You're ignorant. Usufruct has been fair game for longer than you can hope to understand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usufruct

So shut the hell up. Were you really going to eat every single one?

Leviticus 19:9-10
"Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.

Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger."

Absolutely, 110% agree with anonymous. Not only was this a delightfully specific complaint, whereas all-too-many others are just general rants about a large portion of society, but it was well-written and actually made me feel for the writer. Nice to see an i,anonymous published that is not laden with superfluous F-bombs and violent sexual references. Screw the discourteous pear thief! Anonymous, may your tree thrive and your pears prosper!

Stealing is stealing, whether the fruit is in my kitchen or on my tree. Arguments to the contrary are self serving justifications for thieving. That the so-called "Gleaners" never ask first proves they know it.

Anyone who quotes Leviticus is just BEGGING to be called a hyprocrite. Unless you eschew pork, blended fabrics, and own slaves keep the old testament garbage to yourself.

This isnt about the fruit. This is about the bruised ego because they took it without asking. Imagine how it would have gone if you had said "don't bother, they aren't ripe yet." Instead, you open with an accusation of them being a thief. I can certainly see how one would not perceive himself a thief if he can simply reach out his car window and pluck fruit from a branch overhanging the road. Easier than downloading songs. Leggo the ego.

~Zenmaster Demondog

This is an interesting situation. Since the tree is next to the curb, that property belongs to the city. But, does the tree technically belong to the home owner or renter? Could the pear thief actually get a citation, or is the fruit considered public just as the curb and sidewalk are?

since when does quoting one of the most important books in western history make someone a hypocrite? I think you're just jealous you didn't think of it first. sounds like anonymous has nothing better to do than watch the fruit trees in the front yard, confront strangers, and worry about things that are never going to happen! this column should just go away forever.

Anonymous is correct here. Okay, maybe you'd come up with some bizarre concept of the law that allows a cloaca to get away with being a cloaca, but that doesn't make it morally right, and that doesn't make the person who took the fruit any less of a cloaca.

Seriously, people like that and people who stand up for them (by quoting Leviticus, no less, which pretty much holes your case below the waterline for me) are one big reason that you can't use the words "polite" and "society" together with a straight face any more. The way I was raised, you don't assume that anything in front of someone's house is available for gratuitous use except the parking lane on the street in front. They can't stop you from using the sidewalk in front, but you can't make mud pies out of their yard.

They call it shared space. it takes a certain sort of maturity to understand that just because you can pass through, you can't do what ever you want there.

It doesn't kill people to ask.

The thief deserves every minute of the diarrhea they're going to have for eating those pears, if, indeed, they can.

I won't quote the bible, but I don't think there's anything wrong with picking fruit that's hanging over the sidewalk. Please calm down, consider your fellow man and what it means to live in a supportive, sharing community. We're all in this together and a couple pears isn't anything to spoil your day.

Sick of Christian Hypocrisy,

Shut the fuck up, you long-winded assbag! Or, that's what I would say...if I didn't live in a polite society where indignant asshats could intellectualize themselves into an argument on the flimsiest pretenses based on assumption and mental laziness with little or no consequence...

in fact, be congratulated by fellow ignorant asshats on their superb argumentation (by which is actually meant...pretty-sounding agreements with their own point of view). Oh, I know how this game goes. Would an offended punctuation or grammar nazi (only selectively, of course) like to speak against me, now?


Okay, you nazis had your time, and my spleen has almost fully vented.

So, on to why Sick of Christian Hypocrisy (and the first anti-leviticus poster) earned my spleen. Well, first I'm going to clear my biases.

I come down in favor of taking street-reachable fruit, but also in favor of courteousness, which both anonymous and 'thief' lacked. We don't have thief's story yet (stay tuned for next week's i, anonymous), but anonymous's inability to let the incident go with grace makes me think.........ASSHAT! ASSHAT ALERT!

Biases stated, look, Sick of Christian Hypocrisy, we are all sick of hypocrisy in this world, Christian or otherwise. But we are all hypocritical (one of jesus's smaller lessons...we're all sinners, and ought to look to ourselves before casting stones, etc.). YOU are hypocritical! Dismissing using anything tarred as 'Christian' in an argument, and then using another portion of the same damn thing (a passage from the old testament) "to arrogantly prove a point about someone else," and going on to use more Christian material to make your point(s)...pah! You define material as unuseable, and then use it!

And then you are worse than hypocrite! You are an assumptionist (that the original leviticus poster was Christian, that the 'thief' would resent a similar 'theft').

Sir, if any of what I have said offends you, I would have you know several things:

(1) I am Not A Christian

(2) I believe in the Golden Rule, and that being said, if I were as tragically misguided in applying my intellect as you are, I would want guidance. Were you me, I would thank you.

(3) If religion is the Golden Rule, you could use a little more good religion, and examine the ignorant, arrogant trash you are putting out into the world, and how you present it...and maybe put a fucking sock in it till you figure yourself out a little better.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, I am here all week to take questions and comments.

