This Slate video may be particularly hilarious to me because I know Josh Levin, who provides the voice-over for the undercover cop's report. But it's also the best explanation I've seen of what went, ah, down in that Minneapolis bathroom. And watching the foot-touch and the hand-under-the-stall maneuver makes Craig's behavior seem more self-evidently damning than it did yesterday, when Mark Schmitt and I diavlogged on the subject.
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Wide Stance
29 Aug 2007 01:56 pm
Comments (8)
Damning how, exactly? Legally? I guess he broke the law. But it's an absurd law, if he did. Why should indicating interest in sex with someone else be illegal? I'm pretty sure men proposition women in public spaces all the time.
Actually, the video gave me new sympathy for the senator. I'm not familiar with bathroom pickup rituals, but it seems like the officer stamping his foot in return encouraged Craig to continue to pursue him. If someone in the stall next to me stamped his foot, I don't think I or most people would stamp back. The only people who would have even known they were being propositioned would be gay people and the police, it seems.
mad6798j writes: "'m not familiar with bathroom pickup rituals, but it seems like the officer stamping his foot in return encouraged Craig to continue to pursue him. If someone in the stall next to me stamped his foot, I don't think I or most people would stamp back. The only people who would have even known they were being propositioned would be gay people and the police, it seems."
The two minutes Craig spent ogling the crack in the stall and the handswipes under the barrier can be ignored only if you think the cop was lying - which is always a possibility. But since Craig pled guilty and the previous allegations from Mike Rogers also involved anonymous crapper sex I think anyone saying Craig's denial may be true is mildly delusional, to say the least.
Well the handswipes came after the return tapping, so the peering into the stall is about the worst thing he did. At no point did I say his denial was true, I was implying the whole thing seemed like entrapment to me.
Get him out of the senate, period.
He's no real conservative anywyay and attempted to sell this country out to the North American Union a few months back. Screw him. I hope they give him a few months in jail. At best, he is a peeping Tom. He's been accused of things like this before.
Im sick of RINO's.
According to his driver's license in that reenactment, he was born 10/15/1973!
"The two minutes Craig spent ogling the crack in the stall and the handswipes under the barrier can be ignored only if you think the cop was lying"
That also strikes me as encouragement by the officer though. What would your reaction be (or a reasonable person's reaction if you're not reasonable) if you're in a stall and some old guy is standing right outside peering in at you through the crack for a few minutes. Its hard for me to imagine anyone just letting it happen or ignoring it, as the officer did in this case. And if you allow someone to do that for a few minutes, I'd definitely interpret that as encouragement. It may not meet the legal definition of entrapment, but in my mind it seems like the kind of official misbehavior entrapment laws were designed to prevent.
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We had this problem a few years back in highway rest stops across the state. It’s a real problem and something the police are constantly called into try and put a damper on.
Matthew Yglesias had an interesting discussion over at his blog concerning this.
It seems accurate to note that propositioning someone for sex is not/cannot be a crime?? (if no money is involved), rather having public sex could be a crime. The Senator never actually had any sex and is only accused of (possibly) propositioning someone for sex.
Posted by Fitz | August 29, 2007 3:28 PM