Veishea ranks as one of the more opportune times during which students may find themselves participants in disciplinary police action. Rioting, dismantling light poles, lighting dumpsters on fire and pushing them down Lincoln Way are Veishea traditions almost as time-honored as cherry pies. It is not unheard of, then, for Veishea participants to find themselves face to face with The Man himself: a uniformed police officer.

During police encounters, remembering our constitutional rights — yes, even with the spotlights shining in your face and commands getting shouted in your direction, you’re still a citizen of the United States — gets difficult. Remembered and invoked properly, however, your rights can help you out of a heap of trouble or avoid it entirely. Against a law code that contains hundreds if not thousands of rules, knowing and being able to cite broad constitutional principles is probably the only defense.

Police officers exist to serve and protect We, the People, but it is their job to find criminals and uphold the rights of the community. Laws are written to protect society from individuals whose actions lie outside the bounds of accepted norms; the rights listed in the Constitution are there to protect us from agents of the government. Therefore, there are a few general propositions to consider before playing “Simon Says” with a police officer.

First, we all know that we have the right to remain silent. Even though the First Amendment secures our right to say almost whatever we want, in police interactions it may behoove us to exercise some prior restraint over ourselves and refuse to offer more than our name and an ID. The Fifth Amendment and the Miranda warning that articulates it say as much.

Second, police are permitted to search you in a noninvasive way, such as a pat-down that doesn’t get too close nor go into your pockets nor take up much time, if there is a reasonable factual basis to suspect that you are up to something illegal. They generally cannot, however, search your vehicle. With most of these things, police have the exact attitude citizens ought to take: It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission, so do first and ask later.

Third, asserting your right requires certainty and being decisive and definitive. The same way that “no” means “no,” “I want to talk to an attorney” or “I do not wish to speak to you at this time” means just that.

Fourth, and perhaps most important, if a person is going to assert his or her rights once, he or she must prepared to do so until he or she is no longer interacting with police officers. As with the muscles in our bodies, we can use it, or we can lose it. Building strength and stamina are long-term propositions, but demolishing them only takes a few lazy days.

Of course, the easiest way to not have your rights violated is to not give police any reason to suspect you might be violating the law. Rights are best remembered while sober and, unfortunately, it’s sober people who generally are the least disruptive of the law and order that police are supposed to maintain. A little common sense can go a long way.