While this particular article appears to discuss the Stop-and-Frisk problem in New York, I have no doubts that it is a serious problem in a great many other areas as well. This is primarily a problem within those areas that are more densely populated. I am not defending unnecessary actions by law enforcement by any means, rather pointing out various factors that I have personally encountered on the streets.
There are some municipalities that have enacted certain city ordinances that do allow law enforcement to stop and question individuals whom they believe may have witnessed a crime. According to these ordinances the individual is required to at minimum provide the officer with their name. There have been instances where the individual reactions to this have ranged from just being rude and cocky to being outright belligerent to the officer for having approached them in the first place. In these instances the officer will usually go ahead and detain the individual on the suspicion that they may be hiding something. Once an individual is detained then they can and will usually perform search for weapons.
Individuals certainly do have the right to refuse to answer any further questions and more often than not this is recommended. I am not saying that every officer handles these situations properly either, some of them are pretty rude themselves. I believe that encounters between law enforcement and citizens can be positive or negative depending on how the officer initiates the encounter.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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