Why This Lawyer’s ‘Shut the F*** Up’ Video Just Went Viral Again

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Bill Goodman’s “STFU” PSA Blows Up (Again) as Gen Z Discovers a Dead Legend’s Golden Advice


Let’s set the scene: a gravelly-voiced, 80-something civil rights icon stares into the camera and drops this gem: “If you’re arrested, shut the f** up. Don’t talk to police. Don’t explain. Don’t argue. Just STFU.”* Cue the internet losing its mind.

This 2021 PSA—crafted by the Detroit National Lawyers Guild with Goodman and attorney Denise Heberle—is racking up millions of TikTok views again, because irony’s dead and Trump-era policies are back.

The video’s punchy, no-bullshit vibe is pure Goodman: a man who spent 50+ years suing presidents (Bush), dismantling racist policies (stop-and-frisk), and freeing wrongly convicted teens (Central Park Five adjacent cases);

Why It’s Everywhere

The clip’s snappy edits and Goodman’s “angry grandpa” energy make it prime Gen Z fodder and something of a meme masterpiece. Hashtags like #KnowYourRights and #STFULawyer trend as kids realize constitutional rights clout.

And with Trump back in office gutting agencies and ramping up federal policing, Goodman’s 2021 warning feels prophetic. His “shut up” mantra is now protest gospel.

Goodman died in 2023, but the video’s revival (and his Attica/Flint/Guantánamo cred) turns him into a posthumous folk hero. Colleagues like Jack Schultz call it “Bill 101: blunt, funny, and legally airtight”.

  • Goodman wasn’t just some TikTok flash. Dude co-founded Detroit’s Sugar Law Center, sued over Flint’s poisoned water, and rep’d Attica prisoners post-riot—winning pardons for thousands. Oh, and he mentored half of Michigan’s civil rights bar while dunking on Bush’s post-9/11 tyranny. 

His crowning achievement? Making “STFU” sound like legal poetry.

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