one day the crowdfunded police force will fight the "lawful" local police force and the crowdfunded police force and their donors will be labelled "errorists"

"This appears to contradict Professor Duane, who said repeatedly that even if you're innocent, "it CANNOT help" to talk to the police, and that "you CANNOT talk to the police out of arresting you". Unless Bruch was lying, then Duane's statement was wrong"

It doesn't contradict it at all. If you're innocent, it cannot help to talk to the police, It might not hurt if you're innocent, but it won't help. And I'm pretty sure he means you can't talk the police out of arresting you if they plan on doing so; you're not going to change their minds.

Even if you include fleet sales the number of CNG cars is miniscule by comparison to the overall market. Less than 0.1% of vehicle sales even including fleet sales. Honda has sold something like 13,000 total of their Civic GX model since 1998. (Compared with 12-16 million vehicles sold per year total) CNG vehicles make a lot of sense for certain niche uses but frankly I just don't see them really taking off. They have most of the drawbacks of gasoline/diesel powered vehicles (fossil fuel emissions) along with the drawbacks of electric vehicles (limited refueling options, range anxiety, high up front cost) and they by and large aren't especially fun to drive. Performance figures on CNG vehicles available today are yawn inducing. I think electric vehicles and gas/electric hybrids are a much more likely bet for most people if the infrastructure trends and technology continue on their current trajectory.

You really do not understand either economics or demography. China has severe unemployment issues and tremendous structural problems with provincial government debt. Nothing I am going to say will convince you, but hopefully when you see the problems China is still facing in 5 or 10 years you'll realize I was right.

Law school is three years, not ten. Add 6 months to study for, take, and pass the bar and get sworn in and you're looking at 3 and a half years. Still less than 10.

"The proposed idea is juvenile and not worth debating, but typical of the kind of nonsense that Libertarians think is worth their time to discuss."

That's the entire history of Slashdot.

It's usually a misdemeanor though not always. Being allowed to lie to police (sometimes greatly) increases the chance of a miscarriage of justice and constitutes obstruction of justice in many cases. You ALWAYS have the legal right to not talk to the police without council present. This is to avoid self incrimination under the 5th amendment aside from some simple exceptions like identifying yourself if asked. There are a lot of nuances but basically it is reasonable to require truthful answers in the course of an appropriate criminal investigation. If you lie while under oath that is considered perjury which is often a felony.

Actually it works rather well in practice most of the time. It just means that you need to take any discussions you have with police seriously as you should.

Most "lying"-type crimes -- e.g., lying to the police or perjury -- require you to willfully lie. In other words, you had to know you were lying and done it intentionally. Even then for perjury at least it has to be a lie about a material matter, so minor lies don't really qualify as perjury. You are right to never talk to the police outside the presence of your attorney though.

As a Slashdot reader since 1999, I can assure you that the Slashdot editors have a long and stories history of making the strangest decisions as to who is an "expert" in the field they want written about (Jon Katz anyone?).

As a licensed attorney since 2006, I can also assure you that Bennett Haselton always gets the law wrong at a deep, fundamental level. I used to post explanations of where he went wrong on his stories but then I just gave up.

Nice ramble, but tell me the last time POTUS or the Speaker or the Joint Chiefs picked up a weapon in anger rather than sending someone else to fight the actual battle? Someone else who is typically less educated, less well off than themselves?

Your stance sickens me, it truly does.

Good point, this is actually covered in separate articles. Giving a false "statement" (= going to the police station to officially report a crime) is punishable. "Raising a false alarm" is punishable, as is prank calling the emergency number. Falsely telling the police that they saw a crime in progress is punishable only in certain cases. But there is definitely no article that covers lying to the police in general.

Nobody doubts passenger cars running CNG exist but they are about as rare as a Veyron - albeit for a very different reason. The simple reason there are hardly any CNG power passenger cars is that there is very limited refuelling infrastructure in place. Sure I can buy one in theory but since I can't refuel it most places it would be rather stupid to do so. Even electric vehicles have a more readily available infrastructure than CNG powered cars though they suffer from a similar problem. Most CNG powered cars are basically proof of concept vehicles rather than anything else

So the original post was correct if you aren't overly pedantic about things in that for all practical purposes there are no passenger cars that run on CNG. Strictly speaking there are some out there but hardly anyone actually has one because the circumstances required to make one practical apply to virtually no one.

How is that even a rebuttal? The devastating effects are the result of criminals, not of Prof. Duane's position, and it in no way invalidates his statement. If the police want people to talk to them, they need to make very, very sure that innocent people truly have nothing to fear from them. A lot of people probably follow his advise because it it necessary.

Is it really a felony to lie to the police in the US? That stinks, and even worse if they truly prosecute otherwise innocent people for it. Over here (NL), lying to the police is not punishable, whether you are lying about a case that involves you, or one that you merely witnessed. The only times you are obliged by law to tell the truth is when the police ask for your identity, or when you're put under oath.

And how many people do you personally know that own one?

[/crickets]

That's what I thought.