In fairness, everyone is
taught to laugh about the 5th Amendment — until they're the ones in the hot seat. And then suddenly it's your best friend.
Every half-way decent defense attorney —
and I mean ALL of them —
will tell you to exercise your 5th Amendment rights and not talk. EVER! But, we're all taught to laugh and point fingers at those who plead the 5th. It is literally
taught to us! Every one of us. Except for defense attorneys, who have to plead with their clients to keep their mouths shut! From the time we're little kids we're
taught that pleading the 5th means we must be guilty of something, which is entirely, 100% wrong! That's not what the 5th Amendment is there for. Please educate yourselves!
"Anything you say
can and
will be used against you in a court of law." Not "may", or "might", or "maybe", but
anything you say
will be used against you! The government
can and
will use your words against you, even if they have to twist and distort those words.
Example: A man breaks into your home intent on robbing you and raping your wife. You shoot the man in self defense. The cops arrive and ask you what happened. Most people are taught to tell the police every detail, and many will embellish. Some might even say something dumb like, "I shot him before he could get away!" (and you're now likely going to prison because you opened your stupid mouth). A good defense attorney will tell you to say this: "I would like to exercise my 5th Amendment right and I refuse to answer any questions without the presence of my attorney." And off to jail you go. Your attorney will pat you on the back, say "job well done" and then coach you from that point on. Once you have told the police this, they are not legally allowed to continue to interrogate you. They know this, but they also know that if you start squawking that whatever spills from your mouth is fair game. DO. NOT. TALK!
And all of these political gods say the same jackassery. Nothing new. Over the last 20 years I've witnessed more political point-switching by the parties than at any other time in history. It's good until it isn't, and then it's bad until it's good.
