was trying to evade them for some reason). Luckily it was pretty low stakes, and everything was in order, and the worst that was going to happen was maybe they might have pinged me if my tires had been a bit worn or something.
But it was extremely disturbing how throughly he looked for something to back up his incorrect suspicion, to try and find anything to build a case. He even said once he was done, as he told me to move on, that he was still suspicious! Having read so many stories of miscarriages of justice that have happened to innocent people, it was enough to show just how dangerous it can be to be completely innocent when a policeman suspects you of something. A guilty person knows they need to conceal, but somebody who is innocent often doesn’t know that the officer might have a very wrong hunch and might be looking for anything you say to make you a suspect.
It’s disturbing to wonder how it might have gone if, say, instead of them just checking for drunk drivers, something like a murder had happened nearby earlier in the evening...
I didn’t really get it until I came into a situation where a policeman was convinced I was up to something (not realising there was a breath testing station set up a few hundred metres up the road, I pulled over to make a phone call, and they came over convinced I was trying to evade them for some reason). Luckily it was pretty low stakes, and everything was in order, and the worst that was going to happen was maybe they might have pinged me if my tires had been a bit worn or something.
But it was extremely disturbing how throughly he looked for something to back up his incorrect suspicion, to try and find anything to build a case. He even said once he was done, as he told me to move on, that he was still suspicious! Having read so many stories of miscarriages of justice that have happened to innocent people, it was enough to show just how dangerous it can be to be completely innocent when a policeman suspects you of something. A guilty person knows they need to conceal, but somebody who is innocent often doesn’t know that the officer might have a very wrong hunch and might be looking for anything you say to make you a suspect.
It’s disturbing to wonder how it might have gone if, say, instead of them just checking for drunk drivers, something like a murder had happened nearby earlier in the evening...