<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>bmelton</author><text>So, you tell them the truth, and say &amp;quot;Sorry officer, I wasn&amp;#x27;t in town that day,&amp;quot; only they later find out that there&amp;#x27;s an eyewitness who says that you were in town that day, and your credit card purchases show you buying a cup of coffee a few blocks from where the eyewitness saw you.&lt;p&gt;It doesn&amp;#x27;t matter that the eyewitness was mistaken, and just saw someone who looked like you who drove a similar looking vehicle, or that the purchase was made by your wife who was borrowing your credit card, because that coffee shop didn&amp;#x27;t have security cameras proving one way or the other.&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, you&amp;#x27;re looked at as guilty, for a time at least, and possibly forever.  You have to waste your every spare dollar hiring a defense attorney to prove your innocence.  You have to fend off mobs of social justice warriors who have ruined your reputation on the internet and real life, who may have lowered your business&amp;#x27; Yelp score to approximately zero.  You have to find a new job, because your old one fired you once you were indicted, and the newspapers justified them by placing your picture on the front page as the guilty party, but only printing the retraction months later on page 18.&lt;p&gt;And this is of course a scenario predicated on the notion that your attorney is able to actually get you found innocent, and you aren&amp;#x27;t further hindered by spending decades in prison for a crime you didn&amp;#x27;t commit.</text><parent_chain><item><author>jsprogrammer</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t lie?&lt;p&gt;FBI would need to prove a lie anyway. Not the easiest thing.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Some of these responses seem to be assuming &amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t lie&amp;quot; is the logical complement of &amp;quot;tell the truth&amp;quot;. That is not the case.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, &amp;quot;tell the truth&amp;quot; is not a &lt;i&gt;real&lt;/i&gt; strategy. That is: the sentence is essentially meaningless. We already know that &lt;i&gt;actual&lt;/i&gt; truth is impossible to capture.</text></item><item><author>mox1</author><text>Well this is especially (aka more) important when talking to a &amp;quot;Federal Agent&amp;quot;. This can be US Marshals, Secret Service, Fish and Wildlife management, DEA, etc. (if you find yourself in this situation ask the person if they are an &amp;quot;1811&amp;quot; job series). Lying to a federal agent is always an actual felony (18 U.S.C. SECTION 1001).&lt;p&gt;Lying to a local police officer, state patrol is not always a crime (local, state laws).</text></item><item><author>ams6110</author><text>This is good advice for talking to any law enforcement really. They are not on your side if they are asking you questions.</text></item><item><author>dccoolgai</author><text>Advice from my father-in-law, who is a prominent attorney: &amp;quot;Never, ever talk to the FBI without a lawyer - even if you want to help them as a witness... because if they don&amp;#x27;t like the truth you&amp;#x27;re telling them, they can (and often do) say you lied to them which is a federal offense.  If you have your attorney, they at least know there is a credible witness present who is keeping track of who said what.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>How the F.B.I. Can Detain, Render and Threaten Without Risk</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/opinion/how-the-fbi-can-detain-render-and-threaten-without-risk.html?_r=0</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>kefka</author><text>&amp;quot;You wouldn&amp;#x27;t be there if you weren&amp;#x27;t guilty.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve heard this line from people who&amp;#x27;ve served on juries before.</text><parent_chain><item><author>jsprogrammer</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t lie?&lt;p&gt;FBI would need to prove a lie anyway. Not the easiest thing.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Some of these responses seem to be assuming &amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t lie&amp;quot; is the logical complement of &amp;quot;tell the truth&amp;quot;. That is not the case.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, &amp;quot;tell the truth&amp;quot; is not a &lt;i&gt;real&lt;/i&gt; strategy. That is: the sentence is essentially meaningless. We already know that &lt;i&gt;actual&lt;/i&gt; truth is impossible to capture.</text></item><item><author>mox1</author><text>Well this is especially (aka more) important when talking to a &amp;quot;Federal Agent&amp;quot;. This can be US Marshals, Secret Service, Fish and Wildlife management, DEA, etc. (if you find yourself in this situation ask the person if they are an &amp;quot;1811&amp;quot; job series). Lying to a federal agent is always an actual felony (18 U.S.C. SECTION 1001).&lt;p&gt;Lying to a local police officer, state patrol is not always a crime (local, state laws).</text></item><item><author>ams6110</author><text>This is good advice for talking to any law enforcement really. They are not on your side if they are asking you questions.</text></item><item><author>dccoolgai</author><text>Advice from my father-in-law, who is a prominent attorney: &amp;quot;Never, ever talk to the FBI without a lawyer - even if you want to help them as a witness... because if they don&amp;#x27;t like the truth you&amp;#x27;re telling them, they can (and often do) say you lied to them which is a federal offense.  If you have your attorney, they at least know there is a credible witness present who is keeping track of who said what.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>How the F.B.I. Can Detain, Render and Threaten Without Risk</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/opinion/how-the-fbi-can-detain-render-and-threaten-without-risk.html?_r=0</url></story>