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The Annoyed Man wrote:
I neither look, nor smell like a rat. Actually, I am almost daily told that I look like Santa Claus. Under your ROE, a LEO is allowed to:

• Stop and search anyone with "hispanic" features, on the grounds that he might be smuggling cocaine in from Columbia.
• They can stop anyone wearing "tactical" type clothing on the grounds that they are gun-runners.
• They can stop and frisk anyone wearing a turban on the grounds that they might be a jihadist terrorist (never mind that it is mostly members of an unrelated religion that wear turbans).
• They can stop and frisk anyone with bad teeth on the grounds that they might be running a meth lab.
• etc., etc., etc.

I never said they were allowed to. I said I would probably profile. We all know it happens and if we were honest I believe most people if they were law enforcement would profile regardless if they were allowed to or legality. We are all guility of it in every day life. That person that doesn't dress just right, talk just right, look the way we would think a responsible citizen would look etc.. We make judgements and we are lying to ourselves we don't think law enforement does it on a regular basis. Since 9/11 I've been standing next to people that had turibns on and women with head coverings and I'll just be honest it makes me nervous. Not because they are bad people. Rationally I know that statistically they are probably not BUT because of the war on terror, my reading of media reports etc.. it's changed my view on things and while that may not be right its the way it is..

Now extrapolate that to people that deal with scum on a daily basis and I don't necessarily agree with it but I understand it. Not to mention I believe their are statistics that profiling in certain situations has a fairly high hit rate. On one had we want to get rid of crime, scum, drugs etc.. but on the other we don't want to be questioned, profiled, searched, etc.. I get it. I don't know what the answer is. How to give law enforment enough leeway to get the bad guy while still protecting the rights of good citizens?

Honestly I don't see the problem of allowing law enforcement to search your car. I understand the thought process of giving more control to the government than they need to have or are allowd to have under the constitution but law enforcement is faced with a losing battle.

On one hand we want them to stop the drugs, gun running, crime etc.. on the other we don't want any of our rights infringed on. What is the harm in letting a law encforcement officer search your car if you don't have anything to hide?

I have to be honest IF I were a law enforcement officer I would be profiling as much as possible. If it looks like a rat, smells like a rat it's probably a rat. I'm not saying the OP looks lke a criminal I'm just saying that it's a numbers game for LE. The more contact they make with the public the better chance they have of running into a real criminal.