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Questionable Perspective

I have been blessed (or cursed, if I have your viewpoint pegged correctly) with training in both journalism and law enforcement. In your "Reggae Night" article you take great pains to use Lockwood and Stetson's view of the incident to make it look like the police overreacted—that it "seemed like the cops were out there looking for trouble," and "they were basically just bullying people." Unfortunately, that is a common thread that runs through the story of many people who have committed crimes, large and small. Quite often it's the excuse an offender uses to convince family and friends that they were just fine, but the cops decided to get tough for no reason. I'm sure Mom will believe it, and people who are prone to disbelieve any statement the police may provide. And you painted the picture in black and white, as if there were no doubt about the innocence of Lockwood and Stetson—yet these matters are usually a grim mixture of grays and shadows, and are not always easy to read.

One last point: Lockwood and Stetson say they each had "four or five beers" during the show "but weren't drunk." That's a line taken out of thousands of court transcripts by people trying to beat the rap on everything from drunk in public to manslaughter after a drunken driver has put a pedestrian through the windshield. You basically prefer the story of two probably intoxicated people over the written statements of sober police who were there to keep the peace. Please, it's time to step back and regain your perspective.
Dave Paul
Gladstone

I'm surprised WW wasted paper writing about a common and appropriate arrest of two likely drunk Roseland Theater customers who flagrantly ignored police, and the law, in what would have been a NO news story event, had they NOT been young, semi-attractive yuppie wannabes. If they'd been fat, ugly nobodies WW would not be writing about this nano-chapter in Portland's police/civilian interaction.

Once while on 82nd avenue, I illegally crossed a busy intersection on Sandy Blvd, and got flagged down by a police car. The two male officers were annoyed with me, I had done something stupid by crossing, at rush hour no less. Though I was careful to do it in a safe enough manner, it was against the law. After walking across the street, I waited for the officers to get out of their car and, instead of being lippy and rude; I calmly agreed that I had done something stupid. I apologized for my action and that was really all they wanted. They lectured me about safety and, of course, they were absolutely correct in doing so. I did not resist their reasoning, I didn't back talk; I accepted responsibility for being careless and impatient. They seemed relieved, smiling before waving goodbye. If the Roseland couple had behaved appropriately, being cooperative instead of walking away and thinking they were above the law, if they had at least been polite, then this situation would never have happened and WW would not be wasting valuable paper writing about NOTHING.

Therresa Kennedy
Southwest Cashmur Lane

WWeek 2015