Thursday, May 15, 2014

Know Your Rights When Arrested

This excerpt from Burnt Earth accompanies last week's entry well, as after one is pulled over for running a stop sign, it helps to know your rights, but knowing your rights can backfire with the wrong police officer.

If you have any questions concerning your rights subject to arrest, please ask them in the comments.

*


Slim Cassidy crossed the street and aimed toward her house on the other side of Civic Center Park. The park was starting to lose some of the oak leaves, and there were kids huddling about the statues as if the cold bronze figures were all raging hearths. She decided to detour through the park. She regularly enjoyed wandering through the proscenium of the little concrete amphitheater and admiring the frescoes painted underneath the columned turrets.



She went around the back of the amphitheater, stepped up on to the proscenium, and glanced at the fur trapper painted on the wall above her. She looked out over the stage to where the audience sat for Shakespeare in the park, and stopped short. In the orchestra, two police officers were hovering over a high school kid who was seated on one of the marble steps.


Damn it, she thought, I should just walk away. He’s just a kid. At most he’s holding pot. It’s just a juvenile offense. He’ll be out before supper. Slim whirled around and pointed herself toward home when she overheard the conversation.


You can’t arrest me for having pot. Pot is legal in Colorado. Why don’t you guys just leave me alone.


The teenager’s angsty plea frustrated Slim. She wanted to tell the little brat to shut his mouth. Anything he said was just leaving an opening for the cop to get the confession he was looking for. However, if the kid had any kind of drugs on him, he was going to be busted. Colorado may have legalized recreational marijuana, but this kid was clearly underage, and even if he wasn't, it was still illegal to toke up in a public park.


My beautiful walk on this beautiful fall day ruined by an idiot kid with a grass habit. She knew that she didn’t have to turn around. She knew that she was only asking for trouble. She knew that it was her time off, and she had to get to her Thursday evening prayer circle in a little more than an hour. But she turned around, athletically hopped the outer rim of the amphitheater, and started a direct rapid march toward the two officers and the kid.


As she crossed the last bench, one of the officers looked up. The kid was sitting on a stair a few feet further behind him. All three of them were looking at the woman in her trial suit with dreadlocks and short heels practically throwing herself down the stone benches lining the Greek-style amphitheater. Part of her remembered what it felt like to act in a play, grabbing your audience in a grand entrance.



It seemed to her that the entire world stopped except her little French scene with the police and this pothead kid. A skateboard was strewn where the kid had dropped it. Slim started to piece together the scene. She had to make some assumptions.


Her mind rushed through her ethical obligations to the police officers… to the teenager… to the defenders office… to the court… She had no Colorado Attorney’s License, so she couldn’t do anything that implied that she could practice local law, unless in an emergency situation. This was exactly the kind of a situation that was classified as an emergency, where the attorney stumbles upon a client whose rights are in immediate threat of violation, and whose actions could severely inhibit any future representation. All right, she thought, at least I’m not violating any Professional Rules if I help out.


By the time she thought that through, she felt like she was literally standing at the trooper’s feet, because he was a towering individual. Her nose came up to his badge, which was not a good location for her. Not only did he probably think that his badge garnered respect, but she thought there were few things in the world so overrepresented as men with badges. We hand out so many guns that we have to hand out a lot of badges to go with them, even though most of the idiots wearing them don’t deserve them.


Gentlemen, she pronounced. She felt like she was their captain back at the station rather than some interloper from the street, the way that all three of them were staring at her. I am this child’s attorney.


She wasn’t sure what any of them expected her to say, but she was quite sure that none of them expected her to say that. They all looked a little taken aback, but none so much as the teenager himself. He had a streak of red in his hair and he wore sagging pants and a large baggy flannel. She thought there must be a resurgence of the nineties. I wonder if he has Nirvana on an iPod somewhere.


The trooper took a moment to recover, and then stammered something about her identification. Slim realized that she had already transferred her wallet to the top of her purse on the treacherous walk into the orchestra. She pulled it out, whipped out her driver’s license, Federal Defender’s ID and her business card and threw them at the trooper. Without giving him any time to examine them, she officiated, I need to confer with my client, and walked around the tall man as though he wasn’t even there.


The shorter trooper did not leave the teenager’s side. He patiently awaited Slim’s arrival and then stood up to separate the teenager from her. Hold on, lady.


Slim growled, My client has a right to counsel at this or any stage of an investigation and I want to see you try to impede that right.


