I am not so cynical as to think it would be a bad idea or "against self interest", in most cases, to report a crime to the police.
I am cynical enough to think that a defense attorney might act like a paperclip maximizer and optimize for "nobody goes to jail, ever, whatever the consequences to society" when giving advise on a Youtube video.
One might also suspect the reason that video is so often cited is because it is so extreme, and people are biased to repost wacky "meme-like" catch phrases like "don't talk to the police" instead of more even-minded advise.
Reporting a crime where you are not the victim is a bad idea unless you can do so anonymously. The crime could be part of organized criminal activity, and organized crime is often in cahoots with, or at least has informants within, police departments. It could come back to you. This is not fantasy; I know of people in New York that his happened to.
To your first point: Cops have "meme-like" thoughts and sayings as well ("9 out of 10 times, the spouse did it", etc.) that would prove the attorney's point: by involving the cops, you're going to get investigated to some degree. The more serious the crime, the more likely this is.
It's not cynical for a defense attorney to have the goal of "the people I represent never go to jail". It's literally his job. The fact that he then takes that advice out of his office and onto YouTube as part of his advertising his practice also seems reasonable.
IDK if you murder-raped 100,000 people. Due process is due process. The worse the charge the higher the level of effort I'm expecting from the cops. If they can't get charges to stick, what are they even there for?
You wrote "It's not cynical for a defense attorney to have the goal of "the people I represent never go to jail"
You are responding to something I never said. The attorney does not represent people watching the Youtube video. He isn't giving advise to clients but saying things to society at large.
I have a feeling you would not actually folllow the attorney's advise in the real world. If you saw someone being raped in front of your house would you call 911 or would you say "the Youtuber with a law degree told me not to. "
I suspect you would do the right thing and talk to the 911 operator. So why defend the video?
To respond to what you feel is your point: 911 operators are not police officers in my state (NJ). They take and log calls and information, and may hand it over to the police, but they are not responsible for investigating crimes.
I can call 911, report a crime is being committed with the intention of having the police intervene, provide no additional details beyond that, and then never speak to a police officer unless they subpoena testimony from me (and even then, issue statements through a lawyer).
This is why I'm defending the video. We live in a society, and I fully accept that while also accepting that I don't trust cops ever under any circumstances period.
And suppose the cops are actually aliens, and they take me on their starship, and head out for the skys.
They'll say, come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me.
Stop moving the goal posts. I'm going to do exactly what I said. But by all means, find me IRL and do a rape in front of my house to see what happens. It's the only way to actually prove any of this.
Even if you're right (which I personally doubt) - that would more be a commentary on how people can be convinced to assume risk without any upside rather than a rationale of why it's a good idea to voluntarily talk to the police.
I'd argue it's more a commentary on how the lawyer making the video is pretending to be less moral than the median human being and is probably not as lacking in human decency as he is pretending to be for performative career reasons.
Though your framing in terms of pure selfishness (risk and upside to the person talking to the police without consideration for anyone else) is probably irrational unless you are also opposed to altruism.
If you generally despise altruism and are not wired for emotions like "guilt" I believe you may in fact not talk to the police in that scenario.
> is probably irrational unless you are also opposed to altruism.
No, it just means that I value my personal well-being over those of others. Maybe to an extent you dislike, but that's also part of my point - the expectation that other people should place themselves at risk for your well-being could also be interpreted as a selfish or self-entitled attitude.
Kidnappings (and pretty much any crime imaginable) would happen a lot more if everyone listened to the advise of never talking to the police.
People can protect themselves from police oversteps without listening to extreme advise from someone suggesting we pretend we don't live in a society.
I'd think any reasonable advise would consider the probability that talking to police in any particular scenario would lead to bad outcomes vs good outcomes, but maybe that's not catchy enough to be retweeted on social networks.
Two recent episodes of the "Criminal" podcast [0] documented that it's a bad idea for even victims of kidnapping to report to police. In this case, it wasn't because the kidnappers punished the victims for reporting, but because the police themselves harmed the victims.
My impression is that cops are incentivized to close the case much more than they are to find the truth, and the most prominent targets of their investigation will be friends, acquaintances, and family members, so even in the unlikely case of a loved one being kidnapped you should be very careful and probably talk to them only through a lawyer.
The real fool in that story was the Fed brother. How could an FBI agent really believe that running to the local cops was the best thing to do first? That is a complete misunderstanding of every aspect of USA criminal justice system. I don't know how that guy avoids getting drummed out of the bureau after this podcast.
Another common "career progression" is for attorneys to become judges. Now we've established that everyone in the courtroom is "seedy". Still, citizens are often surprised by the awful performance of the USA justice system.
Anyway, the defense attorneys to whom poor people have access (public defenders and other low-cost providers) are seldom former prosecutors, so they could possibly be decent humans. That they face so many obstacles is a good sign of the priorities of the system.
If I'm a witness, I'm happy to tell them about my observations of the crime, but I will shut them down if they start asking about me and my possible involvement, even if I think it's just implied.
If a loved one of yours is kidnapped, I imagine you'll hope the witnessess will talk to the police.