I think there's a world of difference between "secret police big brother Nazi" and what these guys are doing...a WORLD of difference.

If you're out in public (or in plain sight), you have no expectation of privacy...cops hitting your house with a search warrant because you have a high electric bill is one thing; you have an expectation in your own home to not be bothered by the government unless they can establish probable cause that there's something illegal or unsafe going on. Smoking a joint walking down the street is quite another.

How you conduct yourself in public is, quite simply, a matter of public interest...public record, if you will. If these guys are trained to spot certain behaviors consistent with certain activities, more power to them. It still, at that point, doesn't necessarily allow them to "hassle" you, but it does give them targets to focus more attention on.

For example, a person talking loudly and staggering might be drunk, he might be hard of hearing and injured, or just excited and disabled. The behavior alone may cause security to pay a little more attention to him. If he acts up, starts a fight, or gets disruptive, they'll be in a better situation to intervene before things get out of control. If he doesn't misbehave, no harm is done.

I have had the training, mentioned above, by the Wicklander company (Wicklander-Zukowski, if I recall), and they do teach some amazing things. It doesn't allow me, as a police officer, to arrest or detain a suspected terrorist simply because he fits a profile...but it teaches me things to look for, to better focus my attention. I doubt it's as simple to spot potential terrorists as looking for the guy sweating and praying, holding a duffel bag...the training these people get may be wrong 99% of the time. As long as they don't overstep their bounds, there's really nothing to complain about.

Dave