Why you should never, ever talk to police
By Robin . . . As a student, I was highly impressed by the manner in which Professor Duane could take a subject as dull and unattractive as civil procedure (civ pro) and, by his sheer energy and command of oratory, turn it into the 1L class nobody would ever forget. It didn’t hurt that he so often began his lectures–a veritable fusillade of instruction on matters great and small, and certainly always about the law (the man speaks exceedingly fast for the Southern ear)–by strumming his guitar and singing us all a tune.
Professor Duane is one of the more exceptional people I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1984. And his contributions to the field of law are likely understated by the biographical information made available by the university. He even has his own wiki page, which is not something that most lawyers (much less, law professors) can ever claim. And, be sure to check out his erudite rehearsal of the various ways the word “certiorari” has been pronounced by supreme court justices over the last few years (this Green Bag submission from 2014 was recently recollected by Dan Epps and Ian Samuel over on 101 First Street at SCOTUSBlog).
In 2012, Professor Duane invited Officer George Bruch of the Virginia Beach Police Department to join him in a sort of panel discussion about how citizens should interact with law enforcement personnel. As you can see for yourself, poor Officer Bruch was left without much to work with after being roasted (in a considerate and respectful way) by Prof. Duane’s preemptive strike on Fifth Amendment grounds.
The video provided here is NOT the original. And it may not remain with us for very long. The original video of the presentation had well over 6 million views by 2016. Now, and as a consequence of a some sort of copyright claim by Prof. Duane (I have no idea what the details are about that), the original video recording has been removed from YouTube. But the information provided is so critically important and compelling (and always timely) that it ought to be shared while it can be.
Professor James Duane of Regent University School of Law provides reasons why citizens should always exercise
their 5th Amendment rights when questioned by government officials.
