I really like your post. I find it disturbing that following someone is purported to be "legal" because there is no law against it and therefore that's all that matters. That using a gun against an unarmed boy who was just minding his own business is legal. That wearing a hoodie and being black makes one a person suspected of something illegal. Suspicion and paranoia run rampant. Not only that, they are legitimised by a large majority of people. If you can be questioned by a perfect stranger, and it's perfectly legal and kosher, while walking down the street, you have lost your freedom. Add a concealed gun and you may lose your life.
Totalitarianism breeds paranoia, and is driven by ideology. I see little difference between other regimes in history and what is happening now. As a mere observer, I think ideology seems to be running roughshod over true freedom and down in Florida, you are only truly free if you carry a gun. When I can no longer walk down the street because it is someone's right, who has no authority, to accost me and question my right to be walking down the street, it's time for me to find another country to live in; it isn't safe. Shades of the past. Truly scary. Especially because people like to righteously fool themselves about it, with, as you say, a lot of mental gymnastics (aka tortured logic).
Thanks for a thoughtful post.
BBM
What is 'right' and what is 'legal' are not always one and the same. You may not like the fact that he got out of his car, you may not think it's 'right' that he asked him a question, but it's not against the law. Just like it's not against the law for you to be sitting at a bar minding your own business and some stranger asks your name and to buy you a drink, even if you want no part of dealing with strangers.