an 的小不

- Fact #1: In the upper left corner of the page are these words: "Portland Police Bureau." These three words make whatever else follows part

of an official document of a police department, in this case the police bureau of Portland, Oregon. Every single employee of this department

is paid by the taxpayers and citizens of Portland. For that matter, the paper on which this report itself has been produced has been paid for

by taxpayers. All of this means that whatever the contents say or don't say, it is a fact -- say again a fact -- that this report exists and

has been duly recorded by a member or members of the police department. It is a "public record" -- as Mr. Garber notes when he says it was

obtained through a "public records request." To say it was "filed by a lawyer" is a reminder that a lawyer is in fact an officer of the

court. Law.com defines the term "officer of the court" as "any person who has an obligation to promote justice."

Thus what we are reading here is not speculation, not gossip, not surmise. It is a police report, initiated by an officer of the court, and

by definition the existence of a police report -- an official government document -- is a fact.

- Fact #2: Dead center at the top of page one, in capital letters, are these two words: "SPECIAL REPORT." Which is to say, by definition the

Portland Police Bureau appears to distinguish between information that gets a form labeled "report" and a form labeled "special report."

Whatever the classification routines of the Bureau, it is a fact -- a fact -- that the information that follows has been deemed important

enough to be filed on a sheet bearing the words, in capital letters no less, "SPECIAL REPORT."

- Fact #3: Above the words "SPECIAL REPORT" is another word. It is clearly, in the version Garber has sent to me, highlighted in some

fashion. The word is very, very distinct. It too is in capital letters. The word: "CONFIDENTIAL."

 Fact #4: To the right of the facts found in the very first horizontal column -- the words "Portland Police Bureau" and "CONFIDENTIAL SPECIAL

REPORT" are four small boxes, each with a single word next to them. Clearly, the person filling out the report is expected to fill in one of

the boxes to indicate his or her view of the information below. The four words next to the four boxes are these: Information, Continuation,

Clearance, Supplemental. The box next to the word "Clearance" has been checked. It is the only box that has been marked -- with a handwritten

letter "X."

- Facts #5 and #6: The next line shows two facts. Whatever follows below has been assigned something called "Case No." So this fact -- Fact #

5 - tells us that whatever the information that follows, that information is, officially, a case belonging to the Portland Police Bureau.

What case? The report clearly provides this fact, Fact # 6. Someone has carefully handwritten that this information has officially been

designated by the Portland Police Bureau as Case. No. "07-9568."