Dragnet searches and arrests could be used in any number of cases. Handcuffing you and putting you down on the pavement just because of the type of vehicle you drive is beyone the pale. It will turn law abiding citizens against the police and make people afraid to drive because of the type of their vehicle. It will also generate more lawsuits.
In this extraordinary situation,the question must be asked just how many people must die/how many lives disrupted to maintain constitutional safeguards? Has not the whack job gained a victory by eliminating the most elemental constitutional right/ safeguard 'LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' of at least nine people with his behavior? How many other nut cases/terrorists will his successful attacks inspire? The concept of the 'slippery slope' can be argued from both sides of this situation.
Just the fact that LEO's are stopping 'certain' kinds of vehicles is unsettling to me but I realize, as a citizen, I have an obligation to my fellow man and a duty to my country to help stop this monster/s. The next person killed by this piece of trash might be someone I know and love.
Individual rights are great--I love them, but there is a time and place for the greater good. Being tied up in traffic, being questioned, my car searched, handcuffed--I don't like any of these, but these actions ,given the sort of problem where nine people have lost their lives, are really small matters in the scope of things--they amount to " t**ts on a mudworm."(We must remember how much the press loves to inflame with the sort of picture that you originally described and that the incident shown might actually have been a criminal that the officers found secondarily to the search for the 'van' occupants).
As far as possible lawsuits re: unlawful/unreasonable searches are concerned, there comes a time when the lawyers and the populace must realize that the safety of all comes before the 'righteous indignation' of a few.
With my beliefs in all of the above, there remains a need for strong and constant vigilence by the citizenry that LE does not overstep its bounds in everyday situations.
The Tarheel