I’m well into considering the build a car avenue myself. Since new cars are all bullshit now, I’m seriously tempted to just remove the drivetrain from my truck when it finally conks out and stick a kit built aftermarket EV powertrain in it instead.

For reference, my truck is so dumb it has crank windows. I’d like to keep it that way.

20 is a funny way to spell 40.

Maybe you want to go as far as “Were you shoplifting?” “What? No. That wasn’t me, man.” … do your best imitation of someone who just fell from the sky. “So you’ve NEVER MET your neighbor. Your neighbor across the hall.” “Nope.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I don’t know.”

Wrong.

Don’t tell the cops “I don’t know” or “I didn’t see anything,” or anything of that ilk. Don’t try to plead innocence. Don’t try to use logic. It will only ever work against you, and it will never work in your favor. Always always always always.

Just tell them you exercise your right to be silent. Over and over again, if necessary. That is all you say. Be a broken record. There is no situation where you are actually obligated (in the US) to answer any type of questions for any type of law enforcement, at any time, for any reason, ever. That’s all you need to tell them. You don’t answer questions. You don’t answer why you don’t answer questions.

This is because you can also be prosecuted for lying to them, and their grounds for accusing you of lying can be pretty shaky but you still might get convicted. You can’t be prosecuted for saying nothing.

Note that this will not prevent them from lying to you, which is legal, and making spurious threats of arrest or similar to attempt to intimidate you into complying. Be aware that this is automatically bullshit. At worst the can hold you for up to 48 hours (-ish, state laws vary on that point somewhat) without charging you with anything and even if they do, you still don’t have to say anything to them.

If this happens, lawyer up immediately. You can sue them afterwards if it comes about that they violated any of your civil rights in the process.

In light of all of the above, I don’t deal with the police at all.

Name and if necessary, driver’s license. That’s it. That’s all I’m legally obligated to provide in my state, and even then only in specific circumstances. If they’re on my actual property they can pack sand; No warrant, interaction. I won’t talk to them, I won’t even answer the door. If they want to try to bust in illegally, what happens after that is on them.

I will further never, ever call the police for any reason. They simply can’t be trusted. If I have a problem with someone or something, I will solve it myself. The cops in my area have near as makes no difference to a 0% clearance rate for nuisance crimes, assault/battery, thefts, and burglaries anyway. Unless you need a report for insurance purposes it’s useless, and at that rate I’ll have my attorney call them on my behalf. They are not in the business of helping you. So don’t even expect that they will.

TL;DR: Don’t talk to the police.

It’s likely that at least one arm of Lockheed Martin’s “skunkworks” operates there. Area 51 was significantly more important during the cold war, when we were developing aircraft we wanted to keep secret from the Soviets. Nowadays, less so.

Military aircraft are tested there. We know for sure the U-2 spy plane was tested there, and the base was also involved with the development and testing of the plane that eventually became the SR-71 Blackbird. It’s likely the F117 (“stealth fighter”) and B2 (“stealth bomber”) were also tested there, and possibly partially developed there.

Unless you’re a military aviation nut, it’s actually not very exciting.

Just imagine this is green text.

Nab the wrong guy

Shoot him in the back 53 times while screaming “stop resisting!”

Investigate ourselves, find no wrongdoing

“Case closed, boys!”

…

Police chief gets got by The Adjuster the next day…

I guess the happy hostel guy would have come forward and been like “WTF?” and “I have an alibi” if it wasn’t him?

I sure as fuck wouldn’t. I know enough not to come anywhere near the police if they’re scrutinizing me for any reason, even if I know 100% I’m innocent and I can prove it. You absolutely cannot trust them not to just arrest you and railroad you into a bullshit conviction anyway, or plant some evidence, or decide “he had a knife” and just outright kill you. You know how they say “anything you say can be used against you?” That’s because they absolutely won’t use it to help you, even if you’re not guilty of anything.

I am positive city hall is breathing down the NYPD’s neck real hard right now. The entire department has got a lot of egg on its face for not being able to stop this guy, not being able to positively identify this guy, hell, not even know with any certainty where he went afterwards. They are under immense pressure to hang somebody – anybody – over this because they’re looking even more like chumps than usual.

So no, a wise man would not expose himself to the cops in any way whatsoever.