Have You Ever Been Pulled Over For A Speeding Ticket?

Unfortunately in my teens and twenties I got pulled over several times for speeding. Hopefully, you don't know the routine as well as I do. Cruising along. Listening to music. Talking to a friend. And then flashing lights behind you. The scramble to figure out where the cop came from and why he's behind you. Maybe you're in the fast lane and you pull over hoping that he's trying to get around you. But no, he follows you into the other lane. You become hyper alert, try to recreate the last 10 minutes. "Was I speeding?", "Was I riding that guy to closely?", "Is my signal working?", "Are my tags expired?", "Does god hate me?".

The first time it happens, you slam on the brakes and skid onto the shoulder, or stop in the middle of the street. After a being pulled over a couple times, you're calmer about it, find an offramp, a parking lot, any place without cars whizzing by a couple feet from your door. Ideally, you find some place where you aren't exposed to the embarrassment of having every car drive by and look at you. Where the riders are conjuring up all the horrible things you could've possibly done to merit being pulled over by the police. "Was he running from the law?", "Did the cop have his hand on his gun?", "I bet he's a wanted felon.", "He's a criminal if I've ever seen one!" or even "Sweet! I'm so glad that isn't me."

The cop always walks up and asks, "license and registration" and then "Do you know how fast you were going?" At this point, all you want to do is get out of whatever the cop is accusing you of doing. You think that if you admit to being a couple miles over the speed limit that the cop will recognize your honesty and let you go, so you say, "68" when the speed limit is 65, regardless of if you were going 85. At that point you've admitted to breaking the law. The cop has everything he needs even without the radar gun to give you a ticket

Kevin sent me this link, where a Virginia law school professor makes a compelling argument giving 8 reasons why you should NEVER TELL THE POLICE ANYTHING. It doesn't matter if you are completely innocent, under no circumstances should you say anything to the police without an attorney present.

http://www.tuccille.com/blog/2008/07/eight-reasons-even-innocent-shouldnt.html

There's a stigma against pleading the fifth. It's assumed that the person pleading it has something to hide. The second clip in the link above is of an officer of 20 years describing the tactics used to get confessions. I was extremely surprised to discover what could be determined to be incriminating.