Well, at least Tri-Met did something. Now for the other oxygen thieves riding public transit in Portland

I am glad that guy is gone...keeps me from having to hurt him if I saw him near any kids. But isnt this just blatant police harassment? If this had happened to anyone else, people would be bitching about the cops being out of line.

I am very concerned about these events. Sure, the guy is a sleazebag and should be heavily scrutinized and possibly encouraged to leave town, but what's the deal with TriMet ADMITTING that it charged him with possession of a controlled substance when he had nothing on him??? TriMet says it charged him with possession because TriMet officials read on his website that he likes to use "drugs". That's a scary precedent, to say the least!

I might also add that it probably opens up TriMet to a civil suit for any number of constitutional violations, if any lawyer would file a case on behalf of the guy. Trying to find a lawyer to take a contingency case on behalf of an admitted pedophile with this notorious self-generated publicity would be a daunting task, but it doesn't mean that the rule of law should be tossed in the trash.

"Trying to find a lawyer to take a contingency case on behalf of an admitted pedophile with this notorious self-generated publicity would be a daunting task."
You're being sarcastic right?

You just know this will turn into another PR nightmare (and another major settlement expense) for TriMet. On top of the MAX security fiasco, it should generate a long-overdue push for Fred Hansen's resignation. For the salary involved, maybe they can get someone who doesn't consider his job a hobby.

If I were Mary Fetsch, I'd run away.

Only in Portland could this success story turn into a PR nightmare. But I think this guy was so out-there that even the "keep-it-wierd" crowd will be fine with his treatment.

Obviously, he hung out for so long on TriMet, that bus drivers started to recognize him, and called in the TriMet police, who actually did there job (and maybe a bit more).

Could you imagine if they let this creep continue to use TriMet as his little play ground (prey ground) for little girls? Only waiting until after he molested his victims before they nailed him? Yes, I can imagine that happening. Glad that it didn't.

I think this guy was so out-there that even the "keep-it-wierd" crowd will be fine with his treatment.

I dont beleive that...the "keep it weird" crowd are mostly the "Indymedia" types that think any kind of government interference is authoritarian and wrong.

"Trying to find a lawyer to take a contingency case on behalf of an admitted pedophile with this notorious self-generated publicity would be a daunting task, but it doesn't mean that the rule of law should be tossed in the trash."

I know...I know...I know...BUT...this guy is THAT ONE GUY who I could just give a rats behind about. He's the kind of guy I just pray would get mowed down by a bus some day. In the big picture no matter how you define "the rule of law" we are human and we have limits.

Keep in mind that nobody put him in jail, they just gave him a slice of pizza and yanked his bus pass because he admitted that he was violating the bus regulations by riding around all day long to keep warm. Big deal. Kudos to Tri-Met for running this scum bag out of our community. Hip, hip, horay...the creep is gone!!!

Although this incindent is a PR coup for TriMet after the baseball bat beating, I don't think selective enforcement will improve rider safety in the long term.

The pedophiles without websites are now free to cruise TriMet lines without much oversight since the public now thinks the problem is solved.

Furthermore, TriMet's PR coup is Portland's PR disaster. LA must hate us for exporting our undesirables.

Do you now have to have a pro-Bush website to avoid harassment and exclusion from TriMet?

This POS was not "charged" with a crime...He had his ability to use tri-met removed for 60 days. This is not a criminal charge and there is a process to contest the exclusion. But you know what, they didn't beat him, they didn't taze him hell they didn't sink him to the bottom of the Willamette. He drew attention to himself in a lot of ways over the last few months. So Be it...Sayanora...Good Riddence.

"Do you now have to have a pro-Bush website to avoid harassment and exclusion from TriMet?"

Are you equating pedophile websites to Non-Pro-Bush websites? Gimme a break

Now that is a job well done by the Transit Police! I don't care if it is harassment, it got the crap bag to move back to SoCal.

If you read the article the Police had authority to exclude him off the system becasue he was violating the rules because he was riding for hours at a time to "stay warm." Well, now he's in LA and will stay much more warm there. The "drug charge" is brillant!

Let me join you with words of 'thank you'. You have done a great job. Robert Opala

If TriMet had him dead to rights on the "riding the bus for hours to stay warm" charge, why did they fabricate the possession charge?

