Major snip, so I can respond just to this one point:drjoker wrote:Although the guy did wrong by getting out of his car....
Before he got out of the car, it was a reasonably low-key approach by the police. Not in their minds, of course, because they suspected they were dealing with criminals. But the dealer could have easily thought they were in conversation mode, not "freeze, suckah!" mode. If that was his mindset, he might have thought it was perfectly reasonable to step out and explain what was going on. After all, he knew he wasn't doing anything wrong, so he probably thought he could just explain what they were doing and everything would be okay.
I think he just got his first understanding of why we recommend treating even a minor traffic stop as if the cop suspects you're armed and dangerous and wanted for murder.