Additionally, scholars quote material they do not fully conform with (intelectually) to make points FREQUENTLY. Sometimes, only to prove that a thought has been considered before , maybe even long before (which may well have been why the leviticus quoter quoted leviticus...hell, the poster's own words lead me to that conclusion). And from a different perspective time or culture-wise. Why was the supposed (never self-declared) "Christian" decried for the same practice scholars engage in...namely, selective use of extensive materials?

If the author lives in Portland, he or she probably has more to fear from an incovenienced neighbor than a pissed-off pear-picker.

The driver can reach the fruit without getting out of the car. The author doesn't refute the driver's challenge about the branches hanging over the street. An informed citizen can reasonably conclude that the tree violates Portland City Code:

"29.20.010 J.2

2. Improved streets. All improved streets must be clear of obstructions to vehicle movement and parking from edge to edge and to an elevation of 11 feet above street level. For example, bushes that encroach on or over any part of a street must be cut back or removed; limbs of trees that project over a street at an elevation of less than 11 feet above street level must be removed; and no wires or other things shall be maintained over the street level at any elevation less than 11 feet."

This code does not establish ownership of the fruit, just an owner's responsibility to keep private property from becoming a nuisance by encroaching on the public domain. As far as I know, only the city is authorized to order the removal of nuisances.

So, yeah, the fruit is private property, and the driver is a thief. But folks shouldn't get any notion that carrying pruning shears will allow them to harvest somebody else's fruit by clipping the branch, because only the city can legally deprive the owner of it, and even then, only after giving the owner the chance to remove it.

ok ManWith., but it wouldn't be in anonymous's best interest to notify the authorities of such thievery. it would be like calling the cops because your hook-up shorted your sack again. and if it is a moral question, then i say anon is the dick. i highly doubt those few pears over the road are essential to their livelyhood. going into someone's yard is clearly uncool. getting bent out of shape about a few taken from off property is a waste of time. sit back, relax, eat a pear.

HAHAHAHHA I bet the first poster, Mr. Scripture, is one of those deadbeat hippies in YWAM. They all seem to indoctrinated into believing whatever their 'leader' tells them to.

Talk about hypocrisy. These quackjobs aren't even smart enough to comprehend the Bible, let alone recite it. Oh but they sure think they know everything....

Lessee... If anon's tree hung over my yard and his pears fell on my land, then that shit is MINE. Since his tree hangs over public property, then the pears are up for grabs. Good for the "thief" (even though the fruit is evidently far from edible.)

Anon is clearly a jackass idiot incapable of keeping his rage in check. He needs to grow the fuck up, think things through, or please move far away. I think in Alabama you can shoot people who threaten your fruit. He'd love it there.

if you really wanted the fruit from that tree you'd have picked it. but lazily you'd rather call someone thief, pathetic.

I had an individual take some apples off my tree one day. I saw them through the window, but was too slow getting outside. So I collected a few and kept them by the front door. Next time I saw them, I offered them the ones I had, but with one caveat:

I threw them like fastballs. Hilarity ensued.

::shakes head:: the people in this town sure are whiny. It makes me wonder how in the hell I could have grown up in such a place. Oh well. As for the fruit picker, right on. If it were my tree, and I noticed someone picking some of the fruit (as long as the person wasn't in my yard), I would smile and wave hello, and then go about my business, thinking nothing of what just happened other than good thoughts about being a good samaritan. BTW, Mercury staff, your spellcheck doesn't recognize the word "samaritan." How utterly ghetto.

I'm both a big time gardener (with many diverse fruit trees in my yard) and a gleaner. If you want to learn ht glean ethically in pdx (or anywhere, really...the rules haven't changed much in decades) attend an urbanedible gleaning party. We gather as a group, find fruit trees, knock on doors, and nine out of ten times, not only get invited to pick said fruit, but also ushered in thru the residence to the back yard where a plethora of fruit also awaits our harvesting hands. Many folks are either too busy, too old, or too uninterested to use all or most of their fruit and welcome the chance to share it...makes 'em feel good about themselves. If I'm gleaning alone, I'll clean up under the fruit tree and bring their rotting fruit back to my place to compost (or leave it in theirs if they want me to). And later that week, I ALWAYS return to their house with a thank you gift...usually dried fruit of a different type than they have. I also leave my name (again), along with info on both urbanedibles.org and Portland Fruit Tree Project (portlandfruit.org), should they wish to list their tree online in the future. Gleaning should never be an anonymous activity.

And to the Asian Pear tree owner, aka I,A: you have a right to protect your tree, absolutely! As a fellow tree grower, I've planted most of mine in the back and side of my property to discourage those wishing to degrade their own intergrity. For my other accessible edibles, I post a sign which reads: "Happy To Share if You Just Knock & Ask Permission First"