33 Bits of Trivia About Law Enforcement to Either Run to or Run From

Facts that’ll take your brain downtown
33 Bits of Trivia About Law Enforcement to Either Run to or Run From

We don’t know why, but gathering up these facts made us feel like we were doing something wrong. It’s this intrusive thought we get like when we think we all of a sudden have drugs on us while we’re approaching customs. 

You might get that feeling while reading these, too, but you’ve done nothing wrong. And even if you have, they’re just facts. It’s not like they can jump through your screen with cuffs, you silly little criminal, you.

Warrants

MYTH: Police can't enter your home without a warrant, right? FACT: They can, if they think you're up to something. On the cop shows, police are like vampires-they can't come in unless you invite them. But in the real world, they can invoke exigent circumstances, an emergency regulation that permits officers to enter a building without a warrant. They're allowed to do it as long as they think evidence is about to be destroyed, someone's in danger, or a suspect is fleeing. Please note the phrase if they think. CRACKED.COM https://definitions.uslegal.com/e/exigent-circumstances/

Bicycle Tanks

The old-timey bicycle tank CRACKED.COM The Russian Tsar Tank harnessed the grace and mobility of the penny-farthing, and blew it up to a Ferris wheel scale. The prototype got stuck in the mud and rotted there until the end of WWI.

Crowd-Blinding Rifles

The crowd- blinding rifle CRACKED COM The Personal Halting and Stimulation Response rifle (PHASR) ((UGH.)) can blind multiple targets from far away, and almost definitely violates the 1995 Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons.

Filming the Police

MYTH: Worried about the police? You might be tempted to film them. On Original POLIC POLICE FACT: In more and more states, that's illegal. In the past, lower federal courts have generally held that the First Amendment protects your right to videorecord in public places, especially if you're recording public servants such as the police. But in a number of states, courts have decided that unless the officers give consent to being filmed, you're committing a crime. And the video you thought would protect you can land you in prison for 15 years. CRACKED.COM http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns

The Right to Remain Silent

MYTH: When the police ask you a question, you'd better answer. FACT: You always have the right not to answer. The right to remain silent doesn't just apply when you're arrested. It's always there, because of the Fifth Amendment. You can't be coerced or forced into saying something that might incriminate you. On cop shows, refusing to speak is treated as obstruction of justice. It isn't. Lying or destroying evidence is, but simply refusing to speak (aside from supplying your name, in some states) isn't. CRACKED.COM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes

Miranda Rights

MYTH: If a cop doesn't read you your Miranda rights, you can walk. FACT: Those rights apply to interrogation, not arrest. Despite what you see on every cop show ever, failing to advise a suspect of his or her Miranda rights doesn't mean the arrest doesn't count. And even if you're interrogated without being told your rights, all it means is that your testimony can't be used in court against you. CRACKED.COM http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/drunk_driving/miranda_warning.htm

The Truth Chamber

The Truth Chamber 56 9 E2 ter gr or be CRACKED.COM The New York criminologist who designed the Truth Chamber intended it to drive suspects mad, by showing them infinite images of themselves. In reality, he just invented the original influencer-bait pop-up museum.

Key Guns

Key guns CRACKED.COM Key guns allowed 16th century jailers to keep a weapon trained on their prisoners without hooking their trusty carabiner back into their belt loop. They were actual, functioning keys, though, leaving them weaponless at the moment of peak vulnerability.

Lighthouse Helmets

Lighthouse helmets 345 Lighthouse Helmet for Policemen D.D POLICE Foggy Days and Nights: Batteries Are Wern on Belt CRACKED.COM These goof-ass electric beanies were intended for Foggy Days and Nights, but also presumably doubled as a hazing device to break the spirit of a new officer.

Taser Gloves

The taser glove Electric Glove for Police Stuns Victims With 1,500 Volts M ORE punch than can be found in a box- glove is contained in a new electric glove invented by Cirilo Diaz of Cuba for use by police while handling rough characters or in quelling riots. Persons contacted by an offi- cer wearing the glove receive a 1,500-volt shock, sufficient to remove all traces of fight A half-pound battery worn on the belt sup- plies the power, all wiring being concealed beneath the coat Police officials in New York where the de- vice was first demonstrated, were favorably

The Billy Club Gun

The billy club gun CRACKED.COM Early 20th century police asked themselves how do we make the bayonet worse? The answer: make it heavier and more phallic, so it's harder to aim, wield, and justify.

