Portland cops illegally enforce "no weapons zone" at Free Speech Rally

This action shows just how badly the authority of the Left side of Government can be abused.

Situation: a rally by pro-Trump groups was planned for 6-4-17 on Federal property (Terry Shrunk Plaza, Portland), and the Looney Lefty Mayor tried to cancel it, found he couldn't do that, so he sent his cops to cordon off the Federal Park (only one small city Block). The cops apparently were under orders to "stop and frisk" everyone going into the Plaza, and they did that, seizing a LARGE number of things from people. Some obviously WERE makeshift weapons (home-made spears), most were questionable (walking sticks and the like), and some were ordinary things that people would have as they stroll in public, such as pocket folding knives. It seems that the cops overlooked several Constitutional guarantees at their display of force:

• Police are required to issue a Property Report, filed under a Police File Number, for EVERY item which they seize under ANY circumstance. No such reports have been found for this large number of seizures. The cops DID Tweet photos, more of a brag than a report.
• Cops are supposed to follow the law. There is NO law on the books that I am aware of which authorized then to declare any sort of "weapon-free zone" at the perimeter of the Terry Shrunk Plaza. A "State of Emergency" had NOT been declared.
• The Police have let themselves in for HUGE Civil Liability, as there WERE injuries from fights there which the cops (1) did not prevent and (2) disarmed folks of items which they might have used in their own defense.
• The cops may have exceeded their authority so far as to be personally criminally liable for Denial of Civil Rights under Color of Authority (18USC242 et seq).

Who, among the spokespeople for Freedom in this area are going to call for a Civil Rights Investigation? Denial of Civil Rights as a leftist political strategy gains strength by the day around here, but has been practiced by the Lefty Looney Leaders of Portland for years. For example, about six years ago, during Rose Festival Week, I navigated my small yacht up the Willamette River towards the Riverplace Marina, where I had rented a berth for several days. As I approached the downtown area on my voyage from the Multnomah Channel Yacht Club, I stopped at the blockade under the Broadway Bridge to be searched. I had 2 concealable weapons on my boat, allowed by law due to my status as a retired Peace Officer of this State, and I told the Federal Homeland Security cop on the River Patrol boat that. I was refused navigation upriver past that point. I turned around and berthed at the  nearby River Patrol station, and had an River Patrol officer of my acquaintance put my sidearms in his locker. I went back to the blockade, was inspected and passed along (in an escorted convoy, no less) to go upriver past the moored warships of the US and Canadian Navies (to which my 38-caliber Ruger and Kel-Tec P3AT was no threat, since they had sailors topsides manning 20mm and 50-caliber defensive weapons and there was a "red-line" Exclusion Zone in effect around the ships). BTW, my boat is large enough to qualify as a "Home" under Oregon Law, so any weapons aboard M/V Lofoten Girl cannot be removed without a Search Warrant, properly approved by a Judge. None of that mattered to the anti-gun Portland City Hall, though.

Comments

[Merle]

And they got away with it, didn't they?

Merle