We can discuss this until the cows come home and ultimately, what ever we take away from the conversation does not matter on the street.
As I have stated elsewhere,
One may only engage freely in activities that the police believe are or ought to be lawful.
Well, yes and no... My groups have encountered things that were completely lawful but police departments thought that they weren't (or, in many cases, knew it was lawful but didn't like it and would harass people for it). We would discuss the situation across groups, later online in forums like this, and then freely engage in the lawful activity. Sometimes it took lawsuits, protests (while engaging in the activity), and a lot of stubbornness to get departments to follow the law as written.
In the short term, we can discuss until the cows come home and may only engage freely in activities that police believe are or ought to be lawful, however, in the long term these discussions can help people learn what is and what is not truly lawful. This can lead to individuals and groups showing police the error of their ways. It does work. I've experienced it first hand, where the rubber meets the road. Discussing it is a very important part of the process to correct these issues.
