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100 Tips for a Better Life
eks70

When I lived in SF, every single person I knew who owned a car had experienced at least one break-in. Usually several. Sometimes the car itself was stolen, then left on the street in another part of the city.

Car-related crime is unbelievably high in SF for some reason

https://projects.sfchronicle.com/trackers/sf-car-breakins/

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9Jason Moore
It’s not for some reason. It’s because the government of San Francisco and California at large have failed their citizens. They have normalized criminal behavior. Along with crapping in the streets.
100 Tips for a Better Life
eks80

60. (~This is not legal advice!~)
DO NOT TALK TO COPS. 

This one stood out as kind of puzzling. Especially as the link is to a 45-minute lecture whose thesis seems to be "one should always exercise one's 5th amendment rights when being questioned by authorities." I think summarizing that as an all-caps "DONT TALK TO COPS" is weird and inaccurate.

By far the most common context in which anyone I know has interacted with the cops is when filing police reports for damaged or stolen property (stolen bike, car break-in, stolen phone, etc.) In which case... yo... (read more)

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Said Achmiz100

I once got into a minor car accident (no one was hurt, thankfully) in which the other driver was clearly at fault. I spoke to the police and a report was filed.

I received no compensation from the other driver’s insurance company (nor did he receive any compensation from mine). However, my insurance company subsequently raised my premium (and, no doubt, the other driver’s insurance company raised his premium as well). Filing the report was worse than useless.

I do not know anyone who has their bicycle insured against theft, or their phone insured against the... (read more)

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-1Jason Moore
People only want to talk to the cops when they need something. People give out silly advice like “Don’t Talk to Cops” and then wonder why their burglaries aren’t solved, and criminals are breaking into their cars, or murderers go free. That’s such a silly generalization it made me stop at the rest of the advice. Because surely we can find better.
5Dustin
  USA resident here that lives in a more rural-esque area: I can't say I know anyone who has talked to the cops to file a report. Every interactions that I can think of between people I know and the cops has been in situations wherein they could incriminate themselves. Traffic stops and the like.
6DominikPeters
The advice is meant in the context of police investigating a crime. Because police can be very convincing that it will be okay to answer a few innocent questions, it seems useful to have this advice drilled into one's mind. By the way, the author of the linked lecture now recommends asking for a lawyer instead of directly invoking the right to stay silent, after some recent SCOTUS rulings.
7Rana Dexsin
It's pretty USA-centric, at least. Doing this in other jurisdictions where the balance of rights and the dominant informal relationship between the public and the police are different could be much worse.