“Perhaps” is all I intended. Since the guy turned out to be clean, and it would be incredibly stupid to point a drill at the police in the dark, I was looking for a reasonable accidental explanation.
As to the predictable bifurcation of default positions on FR, it is what it is.
I tend to be sympathetic to the police, but I’ve experienced enough occasional bullying and threatening behavior to be very careful, more careful than I think I should have to be.
On this, we agree. Also, in my younger days, I was fairly well paranoid of police, and thought they were out to get me while I was driving. Driving a sports car (if an MG Midget may be categorized as such) and being a young man are two ways you can get on a cop's radar, literally speaking.
Then, I came to the realization they weren't specifically out to get me, they were simply looking for things that stuck out, like someone going faster than the other traffic, driving a car that someone might cross traffic laws with, etc.
But I am not too naive to think that big city cops don't have a huge problem with larger groupings of people, because in those big cities, they deal with crappy people from all walks of life, and I expect it is difficult not to become callous, resulting in bent and broken limitations on their power.