but they do have probable cause. cause to execute a traffic stop is dead easy, because nobody follows the rules of the road to the letter all the time. They never pull anybody over for "being black" or "driving a shitty car in a nice neighborhood", they pull you over for driving 5km/h over the speed limit, or rolling a stop sign, or because they think your window tint might be too dark. Things they would ignore if you were driving a nicer car. It's all perfectly legal.

This is the problem with over-regulation. Of course nobody will follow the speed limit all the time, or never jaywalk or loiter or crack a beer in public or to obey any of the other silly laws that don't actually reflect societal values or public behaviour. But those laws still exist, and if a police force decides they want to abuse their power they get to start selectively enforcing them.

I've been pulled over for:

- "You were driving suspiciously" (a little below the speed limit)

- "Saw you yesterday at this time (1 AM) and wanted to see what you were up to" (driving home from work)

- "You looked too young to be out after curfew" (was 19)

I've also been stopped and searched while walking for:

- "Walking in front of closed businesses" (walking down the sidewalk at 10 PM)

- "I caught a whiff of marijuana" (I had never even seen marijuana in real life)

And several more that escape my memory at the moment. I'm pretty sure those were all illegal stops, and that's what bothers me - not that the cop would look twice and take note of me, but that he would blatantly break the law himself with no consequences.

That was 20+ years ago, and although I'm white, I used to wear a lot of black, so I probably did fit one of the cop's "troublemaker" stereotypes. I think being a young male of any race, especially at night, accounts for most police profiling and brazenly illegal stops, but I have no doubt that young minority males experience more of it.

I'm middle eastern. I've been followed by a police car for 15-20 minutes at a time (even out of their local jurisdiction) three times so far.

This has always happened when I'm driving in a rich neighborhood.

Targeting definitely does happen. I'm not the only person with stories like this.

For the record I'm in Pennsylvania.

In another comment, they said the police never gave a reason for these stops.