Independent videographer Joe Anybody is suing the City of Portland for just $100 in damages, hoping the lawsuit will challenge the cops' policy regarding people who video their actions. Anybody, whose real name is Mike Tabor, had his camcorder confiscated by cops in March, after he recorded an arrest ["Big Brother's Little Brother," News, April 3]. Tabor's lawyer, Benjamin Haile, writes: "Mr. Tabor is pursuing this claim because he wants to make sure that the City of Portland and the Portland Police Bureau establish a clear policy against seizing video cameras and/or prosecuting people under ORS 165.540 solely because they record public police activity including stops and arrests. He believes that this is a serious and all-too-common practice by some officers in the Portland Police Bureau." MD

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The mayor's Street Access for Everyone oversight committee agreed last week to present a report to council in November on the controversial sit-lie law ordinance. The report that the group delivers to council, co-authored by Mike Kuykendall of the Portland Business Alliance, Marc Jolin of JOIN, and Monica Goracke of the Oregon Law Center, will have three parts: addressing how the sit-lie law is enforced, figuring out whether or not it disproportionately targets any particular group, and making suggestions for how the council should move forward.

At the end of the meeting, Patrick Nolen of Sisters of the Road, who had been observing, got into an easily overhear-able discussion with Kuykendall. "I hope that you'd recognize that Sisters of the Road and the Portland Business Alliance are in a fight over this law," said Nolen. "The Portland Business Alliance has money and power on their side. I can't hire 60 officers to fight for my side."

"You guys have a big PR machine that's bigger than we do," responded Kuykendall. For more, check out blogtown.portlandmercury.com. MD