>> Non-criminals are sent on their way.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in this country, don’t law-abiding citizens have the right to go about their business without interference from the police?
In other words, why should a law-abiding citizen have to put up with this crap? So that one in FIVE can be taken downtown?
How is this any different from stopping EVERY car on the interstate to find a small percentage of drunks? Or keeping EVERY law abiding citizen from owning an assault rifle because some tiny percentage MIGHT commit a crime with one?
“Guilty until proven innocent” is NOT the basis upon which our civil rights rest, FRiend.
Stopping cars on the interstate interferes with the flow of traffic. Stopping people on sidewalks doesn't. And the semi-automatic rifles used in unlawful killings for the past 100 years are .02% of the present stock of semi-automatic rifles, whereas 20% of the people frisked are criminals of one kind or another. If 20% of semi-automatic rifles were used in mass killings, there might be a case for strictly regulating them, but we're not there yet.
I remember a NY study in which police stopped every 10th car in the evening going to Long Island for alcohol testing. They found and amazingly large number of violations, far greater than drunk driving accident figures had suggested. The conclusion was that middle aged office workers who had a few too many after work were driving extra careful and not causing accidents. Accidents are mostly caused by reckless wild acting, inexperienced young drivers, predominantly male.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but in this country, don’t law-abiding citizens have the right to go about their business without interference from the police?”
What are you some kinda gun nut or something? Where in the world would you get such an idea. The security of the state and the masses demands such searches. After all, as so many here have pointed out many time, “If you have nothing to hide then why would you worry about being searched? (or questioned, or forced to take a breathalyzer etc. etc.)