If sharing everything on social media comes naturally, it may cost you to refrain from posting about an arrest.
Yet, if you want to preserve your defense options, avoiding posting on social media would be best. In fact, not only should you avoid posting about the arrest, you should probably avoid posting anything at all. You might even consider not looking at other people’s posts in case they tempt you into commenting.
What’s the problem with sharing your thoughts on social media?
If the police have arrested you, it’s crucial you realize others may be watching your social media channels.
- Investigators may do it to see if they can discover anything that helps them show you are guilty.
- The victim of the alleged crime and their friends and family may do it to see if they can find anything to give to their legal representatives.
- Even neutral parties may watch to help them make their own judgments about you. Remember that people can quickly change their attitude toward you if they hear you were arrested.
Consider limiting access to your profile altogether
Past post can be as much of a problem as future ones. For example, let’s say you are accused of assaulting someone in a bar, and you deny it. The prosecution could use a video of you drunk on holiday last year to say that you’ve clearly reached the stage where you don’t know what you were doing before.
Posting angry words about someone or something could help prosecutors persuade a court that you have aggressive tendencies.
If you face criminal charges, legal support will be much more important than that of the people you know through social media.