In this case, the justification for stopping Dickerson was that he was running late at night, in a neighborhood where burglaries occur.

That was the justification the cops had. In the video, which dammit you made me watch, the police were doing what I've seen them do to others and do to me, which has detain you for identification and search despite you not actually committing a crime. In my case, rather than bringing up negative issues with the police or talking about my rights, I just consented, they ran my ID and I didn't have any weapons. Then they apologized because I was at a Starbucks and apparently someone thought I was stalking a girl who worked there. Starbucks apologized and gave me free coffee. The police, I think nicely, didn't take his cell phone as you'd think they would which in this day and age you think they would, then bust him for resisting arrest and sprinkle crack on him.

That problem with cops is that they do routinely violate a lot of civil rights in their jobs with trying to maintain "the peace". It sucks, but a lot of your attitude will trigger problems in the encounter. I live in a poor neighborhood that has a large racial mix. The police are out here constantly because people's cars are broken into. They hassle the local teenage population quite extensively, despite them not actually doing anything wrong, however residents probably are more concerned about their property rather than civil rights violations.

So what does one do? Its well known that a strong police presence does decrease opportunity crimes like these. Having just had a cop check your Id may prevent you from wanting to commit a crime at that time in that neighborhood as the chance of getting to be a suspect increases.

I think the police could have handled the situation differently. There's ways to accomplish the same thing as far as showing a police presence and interacting with the locals in ways that don't put people immediately on the defensive, especially if theirs going to be a component that'll lead to more lawsuits and media scrutiny.

On the other hand, instead of steadfastly refusing to communicate anything and treating cops immediately as the enemy, perhaps not treating all cops the same way as people assume cops treat all blacks. Instead of refusing to identify himself or even say what he was doing or where he was going, perhaps a friendly interaction would have been more useful, "Hey guys I'm Fred, I live a couple blocks away and out for a jog, are you guys patrolling because of the burglaries?" might have put them in a different mindset than, "black man skulking around and not having any stated reason for being where he is, lets check him out".

But I'm just a white guy, and despite being a criminal I try to treat cops with respect, because I don't want to be on their radar.