Here's a dirty little secret, straight from a former public defender to you: neither prosecutors nor criminal defense attorneys know the definition of an "arrest," and American case law is specifically designed to ensure this ambiguity. So neither a prosecutor nor a defense attorney can tell you definitively when you're under arrest -- say, during a traffic stop -- and therefore can't tell you when during a traffic stop you're free to drive away. They also can't tell you, consequently, when you're entitled to be given your Miranda warnings. And because the point of a Miranda warning, above all else, is to let you know that you don't have to answer a police officer's questions, Americans...
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