YudelLine

The Dirty Job of Watching the Watchers: Trashing Privacy (Alas, a Blog)

"The Portland, Oregon paper Willamette Week had a cute idea: Since the Portland police and D.A.'s office consider garbage put out on the sidewalk for pick-up fair game (for instance, for police searches), they decided to search the police chief's, DA's and mayor's garbage.
What's interesting isn't what they discovered (we already knew our police chief was a right-wing reactionary, and it's not surprising that the mayor watches West Wing), but how hypocritical the reactions were: the Chief whined that it was "cheap," and the mayor was furious. Only the DA - who seemed amused by the whole thing - didn't come off as a hypocrite.

Also in the Chief's garbage was "a handwritten note scribbled in pencil on a napkin, so personal it made us cringe." Alas for cheap thrill-speakers, the story doesn't reveal the contents of the note.

According to Willamette Week's sidebar, cops can legally search trash without a warrant everywhere in the country but Vermont and New Jersey.