Police bullying me, are they lying? plz read!

I'm rly not in the mood to think of what forum to put this in right now, just read and help. So basically about a month ago someone burnt down our school bleachers. swim's friend told him her little brother had done it. The detective on the case already knows who did it and knows swim knows. The detective and police came to my house twice already looking for me, neither time I was home so they left their card. I called and left a message saying "hi this is chris i understand ur looking for me but I have nothing to say to you and i dont want you coming to my house again", i said this all very politely.

They came to my house about 10 minutes ago. After this Conversation I was shaking with fucking anger and the things I wanted to say to them, omg, but i cant. heres how it went
-u wanna put a shirt on so we can talk
-no im good
-First off how old are you
-18
-ur 18 and u have the nerve to call the police nvr to come to ur house again, never in my life. so is it true a ... said her brother had burned down the bleachers to u
-no
-are u sure about that
-yes
-well we know that she did and ur gonna have to testify
-r u kidding im not testifying i dont even have anything to say
- ur not mad about the bleachers being burned down dont u want justice
-no answer
-well ur gonna get a subpoena to testify and if u dont were gonna get a warrant for ur arrest
-r u fucking kidding me, do u realize how twisted that is
-(to my dad) boy u have some great control over ur kid
at this point i walked in the house, i wanted to break this guys fucking head off and make him suck on his little piggy dick, i knew i wouldnt have controlled myself much longer.
i know my rights as an american, were learning about first amendment rights in my current legal issues class right now freedom of speech also means the right to not speak, and also the fifth the right to remain silent, i know redundant but still
i dont have to testify right??????? i know impeding a case or w/e, but still this goes against all consitutionality

 

there are cases where they can subpoena you and you have to testify or you'll get arrested. but that's usually only if you're intimately associated with the details of the case.

 

im not against testifying cause i dont want the kid being caught, hes already fucked, it just seems so wrong and unjust that they can try to force me to testify.

do u mean if i know the intimate details of the case, or if i was somehow involved with the case?

 

you already said too much to them. pm me when I'm not fucked up

 

thats a good point, but would they rly get that into it(im rly asking)
would they actually find this and read it?

 

no, they wouldn't. but it is still stupid and just points to the fact that you are probably making a lot of other mistakes. like talking to friends and giving statements to the police. I need to know more details about this investigation if you want me to give you advice, but it would probably be best through pm.

 

Might wanna edit that, your OP, as well.

 

Evidence is anything you say, anything else is bullshit police tricks. First rule, say nothing, second rule, get a lawyer.

they are just being cops. If you do get summonsed though you have to go.

 

What went wrong:

-You told the cops never to come back to your house

wrong, the cops have all the right they want to come to your front door and ask you questions, they can't come in but they can ask all the questions they want

Also, if it goes to an actual trial, you will be subpoenaed to appear and testify, if you don't say anything in court(can't plead the fifth either because what you know doesn't incriminate yourself) you'll be held in contempt, don't show up to court, an arrest warrant will be put out for you.

 

Talking to them only digs a deeper hole for you.

For example, if someone did tell you about this crime and you stated to the officers that they didn't, then you could be incriminated for lying to a police officer if that person states to the police or the court that they told you about it.

It takes the most discipline to not say anything. They will try all sorts of tricks to engage you in an exchange.

.

 

Tiger Woods did the proper thing by not talking to the state troopers after that accident he had. The troopers scheduled voluntary interview a number of times and Tiger kept postponing it. Eventually they stopped trying.

.

 

Yea, but guess what, we're not Tiger Woods. The police are not going to go away just because you want them to. Either actually talk to them, or talk to them and say you know nothing or have nothing to say.

 

Alright everyone keeps telling me I shouldn't have talked. I know that, but I've never dealt with police before so that's not the first thing I thought. Also I was just in pajama pants, browsing hipforums 8:30 at night, I wasn't ready to be questioned.

 

No, talking and saying you know nothing is the right thing to do. Calling the cops and saying don't come to my house was a terrible idea.

 

Even saying you know nothing is a risk in the case of the OP. He does know something about the crime.

They can keep coming back to the house but they can't force him to say anything at this point. Talking to them at all gives them more hope to come back and try to fish more information out of him.

.

 

Not talking just pisses them off more, maybe they'll get a warrant to arrest you for obstruction, or as a co-conspirator. I mean they won't in a stupid case like this, but it's still the fact you can throw out snips of constitutional law but it's more important to be pragmatic about human behavior, if you were a cop you wouldn't take this from an 18 year old either, especially when said person is making themselves look guilty of something.

 

Soo weird.. when I was a senior in high school some kid set our school bleachers on fire, too!

 

^ I was looking at ur sig just before actually. The first time I did acid my friend was smoking a cigarette and blew out rainbow smoke, it reminded me of that. That's cool I just noticed that's a cig too, at first I thought it was a blunt or something. Cool sig tho

 

Thank ya!

 

He's not obstructing when he's being asked to voluntarily answer questions and he refuses. Not talking in that situation isn't probable cause either. Also, warrants aren't issued on the basis of how pissed off the officer was or the fact that a person chose to not talk when voluntarily asked. These are fallacies that some people believe and it gets them into trouble.

An example of what could go wrong: He tells the officer he knows nothing about this crime. One or more other people have already stated to the police that he does know something about it. Then, an officer can come back and arrest him on the spot for making false statements to a police officer. Down the road prosecutors could use this charge (or threat of charging him) as a bargaining chip to get him to testify against the person they are after.

I'm not implying that's going to happen in his case. It's just an example of what can go wrong.

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