Most people do not look forward to interacting with the police. Getting stopped over a traffic infraction leave many people anxious, even those who know they’ve done nothing wrong.
While this feeling is normal, acting anxious may make you look suspicious to the officer. If you are anxious it’s best to tell the officer you are anxious and why. There are many valid reasons, including first time being stopped, previously bad experience with an officer, events in your life, or that you're going to be late to work or for an appointment. Honesty is always the best policy so long as you don’t incriminate yourself in any type of criminal behavior.
As nervous as you might be, the officer is nervous as well. Sharing your anxiety may make a simple connection that makes you both feel more at ease.
In the end, how, you choose to interact with the police is your decision but taking some extra steps to make the officer feel safe seems to go a long way these days.
Here is how I handle being stopped. If I’m alone I roll down my back driver's side window and turn on my dome light. This allows the officer to see inside with car clearly before approaching my driver’s window. If you have tinted windows this will help even further.
After I lower my windows and turn the dome light on I put my hands at 10 am and 2 pm and wait for the officer. Do not be reaching around for your wallet or papers until the officer instructs you to do so. The officer seeing all that movement walking to your car will only make the officer more anxious which can lead to mistakes. Get the windows and the light, place your hands on the wheel and just relax. When the officer is more relaxed you will be more relaxed, playing off each other’s energy. This isn’t the time to be negative.
You will not win any fight with a cop. Document the encounter or better yet, record the encounter and seek justice at a later date if you have a negative encounter. Arguing with a cop unless you’re a seasoned debater who knows your rights inside and out will likely end in you being ticketed maybe even arrested. Just bite your tongue and be respectful. If you do know your rights and you cannot make any headway with the official request to speak to his supervisor. At that time the officer must call his supervisor to the scene and should end all conversations. If the officer continues to try and make conversation it is your choice but it's best to instruct the officer you will wait for his supervisor.
If your rights are violated don’t think the officer violating them will suddenly honor your rights. Be cool and calm, stay respectful and try to end the encounter as quickly as possible.
The best way to move along any encounter is to ask if you are being detained or you are free to go. After you ask this question, the officer must move along as quickly as possible. Until you ask this, the courts consider your stop to be voluntary, yes, I know, but it’s true. When you ask if you are free to go it’s no longer voluntary. If the officer doesn’t hurry after being asked you may have a lawsuit against the officer as well as criminal charges under 18 USC 242.
If the officer calls a second unit or a K9 unit then your rights have likely been violated. The officer must end the encounter as quickly as his process will allow. Calling other units or K9 isn’t part of that process. There may be a chance the unit saw the encounter and stopped or the officer called for backup before coming to your vehicle. The length of time matters in this situation.
One last piece of advice when dealing with officers. If you can make them laugh your chances of being ticketed go way down. Anytime I’ve gotten an officer to laugh, I’ve been given a warning except for the time I was doing 92 in a 65. I was ticketed that night.
I hope some of this advice helps in your next encounter. I will be making a podcast or video on this topic at a later date. I am currently in the process of building my studio to be able to produce in quiet. With 2 cats, 3 dogs, 13-year-old daughter with her friends coming over, no one understands why I can't do recordings, lol.
Update 11/04/2021 - Article was updated to change 10-point lead to 4-point lead in the VA Gov. Race.
Rachelle Maddow, Joy Reid, and Nicolle Wallace lose their minds in a segment covering the governor’s race. They go full-out disinformation mode.
These three people are propagandists that work for MSNBC. If you haven’t seen the video over the VA Governor race where Glenn Youngkin beat former VA Governor Terry McAuliffe turning Virginia red for the first time since 2009 the link is above.
The McAuliffe campaign went all out bringing in President Biden, VP Harris, former President Obama all show-up and speak to Virginians. There is currently an investigation into possible criminal charges against VP Harris for traveling to an estimated 300 churches in Virginia to help get McAuliffe's placed in the governor’s seat.
This governor’s election was also discussed by White House Press Secretary ...
Things have been crazy here lately. There have been some family issues that have been taking much of my attention. I have been working on the website some, I have it set up and linked with YouTube and Rumble so all videos will be accessible from there which should forward it to here.
I have set up a subscriber star account for down the road if anyone wishes to donate to the project and/or projects.
I already mentioned the last update that I have all the equipment ready to do the videos. I was hoping to have the studio ready by now, but I think I am just going to have to wait on that and start doing the videos now.
I know the dogs will be an issue and I am sure there will be some other audio issues I will have to deal with as well. The microphone is very nice and the sound is very rich and full.
So, hopefully, soon you will see a posting pop up with a video linked to it. And if God is willing the dogs won't be barking while I am trying to record.
Sorry I haven't been active this month. It's getting close to the winter season here in Southeastern, Ohio and I am getting things ready for the snow. Trying to get all the yard items put away, while getting the winter gear out.
After the winter season is over, around March or April of 2022 we will be building a new house. This current house will become my workshop and recording studio.
I have my green screen, Canon I7t cameras (2x), a high-quality FiFine microphone, and all the sound damping padding I could fit.
I had planned on the recording studio being done this fall, however, we decided to just build new instead of redoing our current house. Which in the end will work out better. It means you must wait a bit longer for my videos to be available. But don't worry, that only gives me more time to write more scripts. While I have plenty for at least a couple of seasons, you can never have too many.
In the meantime between writing new scripts, working, fixing the house, and ...
