Moderator: Van Canna
Gabe SuarezBeing listed as a suspect will cost you between $25,000 to $100,000. The police report will NOT be re-written.
•As a suspect you are arrested for homicide or attempted homicide.
•You are booked and if you want to go home, you will have to post bail.
•There is usually no bail for murder under certain circumstances.
•Other murder arrests have a $1 million dollar bail - that means that you must come up with $100K and collateral for the rest
•And the god-like attorney that descends from the clouds the next day will not be free either. Minimum defense for murder begins at $50K
Don't give sufficient info to qualify as a victim and you automatically become a suspect...with all the courtesies afforded a suspect.
Your attorney PREFERS YOU BEING A SUSPECT SO HE CAN MAKE FAR MORE MONEY DEFENDING YOU than solely sitting in on a secondary interview of a victim shooter.
Why that simplicity is so difficult for some to grasp explains so much about human history.
What I have done in the past, and what I teach my students is this.
At the first phone call, identify yourself as the victim. Say it, "I am the Victim".
At the initial contact with Law Enforcement give a very limited statement, focusing on the actions of the bad guys, reiterating what they did - or tried to do to you.
This is where that "gentleman" persona will pay off dividends. A Raylan Givens will be treated differently than a Dewey Crowe.
If at some point you want a "time out", and that is not a bad idea for true medical reasons as well as to simply catch your breath, collect your thoughts, and make any additional calls, it is a simple matter to ask for medical attention due to head ache, racing heart, etc.
Say something like this -
"Officer. I am glad you are here. Thank God. You saved my life from these guys"
"I am a good guy. I am the victim. I was minding my own business on my way home when those two guys attacked me."
"The one in the blue shirt had a knife. He threw it up there on the roof as he ran away down the alley. There should be some blood on it from my arm when I blocked his attempt to stab me."
"The guy on the gurney was armed with a pistol. He dropped it right there in that pile of ivy when he fell."
"It was so sudden. I was terrified. I am still terrified. I am glad you guys are here. "
There...more micro statements pointing to roles in the event, evidence that can now be recovered, and additional investigative leads to apprehend additional suspects. And then the "time out".
"Officer...I am still a little shaken up. I want to cooperate with you guys, but I have a huge headache right now and my heart beat won't slow down. Do you mind calling paramedics for me...I think I would like a doctor to check me out".
I guarantee that you will not be asked any additional questions that night.
Things are no longer in your control but you have set the investigation on the proper course, and the truth will be determined instead of being overlooked.
SuarezIn order to have your position as a victim sealed and locked in, you need to give these guys[police] what they want, as much as is in your control. How do you do that?
By telling your side of the event, from your position. What you saw, why it alerted you and caused your reaction, and this last is important, why you couldn't have done anything else. All of these are illustrated in the flowchart we posted earlier.
•You were there on good faith minding your own business.
•The bad guy presented as a bad guy intent on doing harm to you or others.
•It was clear from what you saw and heard that what was going on was to cost lives if something wasn't done.
•Being a man, a father, a person for good, you could not morally run away and leave innocents to their fate...or it was not tactically possible to do so.
•Your only option was to shoot the bad guy.
SuarezThe role of the victim - Victims give a statement, an additional follow up statement, and are likely released to go home and sleep in their own bed. Costs? Minimal... Not a bad idea to have a lawyer go with your for a secondary interview.
In any major urban area, street contacts with mentally or emotionally disturbed persons are practically unavoidable.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, one of every three Americans will suffer some form of serious mental or emotional illness at some point in his life.
The most common group of mentally disturbed persons you will encounter is the “street person”, typically a homeless drifter, or “bum”, usually shabbily dressed, unkempt, bearded, and dirty.
A lot of people will try to tell you that these people are helpless, harmless victims of the failed mental health care system. This is not typically true.
It is now extremely difficult in this country to involuntarily commit someone for a mental illness, even a serious one.
Even disturbed persons who kill are typically stabilized with medication and released back into the public, with the frail hope that they will continue to faithfully take their medication without supervision.
Most mentally ill street people have been placed in care homes or mental institutions at some point, but since they cannot be held there against their will, they left and went back on the street.
In my experience, many of these persons prefer uncertain life on the street to the structured and confining life in an institution. Of course, once on the street and broke, they have no access to medications, and no one to evaluate their progress or deterioration.
In my area, for instance, I used to patrol a residential area, which was a short distance from the main concentration of hospitals, including mental health facilities. We would arrest these "disturbed persons” for theft, burglary, or assault so many times we knew them all by name.
Some were not violent, some were. In court, the judges recognized them as persistent offenders, but understood that they were seriously mentally ill, so were reluctant to put them in jail.
In jail, true criminals victimized these typically poorly physically conditioned people horribly.
The judges were powerless to commit these individuals to mental institutions for any length of time, as the admitting psychiatrists would judge them not to be “an imminent threat to their own safety or that of others”. Back on the street they went in 24 hours.
One night one of these “repeat customers” of ours, a fifty-ish female of slight build, knocked a man down, sat astride his chest, and cut his heart out with a steak knife. Sometimes three of four of us would have to “pile up” on one of these offenders to get him into custody without having to kill him. Harmless? Hardly.
A large percentage of these street people are armed, with usually crude weapons such as knives, screwdrivers, straight razors, or improvised weapons. They are often very territorial about “their home”, which may be a cozy spot behind your office’s dumpster.
They also tend to be very touchy about personal space, and inadvertently getting too close to one may be interpreted as the worst sort of aggressive attack against him, resulting in a furious assault against the “intruder” (you!).
Aside from the obvious “bum” be on the lookout for behavior such as a shuffling, uncoordinated gait; a vacant, “thousand-yard stare”; incoherent mumbling; talking to himself or unseen associates; and other bizarre behavior.
With anyone you suspect to be mentally disturbed, try these tips to avoid or de-escalate a contact:
1. Remember his personal space, and don’t invade it.
2. Do not try to touch him, unless you are prepared to fight him.
3. Do not make sudden, rapid, or startling movements.
4. Speak quietly and slowly. Do not shout.
5. Try to increase distance, and get an obstacle (parked car, fence, etc.) between you, as if he is armed it is probably with an edged weapon.
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