Nobody is saying that the leos shouldn’t have responded.
What we are saying is that the response chosen was improper, unwieldy, unlikely to find the sought for bad guys who may not have even existed, and unduly disruptive.
How about: description of suspects and suspect vehicle?
(Too politically incorrect probably. )
It sounds, actually, like somebody linked out Maryland and SWATted an entire roadway.
"Police say two men armed with handguns robbed the bank at 404 King Farm Blvd. about 10 a.m. They fled in silver Kia SUV, driven by a third person, with the stolen cash.
A Prince George's County police helicopter spotted the SUV traveling south along I-270 a short time later. Police shut down the interstate in order to nab the robbers, who were found stopped in traffic just south of Tuckerman Lane, according to Montgomery County police."
They knew who they were looking for and they knew where they were. Once the traffic was stopped. the chopper pilot led the police on the ground right to them and even spotted the evidence they ditched in a truck bed nearby. By creating a traffic jam (something that happens on that stretch of road quite frequently) they were able to corral the suspects and remove them in a safe and simple manner.
The description: "Warrantless car-to-car searches" is a bit of a stretch... well no, really it's a lie thrown in by the "journalist" and only serves to incite public backlash where it's not warranted . And yes, for the mouth breathers amongst us, the perps were young black indiciduals.
I don't think I've argued directly against any of that but in regard to "unlikely to find the sought for bad guys who may not have even existed" I do note that as a result of this search they caught and charged the perpetrators according to the following links from within the original post:
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/03/i-270-shut-down-as-msp-search-for-bank-robbers-101018.html
http://www.wtop.com/41/3579525/After-I-270-closure-a-question-over-tactics
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/police-halt-montgomery-county-commuters-pick-out-bank-robbery-suspects/2014/03/11/a2fb7b70-a94b-11e3-8599-ce7295b6851c_story.html
"How about: description of suspects and suspect vehicle?"
According to this link ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/police-halt-montgomery-county-commuters-pick-out-bank-robbery-suspects/2014/03/11/a2fb7b70-a94b-11e3-8599-ce7295b6851c_story.html ) from within the original post:
"They got into a silver Kia, where a third man was waiting, and drove off."
"A short time later, the Kia was spotted on southbound I-270."
I know the "news" didn't provide a description of the suspects, but that seems to be standard for PC reasons lately, and it doesn't mean the police didn't have such a description.