"eye-opener as to what a police state" the US is.

And, contrary to recent comments, it's not just one person favoring us with such remarks.   We also have:   "Do you need a license to breathe in the States?", etc.

That's the crux of many of our comments--the absurd degree to which that sort of attitude is off target.

The fact is:   if neighbors find an outsider's behavior suspicious, they have the right to call the police.   At that point, if said outsider has no ID, it is reasonable to get some.

As I noted, Mudcatters should actually be glad this happened: it seems to show that, at least in NJ, poor blacks can possibly get some response from the police against what they believe might be a suspicious character--a shabbily dressed, disheveled older white man behaving strangely in their neighborhood.   And just his claiming to be an internationally known rock star is not enough--he has to back this up with some evidence.

Sounds like the NJ police have a lot more on the ball than the MA police.

Of course, it also helped there was no anti-police rant involved this time.