I think you're right about the van. Once someone plants it in your head, you start seeing them everywhere. Good call.

by the way, what did the conservative profilers have to say about the guy?

Not much. A few figured it was Al Quaeda, but that didn't hold up well. Profiling is not their style, unless it's based in facts, and there weren't any. Most conservatives are not obsessed with race to the exclusion of every other aspect of someone's personality. It's leftists who immediately classify and pigeonhole every aspect of someone they meet by the color of their skin, sexual preference, or other external irrelevancy, assigning to that person a particular world outlook, political stance, and other thought patterns considered "appropriate" to that classification.

Woe to the person who breaks the PC stereotype. The leftist can't handle it. A black conservative, libertarian feminist, or a gay Republican for example, are treated like plague carriers.

A black man who does not toe the progressive line isn't really considered "black" at all. Ask Colin Powell.