On that much I agree with you. But I used to live in the area until shortly after this incident happened. There were new plates and old plates and some of them (including all the old style) were legal to be used in a fashion where only ONE plate was on the rear. I know I drove for years with the new style plate on the rear only, was even PULLED OVER in that vehicle a few times, and not a word was said about having only one rear plate. I know that TO THIS DAY, there are many vehicles running around MA with the old AND new style plates on the rear only, and they are doing so legally.
But the monkey in the wrench is, as you stated, if you've been ISSUED two plates, you must use them both.
Still, that doesn't explain how a cop is supposed to know that a stop is warranted before the stop, based only on observed behavior that may be legal. That is, unless they tailed him for a while to run the plate? But if that happened, that opens up a whole other can of worms. Like, why'd they run the plate anyway? -Dave
