what do you see?

Sorry if this post sounds a little ranty, but I've had another run in with the law...well kind of. Let me explain - the police have really been out in force recently, doing extra cyclist monitoring ...and checking up on foreigners it seems. So once again I was made to feel like a criminal on my way home from an honest day's work. A police cruiser (a normal one fortunately, not some kind of jalopy as shown in the picture to the right) slid by as I was waiting at the traffic light around 8pm the other night, and pulled in to the curb a few yards up the road. I got paranoid that they were watching me, so was careful not to jaywalk, and waited for the light to change. Then I cut down some back streets and emerged a block from our building - only to see the same car turn the corner and head for me. I knew exactly what was coming next, as they slowed down, rolled down the windows and asked me to stop.

After a little bit of usual small-talk (what country are you from? etc.), and wanting to get home for dinner, I decided to pre-empt them and ask if they wanted to see my foreigner registration card, before they got round to asking for it. They looked at it and wrote down some details as usual.

Anyway, this irks me - how can they just stop someone for no reason on the street? Well, according to the law, they can't - if you're a Japanese citizen. A foreigner on the other hand, is subject to different laws (as Debito says here)

So (once I had the card back!) I asked them why they were doing this:
Friendly policeman who had been to London once: Oh this is usual, we often patrol around to see if there are any suspicious people [implying I'm suspicious...because....?] after dark, and ask them some questions.
Me: Just foreigners?
F.P. [hurriedly] : Oh no no! Many Japanese people too.
Me [not believing this, due to the law I mentioned above] : Oh I see
F.P. [undoing his argument]: Yes - and there are more and more Chinese people overstaying their visas recently...

I should stop there! Sorry if this is too controversial.