I was stopped this morning by a State Trooper?

[Old Guy with 87 GT]

Sounds like 'Hit or Miss Profiling'
It seems like the trend in law enforcment has been leaning toward 'hit or miss' investigation. A lot of times people get caught breaking the law by this method; a lot of your major drug busts and DUI busts happen because the officer decided to pull some one over without having a 'real' reason, other than 'a feeling' that they might be breaking the law.

What happens is this: they come up with a petty reason that they stopped you, but the real reason is that they want to check you out and make sure you're not breaking any major laws. How many times have you heard - "They stopped someone for a routine traffic stop" and discovered they were wanted for murder or that they have ten kilo's in the back seat.

Unfortunately, honest people are the ones that take the inconveniences of this type of law enforcment, in my opinion it's another way of violating the 4th amendment and in most cases people are profiled for this type of invasion of privacy. "Well, that guy looks like a criminal, lets go check him out.". I do my best to respect the law ,and Lord knows, a lot of criminals get caught this way. That's how they got Timothy McVay, isn't it?

The only flaw in this type of law enforcement is that if you're good at not looking like a criminal, you can get away with whatever you want. Unfortunately most skilled and experienced criminals are good at looking like 'the average Joe' that wouldn't be breaking the law. I have to wonder how many real criminals drove by you (when you were pulled over) in 'family cars' with a 'clean cut' appearance and obeying all the traffic laws so they don't get caught because of a "routine traffic stop".