here's my thing with the kid:
he used a scanner to find a place where he knew he would be suspicious and there would be a cop there to stop him. he's intentionally using police resources for illegitimate means. i know what you are going to say. "if this was a bad cop then it's a good thing this kid caught him."
well, yes and no. the kid set this situation up so the interaction wasn't a random phenomenon which most cars stops are. if a reasonable person was in the lot for a legit purpose and the cop approached them, the citizen might understand what the cop meant about checking out suspicious cars and done their best to cooperate with the officer.
however, since the kid set this whole thing up he had no intention of cooperating.
that being said, the cop did wrong. and he was fired. so doesn't that tell you the system works?
the issue i take with you is that you said the cop was 100% wrong and the kid 100% right.
the officer's initial action was correct and the kid's intent was to catch an officer in a bad position by setting up the meeting. so, IMHO, the officer did some right and the kid did some bad. fair enough?
robert, i pinged you because you are getting as slammed as i am on this thread. do you agree with the assessment?