So, this sorry excuse for a reporter,wasted an hour and a half of their time to get a story and HAD to ask (and infer ) if he was being detained because he was black? When he could've told them who he was immediately and gone on his merry little way.Some types of people will never change.
These men were in uniform and near the object in question but anytime a lone person on the street starts asking me anything that doesn't sound like "directions", I think: "sales pitch", "beggar", or "crazy person" (not necessarily in that order).
I've seen people who were certifiably crazy (talking to themselves and forming no cohessive thought) out on the street and in bars.
This can also be a factor in detaining someone asking "odd" questions.
I don't avoid all people on the streets but then again I learned long ago not to talk to "strangers".