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The heat is on *
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Running to win
The men's and women’s cross country teams ready
themselves for the Pac-10 championships. PAGE 5A
October 27,2000
Volume 102, Issue 43
Weather
TODAY
MOSTLY CLOUDY
high 60, low 45
Since 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Erin Swanson-Davies Emerald
An unidenitified law enforcement officer (center) records events at a recent house party that attracted a contingent of cops.
EPD catches all on tape
The liberal
use of police
cameras
sparks
debate
about the
ethics of
videotaping
By Darren Freeman
Oregon Daily Emerald
It’s an image Eugene residents often see:
dozens of protesters bicycling through
downtown and Eugene police officers
carrying video cameras taking it all in.
The protest, called Critical Mass, is part
of a national movement advocating Earth
friendly transportation, and police typi
cally issue several traffic violations at the
event and videotape protesters.
The EPD videotapes other protests and
marches as well, and the police “Party Pa
trol” regularly uses cameras while break
ing up parties in the University area.
EPD officers say they use video cameras
to collect evidence only in situations ex
pected to lead to criminal activity, though
some Eugene residents feel the video cam
eras are used to intimidate activists and
partygoers.
“It seems to me that they’re pretty ex
cessive in their use of video cameras,”
said Trish Binder, co-founder of the Inde
pendent Police Review Project. “I’ve had
video cameras trained on me while just
walking along at a rally. It seems like a
pretty big deterrent to exercising your
First Amendment rights. ”
Many activists fear that the EPD is using
video cameras to collect information
about protesters, which could be used to
identify, harass and suppress them.
But EPD Special Operations Capt. Steve
Swenson said video cameras don’t consti
Turn to Police, page 3A
KVAL’s presence may have
violated student’s rights
■ A local media crew was unwelcome at
recent Party Patrol bust
Eric Martin
for the Emerald
A local television news team on a media “ride-along”
may have violated one University student’s right to pri
vacy recently when it entered his home with Eugene
Police Department officers.
The KVAL team, the local CBS affiliate, entered the
student’s Alder Street home around midnight Oct. 1
and shot footage as officers from the EPD’s Party Patrol
issued 21 minor in possession citations and two tickets
for allowing the consumption of alcohol by minors.
The resident of the home, Zack Schliefer, said at no
time did KVAL reporters or camera personnel ask for
permission to enter his home or film on the premises.
KVAL’s reporter on the scene, Jodi Unruh, will not re
turn to work until early November and was unavailable
for comment, a KVAL staff member said. KVAL News
Director Deana Reece declined to comment about the
incident.
Schliefer said the news team entered through the
south gate to his back yard and later filmed from his
porch. During the filming, he was unaware of his right
to ask KVAL to leave.
“ [KVAL] put a big flashing light on me,” Schliefer said.
“I flat told them that made me uncomfortable. The officer
never told me that I had the right to ask them to leave. ”
But EPD spokeswoman Jan Powers said Schliefer for
feited his right to ask the television news team to leave
because he’d already given them permission to be there.
The indicator, she said, was a sign in front of
Schliefer’s home that read: “Enter through back door.”
The sign “issued to anyone—whether it’s media, po
lice ... or whoever — permission to enter through the
back door,” Powers said.
Schliefer said he disputes that claim because the sign
could have been written by anyone and was in no way
an invitation to police and media personnel to enter.
But Powers said Schliefer is responsible for his
home, and therefore cannot claim that the sign was not
his invitation to enter, even if he did not write it.
The sign presents a dilemma for lawmakers, who
Turn to Privacy, page 3A
Oregon
Revised
Statute
181.575
states:
“No law enforce
ment agency...
may collect or
maintain infor
mation about
the political, reli
gious or social
views, associa
tions or activities
of any individ
ual, group, asso
ciation, organi
zation,
corporation,
business or part
nership unless
such informa
tion directly re
lates to an inves
tigation of
criminal activi
ties, and there
are reasonable
grounds to sus
pect the subject
of the informa
tion is or may be
involved in crim
inal conduct.”
source: Oregon
Revised Statutes
WRC must resolve legal issues
before University will pay dues
The need to
validate legal
standards
within the WRC
generated the
University’s
decision to
withhold
payment
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
Following yesterday’s announce
ment that the University will not pay
its membership dues to the Worker
Rights Consortium, a flurry of rumors
spread that the University was drop
ping out of the sweatshop monitoring
organization.
University officials are now con
firming that the University never had
membership in the WRC, so to claim
that it is dropping out or has conceded
membership is an inaccurate descrip
tion of the current situation.
“For people to talk about backing
out or dropping out is incorrect,” said
Duncan McDonald, vice president of
public affairs and development.
He said the WRC is still behind in
taking “formative steps” to become an
entity with which the University
could feasibly enter into a contractual
agreement. In the University’s opin
ion, McDonald said, the WRC is still
not a membership organization, so it
would make little sense to say that the
University has dropped its member
ship.
The decision not to pay the invoice
of membership dues the University re
ceived from the WRC this month is
not a statement of how the University
feels about the WRC, but how it views
the legal issues concerning member
ship in the organization, McDonald
said.
“[The decision] was not an act of
backtracking, but an act of due dili
gence,” he said.
McDonald said the WRC may have
incorporated itself in the state of New
York, but also said the organization
still needs to have its articles of incor
Turnto WRC, page4A
Speaker endorses Nader
as choice for Oregonians
■ Xander Patterson of the Pacific Green Party tells
audience members to vote conscientiously
By Emily Gust
Oregon Daily Emerald
Charging that American society is under the tight grip of
powerful corporations, co-chair of the Pacific Green Party
Xander Patterson threw his support behind what he sees as
the solution: a vote for Green Party presidential candidate
Ralph Nader.
Between 25 and 30 people gathered Thursday afternoon
in Room 175 of the Knight Law Center to hear Patterson,
who said that Nader’s presidential campaign is more about
building the Green Party into a major party than putting
Nader in the White House.
“You can vote your conscience and change the world,” he
said. “Vote for Ralph and may all your votes come true.”
Patterson said the Green Party, founded during the 1970s
out of a growing “awareness that our planet is facing a myri
ad of environmental problems,” focuses on another major is
Turn to Nader, page4A
(i You can
vote your
conscience
and change
the world.
Xander
Patterson
co-chair
Pacific Green
Party
11