You Have the Right to Remain Silent! SO SHUT UP ALREADY!

I have practiced law as a criminal defense attorney for many years now and it never ceases to amaze me that people do not understand their Miranda Rights, especially after all the Law and Order episodes over the years.   Miraculously, the detectives in Law and Order always squeeze the defendant in the end to confess, because once you confess, the game is over.  The Miranda Warnings are simple. "You have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.  If you can not afford one, one will be appointed by the Court for you."  I am paraphrasing of course, but that is pretty close without looking it up exactly.  The right to remain silent stems from the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  In the Fifth Amendment is the right against self-incrimination, i.e., you do not have to testify against yourself.  In all my years of practice I have almost never seen anyone who admits guilt have a way out.  An admission of guilt or responsibility can inhibit your lawyers ability to create or mount any kind of defense, even if the police violated some of your other rights, such as an unlawful search and seizure, or a pretextual stop.  Now certainly giving a police officer simple non-incriminating information, i.e., name, address, where you were heading, etc. is not a problem.  If you simply tell the officer you won't say anything, it will raise unneccessary suspision in the officers mind that you are committing a crime.  Most of my clients talk to police because the police officer tells them they will go easier on them if they just fess up.  This may be the case in some instances, but it is rare.  A police officer is not your buddy, and he is not there to do you any favors, he is merely their to do a job for which he/she is underpaid.  As such, my experience is that an officer will do whatever it takes to make his own job easier by convincing you to confess to something, because once you confess to anything, his job is easier.  Police officers are human.  They can be influenced by prejudice, and they can make mistakes, and they can disregard your constitutional rights.  So by all means, when an officer tell you you have the right to remain silent, USE That RIGHT AND SHUT UP.  If you did not know, the officer has a recorder on him, and in the back seat of the car, which is recording everything you say!