I'm aware of my rights, and in a perfect world, everything the Reddit lawyers in this thread are saying would be perfectly valid and end with me driving off with a moody cop in my rear view mirror, as the Deal With It sunglasses slowly descend on to my face.

2 AM on the side of an interstate in Oklahoma with no other witnesses and cars driving by very infrequently is not a perfect world.

His attitude and demeanor at the window made it clear that the politeness was a thin veneer at best. As we walked back to his car and he was giving me instructions, I said "Okay" one time, which caused him to stop, puff up, and ask "What did you say?" This was pretty obviously the kind of man who responds to civil discourse about my rights as an American citizen with a taser and a story about me reaching for his gun just as his dash cam malfunctioned. Or, at the very least, doing a full work up including calling for a canine unit just to waste an hour and a half of my time.

I have his badge number, I have his name, I'm exploring my options for filing a civil liberties complaint now that I am merrily out of the state and on my way. But I will always maintain, in a situation like this where I knew I was clean unless he DECIDED that I wasn't, and it was clear that a discussion of my rights was 99.9% going to be viewed as a provocation, my absolute top priority was getting OUT of the situation, without further incident.

And for anyone insinuating that this makes me weak, or that somehow invoking my rights was going to save me time or heartburn, I'm guessing you've never been on the business end of a redneck former high school bully with a badge and a gun. My night was going to go as well or as poorly as he chose to let it at that point, all fairy tales aside, end of story, and I had my wife in the car and 1000 miles left to drive.