I was once stopped while taking long exposures of a water fountain at night. They asked me for ID and registration. Did it upset me? Nope. Why? Because I wasn't doing anything wrong..
Very well written
@ACR. And I think many Americans would agree with your perspective. However, I hope you can appreciate that there those among us that value our right to privacy, and right to be free from law enforcement harassment. To those people, at a very fundamental level, being stopped and asked for identification by an agent of the state when no laws have been violated, is akin to having an officer stop by their house to peek around and make sure everything is on the up and up.
All too often, people excuse such behavior with those same words... Or, my favorite, "Why should I care, I have nothing to hide". And on an individual, single-incident case, that may well be an adequate response. But when everyone reacts this way, individual rights errode. Who would have thought just 50 years ago that to board an airplane, 100% of passengers would be physically groped or virtually strip searched - without a warrant, without suspicion of a crime? Our kids are growing accepting of this, so that in another generation, it'll be customary to have the same treatment when going to the mall, or having random police "inspection" patrols, where officers have warrantless, unfettered access to homes and vehicles - all in the name of keeping us (and our officers) safe, of course.
To those who value liberty above all else, to those willing to accept that life has risks, and that it's better to live with those risks than under the perceived security of a police state, such a stop must be challenged as it happens.
In a system where the muscle of the government is able to violate individual rights, trying to rectify them later through litigation is pointless. There are countless examples of officers whose departments have paid out millions in jury verdicts and settlements, multiple times on the same individual, and due to union/contract protections, that individual officer suffers no consequences. The taxpayers of his municipality do, but there is no incentive for the officer to change his ways.
In a perfect world, you are 100% compliant, 100% respectful at an illegal stop. After you're on your way, you report the stop, and corrective action is taken. Unfortunately, for those liberty-minded individuals paying attention, they realize such a world no longer exists.