Hello, welcome to America under the Microscope advanced.

Hi everyone.

Hi everyone. So, we're going to go ahead and dive into what we should do in some practical situations with the police. And we're gonna deal with first something that happens to almost everyone, getting pulled over in a traffic stop.

Oh, I, to be honest, even if I’m not doing anything wrong, if that happens to me, I still get nervous.

Oh, everyone gets nervous. I've been pulled over before. Um.

Why what did you do?

Oh, I didn't have the insurance tags properly on my license plate and you have to make sure you have those tax on there. I didn't get any ticket or anything or warning.

What do you have to do when they pull you over?

Okay. So, first things first is they're gonna tell you to pull over. So, what you should do is you should flash your lights or turn on your blinkers or something to signal that you um understand the instructions. So, you will follow what the police officers says. And then you should find a safe spot to move to the side of the road. So, this could be like a parking lot, a wide area, anything that would be safe.

How do they tell you to pull over? Do they use like the the loud speaker?

They use the loud speaker to command like pulled over.

Ok. Sounds scary already and you follow their instructions. You pull over.

Right. So, then you stop what you should do is turn off your radio, put your car in the park. Make it like your car is not going to run away.

But you don't get out.

No, don't get out. You stay in your car.

Because it's dangerous to get out?

Well there are two reasons. One, you're on the side of the road. So yes, it's dangerous Second, remember we've talked about this before. Americans can have guns, so the police officer doesn't know who you are.

So it might be perceived as a threat (correct) when you try to get out.

So, you stay in the car the police officer will come over to your window. Knock on the window. Knock knock knock, you open the window. They're gonna ask for your driver's license. They're gonna ask for your proof of insurance. They may even ask for proof of ownership of the car.

Just whatever they want. Give it to them, essentially, just show it to them.

They're gonna go check their computer. And then usually they're going to ask you this question. Do you know why I pulled you over?

How do you answer this if I don't really know what I’m doing wrong?

Well, if you don't know, then you say, I don't know why you pulled me over. To be honest you can say yes, I was driving too fast. This is up to you because it's the officer can decide whether to give you a fine or not.

Which brings us to the question, you see a lot of TV shows or movies wanting to make you think that if you're a pretty girl you can somewhat flirt you way out of a ticket. That's not true. Is it?

No, not really. Because these officers see lots of people and some of them married. Maybe the woman is not as attractive as she may think she is.

You might make a situation worse. (you could) Just follow what they’re saying.

What if the police officer is a woman?

Or what if an attractive guy? It works both ways. Okay, so this is getting pulled over I suppose as long as you're not really like really serious about violation of traffic rules, that you should be fine. Even if you get a fine it's not too bad.

You'll get the fine they'll have instructions of how to pay which you can go in person to pay you can send money in the mail you can even pay online.

Yeah. I mean traffic fines are pretty common. But what if I mean I know this is really rare but what if you see a lot of these arrested scenes and sometimes these people were later found innocent. So, if someone was arrested, let's not say we or you let's just say someone was arrested by the police, what happens? In TV shows, you always here when the police are trying to arrest someone. They always say you have the right to remain silent.

Oh, the Miranda Warning.

So, what is that about?

Okay. So, the Miranda Warning is the police officers telling you what your rights are when you're arrested. The Miranda Warning goes as follows. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided to you. Do you understand these rights as I have said them to you?

And the person who's arrested should say yes or.

Yes. And then the officer will say, do you still wish to talk to me?

What if they don't say this or forget to say this, then whatever the arrestee the person arrested said would not be able to be used in the court of law.

If you have a good lawyer? Yes, uh, they would be able to say the officer did not give the warning to the suspect would be the word we'd use and then yes everything that they said will not be admissible. But when you're arrested. Yes, your best bet is unless you think you're completely innocent. Your best bet is to say nothing and ask for your lawyer.

Because whatever you say after the Miranda Warning will potentially send you into it will go on the run back to you. Yeah, will go on the record and what if you don't understand because obviously this is quite complex English. What if you don't understand?

Well, if you don't understand English? The officers will be able to provide a written form in a language you do understand. So for example, there is a written Chinese version of the Miranda Warning instead of saying it they would give you the card and then you would have to sign it that you understood and whether you wish to use your rights or waive your rights.

To waive Miranda basically means you will start talking (yes) so you waive the right to remain silent.

Almost every lawyer will tell you don't do that.

Don't do that but I mean cop shows they always do anyways it was like pour their hearts up, I love that bit. When people get arrested for whatever reasons can they just be directly thrown into not really prison but the cell at the police station.

Well in America there's a difference between prison and jail.

Prison and jail, what’s the difference?

So, well prison is you've been convicted. Oh so if you're going to prison you've actually been convicted in court. A jail it can be punishment but for a lot of times jail is just holding so they're just holding you until trial or holding you until like your bail has been paid.

And how long can it hold you for?

Well if you’ve been arrested and you have actual charges against you they can hold you until the judge decides to set bail or says you can go home in a way trial. So, it's up to the judge to decide this.

What about sometimes I see that they can hold you even if they don't have much of an evidence for 48 hours. What's that about?

Yeah, that's actually not true. (Ok. So, one of those that you always see in cop show) They always say we can hold you for 48 hours is like not really. Reality is if they are not charging you and well you may be a suspect but they're not gonna charge you. Yeah, they can't actually hold you so you can say yeah I'm leaving.

Okay. And now we come to a slightly heavier topic since police all carry guns they can shoot if they see a probable cost basically. So, police shootings, so what are the rules?

So, the basic rules are as follows. A police officer may use his weapon or her weapon in a situation where their life is threatened. So, like the other person is shooting or that person is threatening other innocent people. So, if I'm a police officer and I see a criminal or a bad person trying to hurt another person and I think that their lives' in danger I am legally within my right to shoot them. But this would be a lot of paperwork for me at the end. So, I would as an officer I would want to avoid this.

By a lot of paperwork, you mean after the shooting. Even if the shooting is perfectly justified. You still have to fill in a lot, write a lot of things down.

That’ll be an investigation to make sure the shooting was justified. This aspect of like the procedures is a little bit closer to real life. So, if you shoot somebody, they're going to set you aside. They're gonna investigate to make sure yes this was a legitimate usage of your firearm ok and things like that. So they will investigate.

But in spite of all the rules, you still here from time to time that you know the police officer accidentally shot someone that's completely innocent and then there are huge protest against it or things like that...

Police officers are humans and they do make mistakes. And yes, sometimes innocent people do get shot and when this happens, it does make a news so police officers can make mistakes.

I guess that's why you were saying that if you get pulled over, don't walk out of your car.

Right. You don't want to put yourself in a mystic situation where the police officer can misunderstand your intentions.

Ok. So that's a little bit of warning or a little bit of suggestions or advice whatever you wanna take it if you ever travel to the United States and if you ever to have an interaction with a police officer. So if you have anything to share, if you're also a fan of police procedure of shows, cop drama and crime shows, leave your comments in the comment section. We'll see you next time.

Bye everyone.

Bye.