BLUF
\nThe bottom line: think about what you will say to police in the aftermath of any use of force incident. Don\u2019t get caught flat-footed and say something that will later be used against you in a court of law\u2026criminal or civil.<\/p>\n
Personal Defense Tip: Don\u2019t Just Ask For An Attorney In the Aftermath of a Defensive Gun Use.<\/a><\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t thought about what to do and say after a use of force incident, you really should. After all, you don\u2019t want to avoid victimization by a criminal attacker only to be later victimized by the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t know what to say to responding officers (and their buddies, the investigating officers), ask to speak to an attorney before answering any questions. Yes, investigating officers may seem like they are on your side. They may even promise that you won\u2019t go to jail if you just \u201canswer a few questions.\u201d But there\u2019s really only one thing you should say . . .<\/p>\n I want to speak to an attorney and have him or her present with me before I answer questions.<\/em><\/p>\n Yes, you can answer questions like your name and date of birth, but aside from that, if you don\u2019t know exactly what to say and how to say it, shut up. Except, of course, when you\u2019re repeating, \u201cI want to talk to an attorney before I give any statements or answer any questions.\u201d<\/p>\n Make that your mantra, even if you believe it was a clear-cut case of self-defense.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s climate, politically-motivated prosecutions happen on a regular basis. That\u2019s hard to believe in this day and age, right? Here\u2019s another proclamation from Captain Obvious:\u00a0 not all prosecutors are big fans of\u00a0gun<\/a>\u00a0owners or armed self-defense. In fact, it\u2019s almost as if some\u00a0Soros-funded prosecutors<\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0on the side of violent criminals<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you can remember what to tell responding officers, however, there may be something even better than simply asking for an attorney.<\/p>\n As a long-time student of the law of self-defense, I prefer the five-point plan I learned back in the day from Massad Ayoob at his Lethal Force Institute classes (now the\u00a0Massad Ayoob Group<\/a>).<\/p>\n This particular post-incident plan for interacting with police officers is the best I\u2019ve encountered in almost thirty years of training classes I\u2019ve attended so far. It sets the tone of the investigation. It offers you an opportunity to make sure relevant evidence is discovered and identified. At the same time lets the officers know that you know your rights.<\/p>\n I\u2019m such a believer in this strategy, it\u2019s what I\u2019ve taught for nearly twenty-five years as an instructor. Here\u2019s the quick and dirty:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it might go: You shoot some guy who\u2019s stabbing a woman in the parking lot of your local Walmart. The cops show up and secure the scene. You\u2019ve already holstered up\u00a0prior<\/em>\u00a0to the police arrival for your own safety, but witnesses have identified you as the shooter. The cops put you in handcuffs, then start asking questions.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficer, that guy over there was stabbing that woman so I shot him to stop his attack. If he survives, I\u2019ll happily cooperate with his prosecution. His knife is over there. Those people saw what happened. I would be happy to answer questions and make a statement, but I want my attorney present before I do so.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Marty Hayes, from the\u00a0Armed Citizens\u2019 Legal Defense Network<\/a>\u00a0added his thoughts on asking for an attorney without adding any additional information to cops in his article\u00a0\u201cYou Have The Right To Remain Silent\u201d<\/a>\u00a0. . .<\/p>\n First, don\u2019t act like a guilty man or woman. When the first words out of your mouth are, \u201cI want my lawyer,\u201d you have done a surprisingly good imitation of a street-wise criminal. What is any self-respecting cop supposed to think? Dead body +\u00a0gun<\/a>\u00a0+ \u201cI want my lawyer\u201d = jail.<\/em><\/p>\n If, on the other hand, the officer hears, \u201cMy life was threatened, I had to shoot,\u201d he forms a slightly different picture. In addition, if he first learned of the incident by a call from you to 9-1-1, and at that time you indicated that you were the victim of a robbery (or whatever crime caused you to believe your life was in danger) then he forms a different picture of the call before he even gets there.<\/em><\/p>\n Indeed.<\/p>\n You can do a lot worse than asking for an attorney when police start asking questions. You can do better, though, if you can remember those aforementioned points: play the victim, express a willingness to cooperate, point out the evidence and witnesses and\u00a0then<\/em>\u00a0ask for an attorney before answering questions.<\/p>\n Frankly, unless you\u2019re used to getting into defensive gun\u00a0uses with alarming regularity, you may also need an ambulance ride to the emergency room to get checked out. Don\u2019t lie and claim you\u2019re feeling like you\u2019re having a heart attack. But if you don\u2019t feel well, articulate it as just that and ask for an ambulance.<\/p>\n As an example, my lovely bride paid up my life insurance and paid for me to go skydiving for my 50th birthday. Yep, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at about 13,600 feet.\u00a0 Twenty minutes after a great landing, it took a great deal of effort to stand up after the adrenaline wore off.<\/p>\n If you have a near-death experience involving gunfire, you may have a similar response\u2026or worse. Your blood pressure may well be in the stratosphere. You may be in the early stages of an anxiety attack or worse. You may have suffered an injury that you don\u2019t even realize. What\u2019s more, you\u2019ve probably not had an adrenaline dump like that in a long time, if ever.<\/p>\n Not only that, but expect that medical professionals will take your blood and do a toxicology screen. If you\u2019re sober, that will look good to investigators, prosecutors, and a potential jury. It\u2019ll also help thwart a malicious prosecutor, too.<\/p>\n Not only should you consider what you would tell police, but even better, if you had an insurance policy of sorts that would pay for your legal defense fees, that could prove priceless for you and your family.\u00a0 A base policy from\u00a0US Law Shield<\/a>\u00a0is about $150 for a year. Or about the cost of a few boxes of 9mm practice ammo. Don\u2019t like US Law Shield?\u00a0 Try Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network or USCCA.<\/p>\n Regardless where you get your coverage, get some today. Unless, of course, you have at least a hundred grand sitting in the bank that you\u2019re eager to spend on a retainer for a criminal defense attorney.<\/p>\n The bottom line: think about what you will say to police in the aftermath of any use of force incident. Don\u2019t get caught flat-footed and say something that will later be used against you in a court of law\u2026criminal or civil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BLUF The bottom line: think about what you will say to police in the aftermath of any use of force incident. Don\u2019t get caught flat-footed and say something that will later be used against you in a court of law\u2026criminal or civil. Personal Defense Tip: Don\u2019t Just Ask For An Attorney In the Aftermath of … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96953,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96952\/revisions\/96953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
What about the ambulance ride?<\/strong><\/h3>\n