Monday, August 10, 2015

Yes

When I ask someone something like, "Is there anything on your person or in this vehicle that I need to know about? Drugs? Weapons? Anything like that?", I often get one or more of the following responses:

"Not that I know of."

"I loan my car out to a lot of people, so I don't know."

"These aren't my pants."

"I don't think so."

"On me?"

"In this car?"

"Can you repeat the question?"

"Do I need an attorney?"

"There shouldn't be."

"I'm not gonna lie."

"I'm gonna be honest with you."

"If there is, I don't know anything about it."

All of these responses mean the same thing. All of these responses mean "yes".


6 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been pulled over before, and honestly used the first one, I was driving my bother in laws car and there wasn't anything in it, but I hadn't gone over it with a fine tooth comb.

Anonymous said...

I love "can you repeat the question? " .... like they need time to consider each part.

The second one is good too.

Thanks for the entertainment, OC. :)

Don said...

I only have weapons in my car if I am going to the range or hunting, I don't do illegal drugs, but I know it can be a felony to lie to a police officer,

so when asked the question you posed,

I always answer some variation of 1, 4, 8 or 11. Because, while I don't believe that there is something you would need to be concerned with, I don't want to be wrong either.

Anonymous said...

Umm, if you have weapons in the car, your best bet is to say you have weapons in the car. The cops can take it from there and ask you what they need to know.

Anonymous said...

What I learned in med school: if you get a bad answer, it's because you asked a bad question.

If you're asking your question like that, you're asking a bad question. It's your fault you're getting those answers.

As a generally law abiding civilian, I have no effing clue what the po-po think they "need to know" about. If you want to know about illegal drugs, ask specifically and separately from guns. Otherwise, I'll give a technically correct but smart-ass answer of "I don't know. Do you need to know about the bottle of tylenol?"

"Not that I know of" is a technically correct answer that doesn't mean yes. It means the civilians don't have the responsibility of reading your mind as to what you do or don't want to know about.

Anonymous said...

You're smart enough to earn a medical degree but you have no effing clue what am officer needs to know about when he asks if you have drugs or weapons in the car? I don't understand what part of that question is so confusing.

And if you know how deadly a traffic stop can be for an officer, I don't understand the need to be anything less than cooperative. These men and women bist their assess everyday to protect us and I'm sympathetic to the thought that they might not need any additional bullshit from me.

You may be harmless, but how in the hell are they supposed to know that?

That said, in the context of your medical training, I agree with the statement that if you get an incomplete or inaccurate answer, it's possible you haven't phrased your question well. But that's usually not because the patient's being a condescending dick head or trying to teach you a lesson. Big difference between the 2 scenarios you describe.