You Be The Judge
Posted on August 8, 2006
A while back I made the mistake of attributing this video to the ACLU when it was the production of a group called Flex Your Rights. However, the narrator of the film is former Executive Director of the National ACLU and, in the article I critiqued it in, it was shown to a group of students followed by a question and answer session with two representatives from Pittsburgh’s chapter of the ACLU. There is very little question that the video is ACLU endorsed.
In the video there are two scenes in particular where kids are committing crimes. In both of these situations the film shows one scene where the kids get “busted” and one scene where they get off the hook because they “asserted” their rights. In my critique I noted the omission of telling the kids that the best way to avoid getting caught committing crimes is to not break the law in the first place. I concluded that the advice from Mr. Glasser was advising the kids on how to abuse their rights in order to get away with crimes. There were suggestions among other things to conceal drugs and drug paraphernalia, in essense not only condoning the illegal behavior but teaching them how to get away with the crime.
I was harshly condemned by many libertarians in the blogosphere for my critique. So, here is the video. Is former ACLU executive, Ira Glasser, simply instructing kids to assert their rights or is he teaching them how to manipulate the Constitution in order to get away with crimes? You be the judge.
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, Illegal Activities, News
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16 Responses to “You Be The Judge”
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I’m with the Libertarians on this one. I’m about 4:00 into the video and already I’m saying, this cop is a dick! The copy had no right to get into the car for just a speeding ticket.
After watching the whole video, I’m still with the Libertarians. It’s a great video about your constitutional rights. The 4th and 5th amendments mean nothing if you’re not aware of them.
The role of the officer was written, intentionally, to be a jerk, in order to make the overall theme of educating criminals slightly more palatable. It has nothing at all to do with what the film is about.
The film should be titled, “How to Get Away With Breaking the Law”. If the idiots who made the film had their families killed by a drugged driver who gotten away from the police because they had been educated by the film, the morons would still blame the police.
It’s a shameful film and you should be applauded for exposing the hypocrisy and evil of it, Jay.
After watching the entire video, I’m still with the Libertarians. You can’t exercise your 4th and 5th Amendment rights if you don’t know them. Of course, I am already educated enough to know not to consent to a search of my car. Let the cop get a search warrant if he wants to search it. Most times he’ll let you go.
Cops are like vampires. Never invite them into your house because only bad things will happen.
Huh? Sorry about the double post. Guess you can delete comment 2 and this one.
I watched the whole video. While I abhor drug laws, there is absolutely no question that this video was written explicitly to explain how to break the law — not how to exercise your rights.
Thanks everyone. I still stand by my original opinion.
I have to say that no police officer worth his salt would have had all three get out of the car an then turn his back on them! I pretty much stopped watching after that.
This video is the perfect illustration of the the utter contempt that the ACLU and its allies have for the laws of this country. This video is naked propaganda disguised as an educational tool.
Whatever your opinion of drug laws, you must agree that it is at least extremely poor judgment and more likely, given the track record of the ACLU and its allies, malfeasant for a national organization to encourage youth to break laws currently on the books and to glamorize drug-impaired driving. The laws are what they are and we have a democratic system in place — if you don’t like the laws, work to change them, until then, you have to follow them like everyone else.
If you go to the Flex Your Rights website, you’ll notice that most of the sponsors for the screenings of this production are pro-marijuana legalization groups and campus ACLU chapters. It’s quite apparent that this video wasn’t produced to promote any “higher” principle or to edcuate people about their “rights,” but to inform stoners how to “Stick it to the Man.”
Any group interested in educating its audience, if they felt it was ABSOLUTELY necessary to depict criminal activity in order to make its point, would present a disclaimer that discourages drug use and driving under the influence of those drugs, especially if the target audience is younger viewers. The makers of this video, had they been possessed of good intentions, could have, should have, depicted INNOCENT people subject to unfair treatment…not stoned speeders who in the real world would be jeopardizing the lives of everyone else on the road, who SHOULD be removed from the road.
“Cops are like vampires. Never invite them into your house because only bad things will happen.”
Its ironic that the people whom the police have to deal with the most are the ones with your attitude.
Another irony is that those are the people who call the police the most.
No, it’s not likely that I’ll call the cops. I know they can’t protect me if something bad is about to happen. I depend on Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson to keep me safe.
The police do protect me my putting felons behind bars. That is why they need to be as effective as possible. The video is all about using rights to protect the guilty but in reality the rights in the U.S. Constitution are there to protect the innocent. It is a twisted mind that believes otherwise.
The video is all about not incriminating yourself, you’ve heard of the 5th Amendment right? It’s all about making the cops do their job the right way, you’ve heard of that pesky little 4th Amendment right?
Jay,
I’m with you on this one. Danny Carlton has it right. The authors of this video of intentionally scripted a bad cop to trick the audience into being on the side of the kids.
I was only 4 minutes into it when I had that figured out. In fact, it made the rest of the video irritating to watch. There’s nothing more irritating than obvious propaganda posing as education.
Looks like jasontromm fell for it, hence his “can’t trust cops” “cops are like vampires” claptrap.
I’m all for educating young people on their constitutional rights. I’m not for prentending to do that while you actually teach them how to thumb your nose at this nation’s laws and get away with it.
Lucky for people like jasontromm, the police will still come to their rescue when they need it despite their slanderous attitudes.
While it is good for citizens to know their rights, this is not the way to do it. This video is just keeping the police corrupt and are out to get you theory alive.
In the second part of the car incident if the officer had probable cause to search, the driver could have gotten in more trouble for lying to police about the drugs. I have a friend who’s dad is a cop and I know a few others. From what I know if an officer stopped a vehicle and the driver only opened the window an inch, locked the doors and closed the windows when they go out the cop would be more suspicious and then really get the dog to take a sniff. When the youths celebrate that they fooled the cop, it really is sending the wrong message. It is saying that is is OK to break the law as long as you get away with it.
While looking at their website the last showing of this clip was in late March with less than 50 people watching. Overall most people are not this paranoid, and could care less. This in just another fringe leftist group who thinks they are more pouplar than they really are.
What about the second situation with the black teenager? What law did he break? He was sitting at a bus stop and the cops decided to hassle him. I can’t figure out what law he was supposed to have broken, but the cops were drunk with power and arrested him. If the teen was an art student he had a legitimate reason to have the spray paint.