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Comment by cmars232 | Hacker News Reader

The best way to assert your rights to a police officer is to be calm, polite, and firm. Remove emotion from the equation, and you'll come across credible. Get all worked up, and you fit the pattern of an unstable, dangerous individual that will probably need to be subdued.

Keep in mind you can also decline a search or ask a questions like "do you have probable cause", "am I being detained", etc without being a jerk. Taking the high road costs nothing, might avoid a lot of trouble, and might even teach a police officer that not everyone who believes in their civil liberties is a ranting-and-raving asshole.

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I think this an excellent point that gets lost in all of this. Anyone who is a jerk to the police has to expect to possibly be arrested. If Gates or anyone for that matter has a problem with the way a police office conducts themselves it's imperative that you maintain the moral high ground by above all not being a jack ass and asserting your rights politely.

When it comes out after the fact (in this case by Gate's own admission) that you've said some not nice things to the officer you really loose a huge amount of credibility no matter how right you are. Not to say that you should let a police officer who is acting inappropriately trample all over you but there is a right way and a wrong way to assert yourself and yelling and insults is not the right way.

The point is that you should not have to expect the possibility of arrest for being a jerk. Of course you should act in a respectable way, but failure to do should not result in arrest.

In a utopian world. I'm not saying that's the way I'd like it to be. I'm saying, as things are, it's something every reasonable person knows is likely to happen if you're belligerent with authorities.

Of course, now people are complaining about the officer being a jerk. Flying off the handle against the officer impedes his ability to do his job because he would have to wonder if the situation is escalating. Since he, initially, was by himself, it becomes a matter of self-protection and that is why some officers may immediately handcuff a person that concerns them, even if the officer is not sure what is going on.

By all accounts, the officer was being respectful while Gates was not, yet this article complains about the officer and the police.

Of course, if Gates was white, this would never be brought up even if the exact same thing happened in the exact same way.

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