imported post
Couple quick things --
Consent is better, but Oregon law only requires you to give notification that a recording is taking place. If you say, "I'm required by law to let you know that I'm obtaining audio" and the cop says "I don't consent," well, they don't really have to consent... and stopping you from taping would be a violation of 1A, deprevation of rights under color of law, prior restraint, etc. etc. Just tell them that you are recording persuant to ORS 165.540(1)(c), which makes recording a law enforcement officer lawful. When they look it up and say that it requires that you notify them, you'll say, "Ah, but I did, remember? That's how you found out I was doing it!"
You don't need a CHL to carry on Trimet -- Oregon law gives municipal districts no authority whatsoever to regulate firearms. They only extend some limited authority to cities and counties. There is some debate as to whether or not you need a CHL to carry loaded in Portland (or other banned cities) while on Trimet, since you're technically not in the city but rather on District land. For now, play it safe, and unload before you cross into banned city borders unless you have a CHL.
Trimet has a policy (law, actually) banning weapons that are carried in a "manner that warrants alarm to staff or passengers" -- or something like that. This law is void under Oregon law, but they will still try to enforce it. Looking at how they've done things in Washington, I'm not entirely sure that flaunting the violation and/or dealing with the "street level" cops and security was or is the right approach to getting this overturned. After my vacation, I'm going to put together some money to have my attorney (or possibly OFF's attorney) write a letter to Trimet asking them to recind the law. Letterhead seems to go a long way. Problem is, until I have my charge dismissed and my record sealed, I don't have "moral authority" to be making such demands of Trimet, so I might be stuck actually getting the letter done until the end of June/beginning of July. If you choose to carry on Trimet, I advise you keep a copy of the laws handy -- both pre-emption and recording -- as well as recording case law, a copy of the trimet policy, a voice recorder, and a whole lot of professionalism and salesmanship. If you don't have an OR CHL, bonus points for keeping a copy of the coercion law with you and pointing out that they are committing a crime by asking you to cover up.
I think coercion is even like a C felony in OR. :shock:
I have OC'd on the max many, many times. Of that, I've only had two incidents: 1 was an anti that wanted to start a fight (ignored him, he went away), another was the arrest. I'm not sure what I did differently the day I got arrested, but I'd suggest that whatever it is, you don't do it.
Do be especially aware of anti's on the max. They will try to pick a fight with you, and I imagine some of them are stupid enough to go physical. My best advice is to ignore them. They usually go away.
If you get arrested (unlikely, but if you're seriously considering OCing in the bleeding liberal heart of Oregon, you gotta be prepared for it), for the love of God, go watch the presentation on the fifth amendment found elsewhere on this forum, and don't make the same mistakes we did. It's best to talk to police as little as possible. If I hadn't told them I was recording, I wouldn't have gone to jail. If I hadn't told them where my "voice recorder" was, the charges would have been dropped immediately, and I'd still have my MP3 player (because none of them suspected the innocent little MP3 player until I made the mistake of cooperating
. On one hand, I came out looking a little better in the officers report because I cooperated. On the other hand, I still got charged and had to defend myself.
My personal plan is to inform them they're being recorded (because of being compelled by law), and cough up my ID if asked (because, sadly, they can detain me to investigate my ID persuant to an RAS investigation of a violation, but there is no corrosponding law which forces them to tell me
if I'm being investigated, so I can never know for sure whether or not it's required to give them ID at any particular time), and not really say anything else. I'm not going to argue law with them. If they want to kick me off the Max, I'll leave, and then file a lawsuit. Especially if we've gotten the ordinance overturned and a training bulliten issued by then.
Oh, and you have access to an important tool that I didn't have that day: the Oregon pamphlet. Print that out and keep a few with ya.
