COVER STORY RUBBISH! ....... [This Report is a LOL Scream !]

Willamette Week ^ | 12/25/2002 | Chris Lydgate and Nick Budnick

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Andy from Beaverton]

I'm sure you heard Lars on this. Sometimes his pro-cop and pro-Republican stands at any cost makes me sick. He usually reads all of my e-mails on the air, but when I sent him the following he was silent: "What's going to happen when somebody goes through your garbage and gets cut or catches a disease. You will be responsible, while according to the law, it's no longer your garbage." I believe if I have a contract with the garbage man to dispose of my trash, the trash in the can once it is at the curb belongs to the trash man.

[chnsmok]

If you can't take the heat, don't take out the garbage.

[DAnconia55]

Go Press !!!!!

[Blue Jays]

Don't want people reading your stuff? Use a cross-cut shredder before tossing documents in the garbage.

~ Blue Jays ~

[dead]

If we're not mistaken, the mayor has a special fondness for dog shows, figure skating and The West Wing.

Very revealing.

Obviously, these statist bastards meant it was OK to go through the garbage of the little people - not the head muckity-mucks.

I never heard of this publication before, but these guys rock. They'll probably be audited.

[Bernard Marx]

Bump

[weegee]

Over here, all trash must be placed inside a "City Of Houston" trash container and then carted out in front of the house. Is that city container "city property" or "private property"?

Such a ruling could prohibit private individuals from dumpster diving but permit law enforcement to examine the contents.

Several years back, someone was driving the recycling vehicle's route ahead of schedule taking all of the recycleables (for resale) depriving the city of the revenue to pay for the recycling pickup. Someone I discussed this with had no problem with this as long as the materials were being recycled as intended.

Private businesses contract their own garbage pickup and generally post stickers/signage that it is illegal to dig through the trash, claiming the bin and it's contents as "their property".

[Aracelis]

More fun stuff...

[arm958]

I never heard of this publication before, but these guys rock.

They made a good point, but that doesn't rescue the publication. Willamette Week is leftist to the core.

[Bonaparte]

I gotta side with the judge. When I stick out my can (so to speak), it is only for the garbage man to handle -- not the police. Otherwise, I would make a contract with the police to pick up my garbage, wouldn't I? If the police can just walk up to my driveway and fool with my garbage can (which is my personal property) then why couldn't they fool with my car, which is also my personal property and is also in my driveway? I don't want the police to even think of touching my garbage can without a search warrant.

[weegee]

A more analogous argument would be officers fiddling with your car/trunk if your car were parked out at the curb in front of your home (off of your private drive).

This distinction doesn't lessen the argument and is a great point/counter argument.

Basically the officers cannot "search" without a warrant to do so (and that requires a describing the grounds for the search, no fishing expeditions).

[Bonaparte]

Exactly right, weegee.

[Bonaparte]

"Willamette Week is leftist to the core."

I might have guessed that, since these reporters characterized Focus on the Family as a "political advocacy group." Only a leftist would confuse preching the gospels and promoting Biblical principles with "political advocacy."

[KeyWest]

Anyone can pick up your garbage. Once you put it out it is fair game for all. Foreign govs have found this out as have defense contractors, which is why shredders are selling so well. If it is confidential or personal, shred it.

[FreedomPoster]

I finally bought a good shredder. All those credit card offers, anything with a hint of private information, etc, all go into it.

[Calico Cat]

'Leftist to the core'--yes, indeed. I rarely pick up this rag anymore, even though it's free, although I did look at their 'Political Endorsements' issue. 98% of their endorsements were for Democrats.

[csvset]

I don't want the police to even think of touching my garbage can without a search warrant.

Think of and thank the WOD for the dumpster diver detectives. There have been stories posted on FR about this very subject.

I've taken the liberty to post the story linked from the original post.

Gross Violation
Officer Gina Hoesly has long had less privacy than the average cop, thanks to the Portland Police Bureau's rumor mill.

Hoesly (below), 34, has dated rock musicians, other cops and Portland Trail Blazers. She's had breast implants and once posed for a photo on a website selling motorcycle gear--badpig.com--showing plenty of skin. In 1996, she won a $20,000 settlement from the bureau in a sexual-harassment claim based on behavior by her co-workers. But none of that comes close to the scrutiny she received in March, when fellow officers rifled through her garbage. The evidence they found led to her indictment on charges of possessing ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Hoesly, a 13-year police officer who occasionally was an undercover decoy in police prostitution stings, became the subject of an investigation early this year, when she told police she'd been assaulted by her ex-boyfriend, Joshua David Rodriguez. Rodriguez has a history of drug arrests and convictions, and when officers booked him on assault charges, they found meth in his pocket.

Subsequently police began investigating Hoesly, hearing rumors from police informants that she had used drugs. On March 13 at 2:07 am, narcotics officers Jay Bates and Michael Krantz took her garbage. The order to do so came from Assistant Chief Andrew Kirkland, who dated Hoesly in the early '90s.

Searching through her trash back at Central Precinct, they found traces of cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as drug paraphernalia. They also found a bloody tampon. They sent a piece of the tampon to the state crime lab, where forensics experts tested it for drugs, DNA and, for reasons that remain unclear, semen. The results of those tests have not been released.

The police didn't seek a search warrant to take Hoesly's trash because, as the Multnomah County District Attorney's office conceded, officers didn't at the time have sufficient evidence to convince a judge to issue a warrant. But once they had drug residue from Hoesly's trash, officers were able to persuade Judge Dorothy Baker to issue a search warrant for Hoesly's house. Inside, they found more paraphernalia and a diary that described apparent drug use. An indictment was issued in June.

Hoesly, who is currently on medical leave and at the time of her arrest was in the process of medically retiring, pleaded not guilty and hired criminal-defense lawyer Stephen Houze. Like a Labrador smelling leftover turkey, Houze promptly zeroed in on the grabbing of her garbage. He argued that under Oregon's Constitution, privacy rights extend to someone's trash--at least until it's picked up by trash haulers. The used tampon "goes to the heart of just what an outrageous violation of privacy rights this police search was," Houze said. "If the police will do this to a police officer, who won't they do it to?"

Not only that, he said, but if garbage is up for grabs, "There will be identity thieves lining up out there on every garbage day, knowing they can [take trash] with impunity."

The Hoesly case is not unprecedented. In 1997, police poked in the trash of David Peters, a star prosecutor for Multnomah County, and found cocaine residue, which was used to obtain a search warrant. Unlike Hoesly, he was not indicted; instead, he was fined and allowed to enter court diversion to maintain a clean record.

In a hearing on Dec. 10, Judge Jean Kerr Maurer agreed with Houze, issuing a ruling that said the cops' taking of trash was illegal. Senior Deputy District Attorney Mark McDonnell immediately said his office would challenge the ruling. --NB

[machman]

After reading it, I assumed they were leftist. Most conservative types that are pro-freedom seem to get weak kneed when it comes to doing something like this.