This cop was smarter than the tall one. He was Latino, and a little bit round. He gave the impression that he had seen a lot, and while Slim was pretty sure he had never seen anything like this before, he didn’t show it.


She instantly respected him because he wasn’t to be rushed. The best police officers are always those who take their time and act as a calming force on the tense situations in which they find themselves. These were the cops who would actually tell the truth. The truth was not usually a good thing for Slim’s clients, but there were times in every case where it was. There was always a witness that was a little too eager to tell his story and exaggerate how close he was, or how unobstructed his view was. A cop like this round one standing between her and the pseudo-grunge kid, was the kind of cop who believed in the truth for its own sake. His admission on the stand that this witness or that witness was not where they said they were, would make his testimony all the more reliable. From then on, juries ate up anything those cops said.


Slim could tell she was in trouble. She could handle a bad cop. They were a dime a dozen and all of them put together were worth no more than a nickel. This was a good cop. Bravado wouldn’t work on this guy. With this guy, she actually needed the law on her side.


That all depends… mulled the round faced officer.


Slim knew what was coming next, so she attempted to preempt it, If he believes that I am his attorney, than I am. That’s how it works, she said and tried to look around the officer. He moved his body slightly. Not enough that most passers-by would notice, but enough that Slim couldn’t get really good eye contact with the kid.


The good cop turned away from Slim to face the kid, which gave Slim a chance to look him in the eye. What’s this woman’s name, kid?


The name doesn’t matter, interrupted Slim. What matters is his belief that I speak on his behalf, and if he reasonably believes that, than I have an obligation to…


Cut it woman, said the big cop, or I’ll bring you in for impeding the conduct of an officer of the law.


This was the argument that Slim wanted to be in. She didn’t want to have to wait for the smart cop to ask the kid if she was his lawyer or not. If that happened, the kid could say ‘no.’ He didn’t know her from a hole in the ground. For all he knew, in the way that these kids’ brains worked, she could be a cop trying to get him to confess. She wanted to have the ‘impeding with an investigation’ argument, because she knew that she could win that without any help from the kid.


She spun around and launched on the big trooper. I am not impeding in an investigation. I speak on behalf of my client. If you intend to ask my client questions than you have to ask those questions of me. From here on out, nothing that he says means anything unless it goes through his attorney, get it? I can no more impede an investigation than this kid can impede an investigation by invoking his Miranda rights.


Well then we’ll just arrest your client and see you at the station house.


What’s your probable cause? What are you arresting my client for?


The big cop was taking the bait. He thought about it. He admitted that he had pot.


He admitted nothing of the sort. He told you that you couldn’t arrest him for having pot. That was simply a legal debate with a police officer.


The big guy’s chin dropped a little as he took this in. He seemed at once shocked that she had overheard the conversation, as though she was some kind of a mind reader, and determined to arrest the kid even if he had to fight through Slim with his nightstick. Eventually, he dried the drool from his chin and said, He was riding a skateboard. Skateboards are not permitted.


Fine. You have the skateboard. You witnessed him riding the skateboard, but you do not have a right to search him.


We have to frisk him.


This lummox cop was going down the exact rabbit hole that Slim wanted him to go down. Terry frisks are only allowed if you have reason to believe that this kid is dangerous. You already have all the evidence of his alleged crime. You have the skateboard. What possible evidence do you believe that you could find by searching him any further? Do you have any reason to believe that this kid is carrying a weapon?


The big cop thought about it and said, Because he was committing a crime.


No sir, that is not enough. Unless you want to be on the butt end of a big fat law suit, you have to have some reason to believe that this kid is packing heat.


The other cop slowly spoke up. Walters. Stop it. We can always search when we arrest him.


Arrest him for what? Slim said urgently, realizing that she had to be delicate with the good cop. This put her in the tight spot of appealing to one of the troopers as a intelligent and rational human, while bullying her way through the other one because she knew that reason would not work.


For riding the skateboard in the park.


That’s a little extreme, don’t you think, Officer? she asked with honey on her tongue.


I don’t know if it’s extreme or not, but we could do it and that would give us the right to search, yes?


Only if you are willing to arrest the poor kid for riding a skateboard. Come on, that’s really not necessary. He was riding a skateboard in a park… she tried to bring the officer into her confidence with a ‘boys will be boys’ tone of voice, …what’s so wrong about that? A ticket maybe, but do you really want to arrest anyone who wants to ride their skateboard in a park? You guys have real criminals that you could be going after.


