There have been a lot of stories in the news lately about stops that went to far, and most of them have resulted in multiple lawsuits that, regardless of validity, cost finite resources.
I want to be clear that I know the jobs hard, and I know next to nothing about it. This is NOT a cop bash thread, rather I am curious about what most of y'all think about some of these cases. There have been several that seem to me to be pretty clear abuse of authority etc., but again, I'm a layman, and don't even know the nuances of relevant law in my state, let alone all 50.
What I'm curious about is in regards to a "terry stop". I read the supreme courts decision on it, and frankly I was struck by the vagueness of it. Do y'all feel that it needs to be re-addressed by scotus with more clarity? Do you prefer the ambiguity that it now has as it makes it a better tool for times when you have a gut feeling? I have no doubt that some of the cops in some of these viral video cases are in fact wrong, and a small percentage are just not suited for the job or plain bad at it. Conversely, there has to be at least some of them that are genuinely good dudes, and good cops, who made an honest mistake. I don't have anything specific to link, but I have seen a few that I felt like were an honest mistake but the LEO in question just wouldn't back down.
I guess what I'm asking for is a bit more understanding that might result in some more insight into these things. In the end its really just my own curiosity and wanting to cure some of my ignorance.
P.S. Please don't start a pissing match in here if you've got a problem with cops.
edit: can't find the link for it, but a perfect example that comes to mind is the guy from Daily Driven Exotics getting stopped in Beverly Hills and the officer had no clue it was legal to drive in the US on a Canadian license. As I recall the dudes lambo got towed by BHPD two or three times for this.