It is dangerous to ignore the blatant disregard of the facts and the law whenever it suits your purposes. This is the way that George W. Bush does business and look at where it's gotten us in the world.

"This is the way that George W. Bush does business and look at where it's gotten us in the world."

I had a feeling someone was going to pop up in this thread and say this was like Guantanamo/Abu Grab/Blackwater blah, blah, blah...

Wow...I really see the linkage between taking a legal action against a self avowed pedophile by feeding him pizza and yanking his bus pass for 60 days and GWB's corrupted foreign policy. You forgot to mention Hitler...he was a direct action kinda guy as well. Maybe because I support taking action against pedophiles that means I'm a Nazi. Yikes!!!

BTW, if the guy wanted to challenge the suspension of his bus pass he could have demanded a hearing with due process etc., etc., etc. He made the decision to bail on the due process hearing and moved to L.A. The critical difference is that the prisoners at Guantanamo were tortured and not given due process. The two scenarios are completely different...think about it.

Hooo-RAY! It sounds like community policing to me. It's a transit system, not a daytime homeless shelter.

Any creep who waxes poetically about his sexual attraction to "Little Girls" deserves to suffer both humiliation and public outrage.

The recent beating/disarming of the alleged voyeur in NW Portland is another example of community justice: if the criminal justice system is not up to the task of keep us safe ("911, please hold"), then I hope to see more vigilantes stand up to protect their kids and families.

The self admitted serial rapist also comes to mind (a la Tribune): even if we catch and prosecute a CHILD RAPIST, the parole board still wants to give him another chance to reoffend. Sheeeesh!

To some of us, at least, there's a difference between a "community beating" and a legitimate intervention by law enforcement officers that led to an appropriate result.

Perhaps less so when you find the voyeur outside your bathroom window.

It's also worth remembering that the alleged voyeur is the one who pulled out the gun. While the chronology of events is unknown, the shooter is fortunate his gun wasn't used against him after he had his face rearranged.

"First they came for the pedophiles..."

No? Not having it?

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."

...Adolph Hitler, 1940

That Hitler was really onto something. America in 2007 feels more and more like Germany circa 1940. It's uncanny.

The Hitler quote sounds more like a PPS pitch for a local option tax. For the CHEEEEL-dren! {whisper} not the teacher's union...

We hear locals shouting "for the children" with greater frequency than nationally. But if it's a liberal scam, it's not really a scam, right?

Phil, the Hitler quote is inaccurate. Only the first sentence is from Mein Kamph. The second belongs to Orthodox and politically conservative Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who creatively raises the Fuhrer from the dead to write a letter to another dead crony about how America's government is taking over the efforts of National Socialism:

http://www.aapsonline.org/brochures/lapin.htm

Thanks to Lapin, Hitler is now misquoted all over the place -- ahh, the power of the uncorroborated press....

Meanwhile, be very careful who you equate the "government" with.... double-speak is everywhere. Is government "them," or is it we the people? National "Socialism" made it "them." So do writers like Lapin, who supposedly detests the people he's characterizing in his essay. Be very careful.

Power has always rested with the people to engage with others or shun them with regard to their observance of social rules. That still works in close-knit (i.e. conservative) communities.

Currently we are a society in flux between the liberal values evolving from the late 60s and the subsequent attempts to rein them in. When social systems are in turmoil, communities break down. Society at large no longer has a sense of community, and so there are no parameters in place to manage these outcomes ourselves.

The price of multiculturalism at the moment is alienation. Because we don't know who "we" is anymore, we have no group cohesion. So (good thing) you can't shun someone because you don't like his ethnicity, but (bad thing) you also can't shun him because he's a social misfit. Now we have to depend on the law, and on how strict we choose to make those laws.

Did the transit police people err in their official dealing with McClellan? Yes. The individuals used their professional power illegally. But consider this: if they'd simply used their power as knowledegable individuals to speak loudly to McClellan about his practice and his blog, to express their disapproval of him as a social misfit, would other passengers have joined them in jeering him off the train?

Government ultimately rests with the people, but only if the people have enough intelligence and compassion to look after and protect one another. It's called personal accountability. Who among us are willing to step up to the plate, say what we see, and come out from under the protection of these blogs?