Kev Quirk writes in The Right to Remain Silent:
If I were to get stopped, I think I'd just cooperate and give them my ID. They can then have their little power trip, prove I'm doing nothing wrong, and we can go our separate ways while I shake my head and wonder what that particular cop was compensating for.
I was tempted to suggest that Kev is writing from a place of privilege, or that I suspect that he's never been hassled by police. However, I recently had an encounter with local police.
I was supposed to go and pick up my wife that evening. However, I had forgotten my keys. Worse, I had locked myself out of my house by locking the door before closing it behind me. Fortunately, I was able to open a window over the front porch near the door and climb back inside. However, as I was doing so a patrol car for the local police department drove past — and stopped. I knew this because I had seen the lights come on out of the corner of my eye and heard the siren give a single squawk as if the cop had wanted to say, "Gotcha!"
Now, in Pennsylvania I am indeed within my rights to refuse to identify myself. However, if I had refused in that moment the officer walking up my driveway might have had grounds to arrest me for attempted breaking and entering.
Instead, I stepped out of my screened-in porch, and kept my hands visible. I didn't want the officer to think I was armed, or that I might go for a weapon. After all, I live in the USA and we have a Second Amendment that guarantees my right to "keep and bear arms", so as far as the cop was concerned I might have been armed. And if I was armed, I might have been inclined to draw and fire on a cop.
That cop has no idea what's going on in my head, or that of anybody else's. Therefore, he had no way of knowing that I know that you can't win a shootout with a cop. Even if you're faster on the draw and your aim is truer, killing a cop is never the end — merely the beginning of your end.
The police look out for their own, and they spare no mercy for cop killers, even if the cop had it coming. Police don't care if one of their own was on the take, known to be racist, or had a habit of beating confessions out of suspects. Getting killed on the job can make even the most corrupt cops into saints as far as their fellow cops are concerned. In-group bias is a bitch when you're part of the out-group.
Instead, when the officer asked for ID, I told him I was going to pull my wallet, and then showed him my driver's license. When he asked me to explain what I was doing, I told him I had locked myself out of my own house and was trying to get back inside because I needed my car keys.
Though I had the right to refuse to cooperate, the police officer did have the authority and reasonable cause to ask me to identify myself and state my business in that moment. However, he also wanted me to come to the station and answer some questions. There had, apparently, been a few burglaries lately, though late at night and long after the sun had set. I, however, still had about an hour and a half before sunset.
It was at that point that I gently asserted my constitutional rights. I told the officer, "I won't answer questions without an attorney present. Nor do I consent to a search without a judicial warrant." This is the same thing I've said when pulled over and asked to step out of the car or asked to let the officer look inside the vehicle. At no point would I actively resist arrest or interfere with a police officer.
While the cop could have taken me in, for whatever reason he decided it wasn't worthwhile. Perhaps I didn't fit the suspect's profile. Perhaps it was because I had cooperated with the officer's demand for ID and an explanation of my current business. My license, after all, did prove that I lived in the house to which I was trying to get entry. Nevertheless, the interaction could have turned out differently.
If a cop is indeed abusing their authority, the time to resist is not in the moment or on the street. The time to do so is in court, afterward, should you be brought to trial. My job in the moment was to set the stage for my attorney to attack the state's case against me by bringing into evidence the fact that I had cooperated, asserted my constitutional rights to an attorney (Sixth Amendment), to avoid self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment), and to not be subject to unlawful search and seizure (Fourth Amendment).
If the police do not honor my rights after I've asserted them, there's nothing I can legally do about it in the moment. After all, this is America, and a cop can often get away with going full Dredd and summarily executing a civilian for "resisting arrest", especially if they're poor or black. I am neither, but that doesn't mean Johnny Law can't still fuck me over if I fuck with him. I must instead endure, and bide my time, and if I'm brought to trial help my attorney give the jury reason to acquit by introducing reasonable doubt about the strength of the state's case and their adherence to due process.
When you're not a rich white man, interactions with police are not as cordial as they might seem to Kev Quirk. I know this because while I'm not poor or black, I grew up poor. I saw my father hassled by police, and I too got a variation on "the talk" about how not to get the shit kicked out of you by police that black kids get.
Hell, if you used to watch the Chris Rock show, you've probably seen his skit on how to not get your ass kicked by the police. Of course, his skit on how to not get your ass kicked by Will Smith is a lot shorter. It's basically, "don't talk shit about a man's wife unless you're sure he's man enough to take a joke."
American police aren't necessarily the same as British police. And no matter how polite, professional, or even friendly a police officer may be, there remains the fact that he has the authority to put you in a cell for three days even if there is no cause to charge you with a crime. That alone is reason enough to not mistake a police officer on active duty for a friend.