Hello,

Today I was stopped by the local police and had my first negative experience with law enforcement. This is what happened: I was walking home from my friend's house at around 1am; wearing dark clothes, a backpack, and a baseball cap. This is a nice area with what seems like a nonexistent crime rate. As I was crossing the bridge, a vehicle pulled up behind me with red flashing lights. Both officers got out and approached me by shining a flashlight directly into my face. One of them asked what I was doing and then to take out my identification (I had left my wallet at home). I told them everything about how a few buddies and I were playing basketball and so on. At this point they started becoming rude and basically accusing me of lying. I took offense and sorta started arguing. They then asked me to take off my backpack and to put my hands up, because they were going to pat me down for weapons (by the way: I'm a young Caucasian male). After that, they told me to open up my backpack. I refused (only because I didn't like the way they were treating me). Things became uglier and by the end, I was in handcuffs and sitting at the back of the cruiser while they were searching through my stuff. Eventually, they let me go and told me to co-operate next time or else I would be arrested for... "something" (I forget what it was ...?). Anyway, for the record, I wasn't rude (they were!) and I had nothing besides a change of clothes and a few books in my backpack.

So, this brings me to the question: What are my rights in those kinds of situations?

Furthermore, I do realize that I may have looked suspicious, however, what is probable cause for searching through someone's things?

Thanks!