To recap everything we went over this week prior to us hitting the last topic in this conversation, first you should understand that ensuring the officer that his safety is guaranteed will make your whole interaction with the officer a better one. Secondly you should always show respect to an officer, be him good or bad, for in the end of the day he's the one with the gun and the one that can send you to jail, jail's no fun, you don't want to go there. Thirdly, for more detailed instructions on one and two go read the first two blogs, it'll fill you in to what we've covered this week. Ok, so today we'll be talking about the very bottom situations, the worst of the worst situations, what to expect, what not to do and so forth, just some things people don't talk about or teach you but might aid you in life, you never know, sometimes you find yourself at the wrong spot at the wrong time.
The Arrest
You can be arrested for a variation of reasons, some of these are serious and will cause you to land some jail time, but for the most part the majority of infractions are small ones dealing with you being in jail for a few days or just overnight, knowing the difference in what crime you committed is important, be it possession, battery, drunkenness or whatever else you did to get you into this pickle you should be aware of the punishment for the crime, especially if you have the propensity to do these things, sometimes knowing the punishment before you break the law will keep you from breaking the law, or being more discrete on how you go about it, anyway ignorance is not bliss, ignorance is stupidity when it comes to gambling with your life.
For most small cases you will spend about a day in jail and be let out, here are some simple scenarios that will land you a night in jail: 1. Being drunk and obnoxious publicly, 2. Assaulting someone, or even quicker jail time, a bouncer, 3. Possession of Marijuana, 4. Talking back to a police officer when being pulled over, 5. Home abuse, paired with overall disrespect of officers. There you go, here are five ways to land you a night in the cell, be it the drunk tank or the bail sell, being in jail is no fun and it does not make you feel good about life. One thing to understand before we progress forward is that the 5 things listed could land you a day in jail if they are your first infraction or if we are dealing with a smaller scale crime, but if you have multiple of any of these or commit these crimes to the extreme then you will receive real hardcore "no messing around" jail time, these are serious crimes, know that from the start please and be smart in your decision making skills.
Here is how things will play out if you are arrested, firstly you will be handcuffed and it will hurt, never have I heard someone tell me that the officer was worried about hurting their wrists when the cuffs were put on, again the officer is worried about his own safety so he won't be too concerned with you until he realizes that either you are not a bad person or you are just a harmless fool, either one will land a police officer to start being nicer to you. The cop ride is the eventual conclusion of whatever happens while you are handcuffed, some police officers will want to talk to you and question you on everything that took place, sometimes they'll have to question other people so you'll just have to sit on the curb and wait, the scenarios are endless really.
The key thing to remember is that you should always "Keep Calm", always use your head, keep your mind clear and your mouth shut, cooperate with everything he tells you to do even if your wrists hurt from the handcuffs, this is the wisest course of action, always. When you respect the officer and keep calm things will play out pretty much by the book, you'll get thrown in a cell and will wait out there till they let you go because someone payed your bail or they just decided your a nice enough person and they think you learned your lesson. The latter is generally caused by one being nice to the officers and showing respect, not being crazy while in the cell and maybe even attempting small talk with the officer, not pleading your case mind you but just trying to establish some type of mutual respect or understanding between you and the arrest officer.
Never underestimate the power of nice actions, being kind will always get you far in life, showing respect to those above you in dire situations is the best course to take to ensure that everything goes better for you regardless of your situation, no one wants to help a jerk. A true example of someone being an idiot through this process is my friend St, he was arrested for taking a swing at a bouncer (which he missed because he was too drunk) which is a legal charge of battery, meaning he gets to spend a few nights in jail and has to appear in court to fight the case. He decided that being obnoxious was the right response from the beginning so from the club to getting cuffed to being in the cop car he was yelling obscenities at everyone claiming that the bouncer swung first and so forth.
While in the police car St decided to not only start dissing the police officer but to start swinging a slew of racial slurs his way, which further put him in a bad spot. We could hear him from the outside so we drove to the jail thinking we could help him somehow but when getting there and hearing his continual loud cursing the clerk wouldn't even give us a chance, he just looked at us and gave this little smirk, it wasn't a good smirk, it was a "we're going teach this guy a lesson smirk". Long story short instead of spending a few nights in jail St spent over a week, he got "lost in the system" and had to endure various days of jail life, all due to not only the stupid nature of his crime but the fact that he choose to be a complete fool about the whole process.
The story does have a better ending, St did go to court and the bouncer did not show up, so he appealed the case two more times and got the charges dropped, he was still in "probation" for a little while but he didn't have any serious charges put on him, he escaped on luck alone, but I'm sure that his behavior had a big part to play on his sentencing and on him being "lost in the system". A lesson to learn from his stupidity is this, if you are going to be doing stupid stuff and getting arrested, don't be an idiot when talking to police officers, because if you are then you will be messed with and taught a lesson, don't get "lost in the system" and be wise about your decision making, especially if you find yourself in the back of a cop car.
There is a ton more that can be said on the topic, I think I could write 20 pages on it easily, but honestly who wants to read 20 pages on this topic....anyway, just be smart about what you do, be wise in your decision making, and if you are not then at least try to not make matters worse by not being respectful of those that have power over you. Seek to live life by respecting everyone around you, specially those with authority, a little respect will take you far in life, especially when you get into trouble, respect goes a long way.
I hope this has been helpful to some of you, and that maybe this might dis-sway some of you from breaking the law, in the end I just hope that I stop at least one person from behaving like St did, never a good idea. Hope you all have a great and safe weekend.
Love from your humble blogger,
