On the importance of an informed public

Because of this class, I know way more than I used to about the law and how it functions.  (I know I come across as a know-it-all, but I did learn something, promise.)  When telling a friend about it, they asked for a quick cheat sheet of what to do if they ever run into the police.  I sent them about 1-2 pages worth of texts, so not exactly as quick as they would have liked.

What do you mean you wanted bullet points?

That incident realized just how unaware most people are of their rights and what they really mean.  For example most people think they can just stay silent, and Miranda v Arizona will protect them, right?  Right.  Unfortunately, that's not true because of subsequent supreme court rulings, primarily Berghuis v Thompkins.  As important as our constitutional protections are, they're useless if people don't know what they cover, why they exist, and how they work.  It's like how people take plea bargains, not realizing that they'll still be considered guilty, even if overwhelming evidence to the contrary is later revealed.

Basically,  people are going to jail or paying fines who, arguably, shouldn't be as a result of there not being a required "legal rights class" in high school (or college, I guess, although that's less helpful).  This is a pretty big failing, to be perfectly honest.  You could probably substitute civics for it or something, so it's not exactly like there's no room in most high school students' schedules.