From the arrest report, here's what Craig allegedly did: (1) put a duffel bag at the front of his stall; (2) peered through a crack into an adjoining stall; (3) tapped his foot; (4) moved his shoe over until it touched an officer's; and (4) ran his fingers along the underside of the stall divider. That's it.Effectively, Craig was arrested simply because he, obscured the opening of the space under his bathroom stall door with his suitcase, tapped his foot and displayed his fingers in a public bathroom. This is the criminalization of gay flirting behavior that, for the most part, heterosexuals wouldn't even recognize as flirting. Because our society is so homophobic, gay people are flirting in bathrooms, mostly unnoticed, and then police arrest them for it! Should tapping one's foot and displaying one's fingers be illegal outside of a bathroom as well?
Given the long history of police fabrication of evidence and entrapment of gay men in these sting operations, there should be no presumption that the officer's version of events is correct. But assuming for the sake of argument that Craig did everything the officer alleged, how was it the basis for a criminal charge that could get him a $1,000 fine and/or ten days in jail?
Disorderly conduct is a notoriously nebulous crime, allowing police wide discretion in making arrests and charges for conduct or speech that is little more than bothersome to police or to others. The "disorderly conduct" statute to which Craig pleaded guilty provides that one who knowingly “[e]ngages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others” is guilty of the misdemeanor of disorderly conduct. Minn. Stat. § 609.72, subd. 1(3) (2004). Volokh
What if they same laws were applied to heterosexual flirting rituals? Should heterosexuals be arrested for making eye contact, laughing at each other's jokes and taking off their wedding rings in sigles bars?
The Larry Craig scandal has been, if nothing else, educational. Most of us are learning for the first time that public restrooms are a major hangout for gay men looking for a quickie and that there’s a secret signaling code. That’s a good thing, since it’s apparently illegal to send this code in Minneapolis and elsewhere.Larry Craig's record on gay issues does seem to be criminal in a metaphorical way. But airport and city police officers are not the people who should prosecute that kind of criminality. Leftists and gay activists should go to these gay hangouts and photograph Republican legislators actually having gay sex in bathrooms, so that these photographs can be used to destroy the careers of these gay anti-gay crusaders.
This has, understandably, caused quite a bit of cross discussion. The editors at Slate had a mostly illuminating email exchange about the matter (the notable exception being June Thomas’ baffling assertion that Minneapolis airport cops would be better utilized “finding Osama Bin Laden in Waziristan”). Outside the Beltway
4 comments:
Hello Francis,
Good article!
It's too bad for Craig and his ilk that they have gamed and manipulated the system for so long that it is now harming them too. Oh the justice...
Karma can be a bitch when the time to pay the piper for such staggering hypocrisy rolls around. It just boggles the mind that holier-than-thou Christian leaders are so often involved in sick behavior. Just look at the history and current events of the Vatican and Papacy. See the patterns here?
Notice that Larry Craig was nabbed on June, 11th? Notice the pattern of pivotal events repeatedly occurring on number 11 days during recent years? How many unlikely coincidences are necessary before more people discern a strong pattern in the noise?
Here is Wisdom !!
Since the Republicans commit crimes every day, and there are twelve months in the year, each of which has an eleventh day, there is about a one-in-thirty chance that a Republican crime will be comitted on the eleventh day of any month. One thirtieth of all Republican crimes would be expected to occur on the eleventh of the month, barring other variables.
Given a large number of years, it's 12/356.2425, or 3.3685%. Seriously, the problem with most Numerology is that it typically looks only for confirmatory information- For example, one could choose any of:
1) A date Larry Craig voted against pro-gay legislation
2) A date Larry Graig voted for anti-gay legislation
3) A date Larry Craig purportedly had a homosexual affair.
4) A date Larry Craig denied having a homosexual affair.
5) A date Larry Craig confessed to a crime.
6) A date Larry Craig was accused of a crime.
7) A date Larry Craig was charged with a crime.
8) The date that the alleged crime by Larry Craig was first reported.
9) The date that Larry Craig first claimed he wasn't gay after his confession.
Assuming that there are a total of 9 dates here (some are likely congruent, others occurred multiple times), (assuming a random distribution of dates over 400 years - this is mostly to simplify the calculation - other assumptions don't have much impact), it goes up to roughly a 30.3% chance that one or more of them are on the 11th. And, of course, were I someone attempting to give credence to my theory that, say the 11th is important, I'd ignore all dates (Larry Craig related or otherwise) that weren't on the 11th.
Another way to put this is try the exact same analysis on a different arbitrary date from 1-28 (other than the 11th). Using exactly the same methodology, you should get roughly the same number of "unlikely coincidences" on that date.
Yes, Zimbel: That's the problem with numerology.
Now, if someone can show that crimes are statistically more likely to be committed by Republicans, then they'll get my attention, because at least that's a theory with some political utility, even if I don't believe it substantively.
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