The natural response when you see the police violating someone’s rights is to make them aware that they don’t have to answer any of the police’s questions, consent to a search, etc. Someone may be surrendering those rights simply because they don’t know them.
Although, there was a law that stated speaking to a police officer or the person they are potentially trying to question constitutes impeding on an investigation and is considered a misdemeanor crime.
One of the things people would always need to be aware of is speaking to the person who is under question by police officers. Until recently, there was a unanimous vote to repeal the code that makes interfering with a police officer a misdemeanor.
The issue was brought to attention by the case of William Allen Scott, who was arrested in February 2014 in Carson City.
William Scott was a passenger in a car that was pulled over after a sheriff’s deputy said it ran a stop sign. The deputy said that he smelled alcohol and tried to administer a field sobriety test on the driver of the vehicle.
Scott interrupted the deputy multiple times, which caused issues. He was telling his friend that he didn’t have to do what the deputy was saying. Scott was soon after arrested, charged and convicted of hindering a sheriff deputy’s duties for his “outbursts” in the car with the driver.
The court said that the law Scott was convicted of “criminalizes speech that is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
So what do you think – should people’s speech be restricted while dealing with an officer?