There have been many videos posted showing citizens exercising their rights during an encounter with the police, but they always come off as douche bags. How does one exercise his rights and avoid becoming a douche bag?
This happened to me 2 days ago. I just purchased a new property and went over on my motorcycle to change the locks. It's in the country so a vehicle parked at a long vacant place got the attention of a Deputy. I look up to see a car in the drive and a deputy on the radio. I walked out to greet him and introduced myself and answered his legitimate questions about what I was doing. Then he asked if he could see some ID. I said something like. "I really appreciate you doing proactive police work by noticing something out of place and taking the time to see whats going on, I know your job isn't the easiest and I respect the job you do and your authority. I'm very much a Libertarian in my political views and I'd rather not show you any ID unless you have a reason to suspect that I've committed a crime. He said he didn't, but would like to have my name "in case anything happened". I said that I understood his reasoning and that I wasn't looking to be difficult but hoped he could understand mine. He kinda of chuckled and then I offered him a tour of the property and we agree'd that he'd keep and eye out, until I get someone moved in. Maybe he will, maybe not.