civil/human rights, WHA?! What's your evidence that those "bad guys" are dealing drugs? And is a little safety worth our civil rights? Let's think about this. I'm totally opposed to this zero tolerance bullshit.

All the officer did was question the kid and pat him down -- and it would have ended with that except for the fact that the loudmouth writer of this piece couldn't keep his mouth shut.

I'm sorry, but if im driving down the road and i see a guy give another guy a handshake like the one described in a drug infested neighborhood I'm going to pull up and talk to him (if i was a police officer) If the guy is acting nervous I may think he has something to hide so i may want to pat him down. If I have a loudmouth standing next to me questioning everything im doing and berating me I may think that I'm actually on the right track and that I interupted something going down so I may search everyone in the car.

It makes perfect sense to me. The only reason that guy got brought downtown was because he was interrupting a police investigation and was disorderly in public. If he would just shut up for the 30 seconds it takes for a pat down search then he and his friends would have had a much smoother night.