The round-faced Latino cop looked over Slim’s head at the big dumb white cop and shrugged. Slim turned around to see the big guy, a little rebuffed by his confrontation, shrug back. The smart cop looked at the kid and sarcastically said, You have a good lawyer there, kid.


The kid just shrugged as Slim’s phone rang. Both police officers turned to look at her. When she saw it was Thom, she blocked the call and put the phone back in her pocket.


I’m not going to write you a ticket, said the big cop, because knowing lawyers, you’re going to get a bill from her next week, and it’s going to set you back a lot more than any ticket I could write. The big cop put himself into hysterics at his joke, and even elicited a chuckle from the Latino cop.


Slim let herself laugh along until she saw the kid open up his mouth as if he was about to say that she wasn’t his lawyer after all. She reached out a hand to the kid and shook it. This one’s on the house, but next time… They all laughed again, and then the cops started walking away.


Yeah… Laugh it up pigs, said the kid a little too loudly. Laugh it up you fucking cocksuckers.


That was all he needed. The lummox turned around, ran at the kid, and tackled him seemingly without effort. He started wrestling with the skinny kid who was fighting the cop every inch of the way and shouting, What da fuck man? Leave me the fuck alone!


Slim felt a ball of rage rise up in her gut and had a very strong urge to leave the psuedo-grunge idiot in his mess. The lummox trooper and the moron punk deserved each other. She watched while the trooper got the kids hands behind his back. She knew that normally an enraged cop would be twisting arms a little more, and pushing a little harder, but every once in a while the oaf looked up at Slim and then back down at his handy work to see if she was going to complain.


Finally, Slim was able to calm down enough to realize that once she started representing the punk kid, it was incompetent not to see it through. What are you arresting him for? sighed Slim.


The Latino cop stood between her and his partner, obviously content to spend the next couple hours booking this kid into the station house. He said, You know what we’re arresting him for, and looked at her pointedly.


They both knew that the kid was in handcuffs because he just called a cop a cocksucker, but she said, Skateboarding?


That’s right.


I thought we just established that you weren’t going to do that? she smiled and raised her eyebrows as even she realized how ridiculous the objection was.


The good cop thought about it for a moment, while the lummox continued searching the kid, and Slim’s phone rang again. I thought so to, but apparently Rick wasn’t convinced.


Slim let the phone ring. Hey, Rick! she said.


The big dumb guy looked up at her, but the Latino cop simply said, Let him finish his search. We can talk at the station house.


Hey, Rick, she said anyway, he doesn’t consent to a search!


We figured that much, said the Latino again as the dumb cop continued his frisk. And I presume that he’s lawyered up and that he is choosing to remain silent.


You got it. No interrogation unless his lawyer is present.


I thought you were his lawyer.


I guess I am… she said ruefully, realizing that her life just became more complicated. Her phone rang again. I’m sorry about that, she uttered as she blocked the call and turned off the phone.


Paul… Look what I found.


Slim set down her bag, took out a notepad and started taking notes. She didn’t even need to look up to know what they had found. By the time she looked up with her pen in hand, Troopers Paul and Rick were handing around a baggie of pot with a pipe in it. The lummox was already cuffing the kid.


The Latino cop looked at Slim and said, You still want him as your client?


Slim refused to acknowledge his sarcastic remark. Where are you taking him?


We use the DPD station.


What’s his name?


The big cop answered by asking, What’s your name kid so that your lawyer can find you?


When she wrote down his name and confirmed that she had spelled it right, she informed them that she would be meeting them at the station and reminded the cops that he was represented, so they were not to interrogate.


As she walked toward the station, which was only a couple of blocks away, she turned her attention to the voice mails on her cell phone.

*

Burnt Earth is available on Kobo, Amazon, iBooks, Nook, and other electronic bookstores.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Nonviolent Resistance= Bicycle Commuting

Bicyclists Everywhere!!!


For more than 20 years, I have been predominantly a bicycle commuter. A lot has changed. There are more bicycles than ever, but I fear that it is just a fad. So, using my 20 years of experience as a bicycle commuter, my decades of experience as a nonviolent resistor, and my training as a lawyer, I have developed a Real Bicycle Safety Code meant to encourage cycling while resisting the extremely disastrous notion that bicycles should be treated the same as automobiles.

