Is there a record for being stopped by the cops for no reason?

Yesterday afternoon was beautiful. It was so warm that I decided to take a walk and check my e-mail via stolen wi-fi at Starbucks. On my way back the sidewalk was so icy and the roads were clear so I decided to walk in the road, stepping deftly out of the way when a car was coming. I was nearly home, in fact I could see my back window across the parking lot of Sirrine Stadium, when a squad car pulled up in front of me, blocking traffic. The officer stepped out and asked me where I was going and to show him ID. He said that I (not "someone", but me in particular) had been walking up and down the street stopping cars and asking people for money. Two other cops arrived and one stood behind me while the first patted me down. My ID was ran (again) and no warrants, etc. were found. The officer promptly told me to stop asking people for money because "ain't nobody got any money for you". When I insisted that I had not been, he threatened to run me in just for walking in "his" street. I walked away but not before he told me that I was not allowed to cut through the Sirrine Stadium parking lot, but that I had to walk around. This was 7:30 at night...the street was well lit, and the officer who was standing behind me even acknowledged that I was wearing bright clothes and that this was just something they had to do. I have had some humiliating moments in my life, but this was one of the worst. Sadly, I have lost track of the number of times this has happened to me since getting back to the south.-

People wonder why others look at the south the way they do.  I wonder three things about this incident.  First, I wonder if someone had actually called the police on me.  I am investigating that.  There always seems to be some random justifications for officers pulling me over.  "We have had a lot of break ins in the area." "A person fitting your description was reported..." It is never anything specific.  It is always rather vague.

Second, I wonder if someone had called, then if they were calling to complain or because they thought that I was someone who needed help.  My better angel wants to say that someone passed me and thinking that I was homeless and in need of assistance, called the police so that they would get me off the street.  Considering the goal of the police is ostensibly to serve and protect, shouldn't the goal of that stop be to help someone in need rather than threaten to run them in?  If I were, in fact, out there asking for money and shouldn't they have been asking if they could get me to a shelter or a hot meal, or even just a hot cup of coffee?

The third thing is the fact that I recognized two of the three officers.  One of the officers had stopped me a few weeks prior and we went through the same thing only that time it was six officers all total.  Still THAT was not the first time I had met this particular officers.  The first time was when he and three officers stopped me while collecting the compost from a dumpster some months before.  I see that officer a lot.  Most days, I see him at Starbucks.

The other officer that I recognized was the one who made the initial stop.  At first I could not place where I had seen him, but midway through be treated so poorly, it struck me.  I had been walking along main street in Greenville one morning and I heard pretty much the same speech that he had given me, being delivered to a homeless man who was telling him the same thing that I was; that he was not asking anyone for money, he was just sitting there trying to charge his cell phone at an open public outlet.  This man was not as eloquent as I and was (I honestly could not tell) either drunk or had some other mental problem and was slurring his words.  The officer proceeded to berate the man to the point where I felt inclined to intervene.  He told the man to move along and that was the end of it.

Part of me wants to say that race was an issue, that is a common retreat, but I am not sure that it was entirely.  I think that a lot of it has to do with class or with a notion of a power trip.  Either way, I feel the whole thing was unprofessional and demeaning, especially if Greenville wants to grow as a city.  With officers like this around and actively harassing people who are literally minding their own business.  I was walking in the street and I spoke with several officers this morning who said that he could have run me in, I admittedly was walking down the middle of the street, but he would have a tough time explaining to a judge the waste of time and effort that it would take to take me in on a night when others were in legitimate danger and my only crime was not being dressed well.

Leaving the situation, I felt humiliated and somehow less of a human being.  I went home and watched television for a little while but I wondered about those who could not easily shake such a thing.  Had I actually been homeless, could I sat in my corner of the world and not found solace in a bottle or a needle in my arm.  Last night and many other nights and even some afternoons, I was treated like shit.  It is all to common.  It won't be the last time I am stopped.  How do we stop this?