Machine Gun Bikes

Machine gun motorcycles The Thompson Submachine Gun Mounted on a Motorcycle Sidecar Provides an Effective Automobile Bandits. Th: View at the Right Shows the Substantial Mount CRACKED.COM When police were first able to fire off a thousand rounds per minute in the 1920's, their first instinct was to mount that sucker to a motorcycle. Steering and aiming at the same time? What could go wrong!

2-in-1 Camera Guns

2-in-1 camera gun CRACKED.COM You know how police occasionally confuse their lethal and less-than-lethal weapons in the heat of the moment? Make 'em both the same weapon, and your problem is solved! Simply squeeze a little bit to take a picture of your perp, and squeeze the normal amount to shoot him in the face.

Bank Robber Trap Doors

Bank robber trap door CRACKED COM One proposed solution to a scourge of bank robberies in the 1900's was to drop said criminals into a gross little dunk tank filled with stagnant water.

Murder in Space?

Currently, only one law governs space, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, but it does not specify anything regarding individuals or privately-owned companies. CRACKED.COM A murder In 1970, which occured on an ice island in the Arctic Ocean north of Canada, is being consid- ered to determine how fu- ture crime in other atmo- spheres could be handled.

Slate

Sewage Water As Evidence

It turns out that sewage water is actually an important tool for law enforcement. Studying sewage water shows researchers trends in the consumption of illicit drugs, which might be helpful for law enforcement - according to one European official, it's an important new drug monitoring tool. CRACKED.COM

Source

The Super Sleepy Defendant

WEIRD WORLD A judge in Singapore had to issue an arrest warrant for a sleeping teenager. Не faced charges including trespassing in the Singapore Zoo, but his parents couldn't wake him up for the trial, so the law had to get involved. CRACKED.COM

Source

The FBI

The FBI won't just swoop in and take over. Smug feds won't walk all over the enraged cops, telling them it's their case now. They can't police forces are not subordinate to the FBI. What they do is pool their resources with local law enforcement to work together in the case.

Source: FBI

The Woman Who Asked the Police to Arrest Her

In Texas, police arrested a woman who asked What are you going to do, arrest me? She was at a bank and refused to either wear a mask or leave and, when police showed up, that's what she asked them.

Source: The Guardian

Ted Bundy

In June 1977 Ted Bundy served as his own defence lawyer in a murder case against him. He was allowed to walk without handcuffs or shackles. He was als

The Night Stalker

Serial killer Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, was once pulled over by a police Officer when he was speeding away from a crime scene in a stolen

Muhammad Ali

THE THEFT OF A BICYCLE GAVE US THE GREATEST BOXER THAT EVER LIVED In 1954, a police officer found a 12-year-old fuming over his stolen bike. The boy s

The Fitbit That Knew Everything

A man was charged with murder based on his wife's Fitbit. A masked man broke into Richard Dabate's home, tied him up, and tortured him. When Dabate's

Police Brutality

Police drowned a Vietnam vet instead of taking him to the hospital. POLIZE S CRACKED.COM Jose Campos Torreswas arrest- ed for disorderly conduct in 1977 and beaten by six cops. His injuries were too severe to be processed in the jail so the offi- cers were ordered to bring him to a hospital. They shoved him into the Buffalo Bayou River.

The Holbrook Holiday

An Ohio judge created a unique punishment known as the Holbrook Holiday. Instead of a standard jail term, he takes a holiday away from the criminal for the next several years by making them report to jail for the day. Otherwise known as working retail. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

The Judge/Juror

A judge named Keith Cutler was summoned to be a juror on a case he was presiding over. CRACKED.COM When he applied to be ex- cused from jury service he was initially declined and was told to write to the resident judge, to which he replied: I am the resident judge.

12th Century Chinese Judges

chinese judges wore sunglasses to appear impartial. In 12th-century China, judges wore smoky quartz glasses for the same reason you wear your Ray-Bans - to look aloof and above it all. Masking their facial expressions gave them the appearance of being impartial and detached. CRACKED.COM

Crime Labs

The first crime solved by a microscope was in 1846. CRACKED.COM Joseph Leidy examined blood on the shirt of an ac- cused murderer and deter- mined that the blood was from a human and not the blood of a chicken, as the suspect had claimed.

The Secret Service

ABRAHAM LINCOLN CREATED THE SECRET SERVICE THE MORNING НЕ WAS ASSASSINATED. CRACKED However, it wouldn't have helped him much - it was originally created to stop counterfeiting.

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