Divide Both to Conquer Each


The current laws create antagonism by forcing bicyclists and cars to share the same space on the road. While almost all cyclists are also automobilists, the reverse is not true, and most legislatures do not have the slightest idea how it feels to commute on a bicycle in a snowstorm (i.e. wonderfully liberating). Studies show that more people want to ride, but they feel unwelcome and unsafe. The Real Bicycle Safety Code is meant to deal with that problem by encouraging casual cyclists to join in the fun.

One way to encourage people to ride is to smile when you see a baby on a bicycle. Smile when you see another cyclist. In all my years of riding my bike to get places, riders have never been so surly and 'manly'. Please remember, cycling is still as much fun as when you climbed up that steep hill so that you could race down the other side to the candy store. Whether you're a cruiser, fixie rider, gear head, or a utilitarian, follow this code to make riding better for everyone and remember to have fun.

The Real Bicycle Safety Code



While I believe these rules are safer than current laws treating bicycles like cars, no  set of rules can guarantee your safety. Please ride safely and carefully. Wear a helmet and don't listen to music while you ride.

 1. Always Stop and Wait at Red Lights (Unless the Pedestrian Sign Says You Can Go)
The Dutch always stop at lights, but they
have better structures for keeping cyclists
safe.
We have to keep cars off side streets except as they traverse to the main streets. In order to do that, we
should encourage bicycles to streets with more stop signs and fewer lights, which is why we should pressure other cyclists into stopping at red lights. We could each try to decide which streets should be "auto-friendly," but we would never all agree. It is better to follow the existing structure and let "bicycle-friendly" streets evolve naturally. When all the streets in an area have lights (in major downtown areas), following pedestrian lights will sometimes space out bicycles from cars, thereby making everyone more comfortable on the road.

2. Treat Stop Signs As Yield Signs

Bicycles, like cars, are drawn to the routes where they can expend the least energy by stopping the least often. If we can draw bicycles to streets with stop signs, they will stay out of
larger streets more appropriately left to cars. This will make novice riders feel more comfortable riding with larger groups of riders on stretches lined with stop signs. Yielding at stop signs means slowing down, keeping your hands or feet on the brakes, looking both ways, and stopping for any automobile that is crossing against your bike. Similarly, four way stops should be treated as four way yields.

3. Wait at the Front of Traffic for Red Lights

You are more visible, safer, don't breath in fumes that chase off novice cyclists, and can have a friendly chat with the other cyclists. Try to stay out of the way of pedestrians. After all, you're on a bike. It's small and maneuverable, so you can easily move out of the way when needed. That's why bikes are just better.

4. Four Miles Per Hour on Sidewalks

An original 1913 bike messenger in New Orleans.
Try to ride sidewalks at the same speed as a jogger would negotiate it. Riding on sidewalks is often necessary for basic safety, and making people get off and walk is a deterrent because it is unwieldy, and makes bikes less maneuverable. In order to turn left out of a right-hand bike lane, using a sidewalk and crosswalk to get into the cross street is the only safe option. The last half block on a major street like Los Feliz in L.A., Colfax in Denver, Rhode Island Avenue in D.C., or Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn should be negotiated on the sidewalk. However, the speed limit on any sidewalk should be around 4 miles per hour to keep everyone safe and comfortable.

5. Accept the Ticket and Be Nice

This is the great day when a bicycle
cop pulled over a car. 1942.
The ticket you may receive for following this Real Safety Code is worth it. This code keeps you safe and efficient, encourages others to choose this safe and convenient form of transport, and keeps the future of our planet healthier. However, as with all civil disobedience, it is not legal. Every time you get a ticket, you have an opportunity to talk about the Real Bicycle Safety Code. Tell the officer about the code, tell the judge about the code, ask for a jury if you can, and tell all your friends.

Self Defense


Stree art in Panang, China captured by Azreey.
If you are ticketed for following the Code, I encourage you to explain your reasoning to the judge, and introduce this John's Hopkin's info page showing the health risks of inactivity, and these  U.N. Reports on the certainty of anthropogenic climate change, and the likely effects of climate change. You should claim self-defense against climate change and disease (including heart attack and cancer) as the reasons for following this code, and self-defense against an accident with a car as your reason for the specific infraction (be it breaking a stop sign, or riding on a sidewalk). Self defense forced you to ride in a way that you believe is sustainable, and self defense forced you to ride in a way that is less likely to be hit by a car. You will likely lose your case, but pay your fine knowing that you have made the world a better place, and the fine is a lot cheaper than the costs of commuting in a car. Losing cases like this is what civil disobedience is all about.