When I was a kid, the police were the good guys.  Sure, there was the occasional miscarriage of justice… like 14 year old Stephen Truscott nearly being hung for a crime he didn’t commit.  But even knowing about cases like this, we trusted that laws and policies would change.  Our society would learn from such mistakes.  

Today I agree with BoingBoing that the best course of action in the face of police questioning is to stand mute.  Watching Byron Sonne’s interrogation videos; drives this point home more than anything else. 

In a society like Canada, where citizens aren’t armed as a rule, while the police are, it is especially important to have strong civil rights.  Because without civil rights, the police are unaccountable, and can very easily spin out of control.  In the short term, that might seem like a good idea to police, and perhaps even to government.

But in the long term it polarizes us.  It makes us mistrust thee police.  It certainly doesn’t encourage willing co-operation.  Which has to make the police job that much more difficult.   After all, there are a lot more of us than there are of them.