POLICE: Visitor questions officer

I live in Maryland but grew up in Coeur d'Alene and return for visits, during which I walk Tubbs and patronize downtown merchants daily.

On the afternoon of April 17, I was walking along Sherman and was stopped by a police car and questioned for several minutes with one officer, Patrick Cwik, getting out of the car and coming to the sidewalk. He said there had been trouble with cars and did I know anything. I said "No." He then asked if I lived in Coeur d'Alene. I explained that I lived in Baltimore, but had grown up in Coeur d'Alene, and was back for my mother's birthday. He then asked for my ID and ran a check on it (obviously to see if there was reason to arrest me).

I said to him twice that I must look like a suspect. He disavowed that. I ameliorated my discomfort by saying I had his uncommon surname in my ancestry. And eventually he remarked that my scarf looked like merchandise in a particular downtown gift shop. I responded that I had bought the scarf in Donegal. Perhaps he was just making conversation then, but in the context of being stopped by the police, the comment made me feel like a shoplifting suspect.

Officer Cwik was respectful in his manner. I would have appreciated though his being straight with me. Why was I singled out walking along Sherman on this Sunday afternoon?

And this kind of activity would hardly seem to encourage tourism and local patronage of the downtown area.

RICHARD JOHN RAYMOND

Baltimore