Intrepid Portland Police Officers on the look out for "Suspicious Pitcher takin"

 

Picture that led to "Consensual Encounter".

Picture I was trying to duplicate at the time.

A note.  This entry was actually written in August of 2013 but wasn't posted probably because at the time I was still wanting to review and edit a bit.  I just decided since I have been spending so little time working on this blog in the last year that I should just go ahead and publish since I did devote some time to writing it.

A year ago this week I went for a walk on my lunch hour with one of my cameras.  Something that if  anyone reads this blog knows I've done pretty much ever since I first picked up a camera over 40 years ago. Here are two pictures of the Forecourt Fountain, one taken  in 1970 in the land of the free and the home of the brave and the other one taken a year ago in the parallel universe of Portland, Oregon.  Taking Pictures of a Fountain in a Public Park isn't against the law of course but you can do it in a suspicious manner that the Police must investigate.  Now this is the same Police  that didn't have time to investigate a robbery at a downtown drugstore (okay the cop was in his police car outside the drug store but he was off duty).  They had to investigate someone with a camera acting "suspicious" at the fountain.  How does someone act suspicious in Portland the land of naked bike rides and a guy on a unicycle wearing a Darth Vader Helmet and playing bag-pipes?  In Bizzaro Portland where it's all about keeping it weird dude it's the ordinary guy who stands out. Middle Aged  White Guy with no tattoos or piercings taking a picture on his lunch hour now that stands out in this town.  I wrote about  experience in my blog and also e-mailed a local blogger about the experience whose readers had some interesting comments.  I also reported the incident to Cop Watch who agreed it was strange but after all I did comply so the police did nothing wrong.   Apparently the Supreme Court also has no problem with how a "Consensual Encounter" can become an "Investigative Detention" and then an "Arrest" all within the confines of the 4th and 5th amendments at the whim of the Police who after all know what they are doing. I guess Constitutional Rights  are just there to protect people who want to be able to carry an assault rifle around town a few weeks after the worse  school shooting in American History.  The Police were very polite to those guys after all they were out gunned. I didn't really understand fully the nature of Police/Citizen encounters because other than three traffic stops in 43 years I've never experienced one. I have no criminal record, though now I have been investigated for suspicious pitchure takin.  So what exactly is a 'Consensual Encounter" that you don't get to consent to?  The presumption being that you don't have to answer them and you have that there Constitution to protect ye.  Here is a story from the Oregonian about just how "consensual" such an encounter can get in this town.   Here are two interesting stories from Slate Magazine about the myth of the (1.) consensual  and (2.) encounters with Police Officers.  Close Encounters with Police, just like Aliens, come in three kinds.  The first encounter is the Consensual Encounter (or what Portland Police jokingly refer to as"A Date Rape"). The Investigative Detention, (in Portland referred to as "Assume the Position") and the arrest where of course the dumb old Supreme Court makes them have to read to you your Miranda Rights which in Portland they offer it in Klingon if required.  Just how consensual is a chat with the police?   First you have to ask Officer Friendly with the BIG GUN  "Am I free....to leave?" It's that EASY!  Hopefully you have a lawyer with you at the time.
  Here is also an interesting legal review of the dynamics of the "Consensual Encounter" by a bunch of Lawyers but what do they know about the law and those pussies aren't packing like Dirty Harry.