CNN: Is Sotomayor the new Scalia?

[bluejaylane]

77. You are incorrect

A police officer may not require that you identify yourself unless he/she has a legal reason for contacting you. That requirement is called probable cause—that's his/her authority for detaining you. It's his/her defensible belief that you have done something illegal. Cops just don't get to stop people and demand ID. Sadly, you've missed the entire point of the argument Justice Sotomayor made. To restate it, many members of the police are not there to protect us. Some are racists, bigots, and right wing radicals. They might stop people for no reason either to hassle them under color of authority or run a criminal background without cause hoping to arrest them. Theses tactics were once rampant in the South and still common throughout the US today. Suggesting that "if they suspect someone is up to no good, they are probably right" is naive in the extreme.

(full disclosure: I used to be a federal peace officer)