| That is what would stop me. You need articulable facts and circumstances to lead a reasonable person to believe that criminal activity is afoot. Stopping somebody late at night on a hunch is illegal. However if you see things that can articulate a traffic stop and/or vehicle code violations then yes you can make a stop. For instance I see people all the time that I know are dirty. People I've contacted that I know use narcotics. I can't just stop them on that alone. I need a valid reason. I've had to just watch people drive away because of that and that I couldn't find a reason to either stop them or get into their vehicle. Yes, patrolmen are paid reasonable well. We'll never be rich but you'll never be poor. I'm not going to argue that cops don't make mistakes. Thats why we have lawyers and judges to bring out the mistakes and lack of articulation. People are imperfect and cops are people. However we are trained to see things that the average person does not. If you went through a police academy you'd get the building blocks of this. I think your suspicions about law enforcement are generally a lack of knowledge about the business. I run into it all the time where people think I can just get away with anything. Its not true at all. All those stories about the dirty cops are usually the one in a million or an old school story. I have to be very careful and cover my ass because if it doesn't come up in court it will come up to the chief and my job is more important than one ticket or one arrest. I think its great that they seized those peoples cars. I know that who ever owned them had been in trouble several times and was warned if they kept screwing up that their cars would be taken away. You feel sorry for the people who lost their cars? I feel glad that they didn't kill anybody. Those cops could have saved their lives. If you are driving recklessly and kill (or injure) somebody you get sent to state prison. I know somebody who did that exact thing and went away for 7 years. So whats more important a car or 7 years of your life? Just remember if your not up to no good then you don't have anything to worry about.
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