Senator Craig: The Next Victim of the Minneapolis Airport Cops
Posted by Karoli in News August 30th, 2007
Back in June I wrote about Stephan Orsak’s unfortunate encounter with the Minneapolis Airport Police. They were unreasonable, hostile and made the LA Sheriff’s Department look like friendly grandparents. (For those of you unfamiliar with LA Sheriffs, they’re pretty notorious for being a rough, tough, and sometimes brutal police force).
Now I’m listening to the tape of Senator Craig being interviewed after his so-called “solicitation” of an undercover cop and I’m absolutely incredulous. This cop is completely out of line. I haven’t heard anything on this tape that would suggest he did anything improper or toward soliciting sex from anyone. Now I realize there are some nuances with regard to how signals are sent and read, but try as I might, I’m having a great deal of difficulty understanding why he pled guilty to anything at all!
One thing I do know: That cop was trying to bully him into confessing to something he didn’t do in a similar fashion to what was done to Orsak. I suppose Sen. Craig should count himself lucky that he wasn’t tossed to the ground and hog-tied.
With that said, this is a political hot potato because members of Craig’s own party insist on making it one. If they’d just lay off the wholesale condemnation of gays and lesbians, this would be complete non-news. Instead, the guy’s entire career is on the line over a trumped-up charge which surely appears to be manufactured by a heavy-handed airport cop.
Craig didn’t do anyone a favor by pleading guilty when there’s no evidence he did anything. He should’ve stood up and fought back, even if he DID try to solicit sex in the restroom. It was his word against the cop’s, no money was exchanged, no sex was had…so what would they possibly convict him of? This tape proves absolutely nothing. But by pleading guilty and giving up his right to defend himself against this charge, he sent the message to the cops that all they need to do is bully people into admitting something they didn’t do.
Someone needs to look hard at these Minneapolis Airport cops. These two incidents seem to be indicators of a systemic attitude problem desperately in need of adjustment.
Technorati Tags: larry craig, stephan orsak, minneapolis, airport, airport security, airport police, railroad
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…living life in 19/7 time 
That’s an interesting sideline to this story. I can’t believe I’m in the position of feeling sympathetic toward this guy, but I don’t want the cops engaging in unwarranted harrassment against anyone, no matter how much I disdain his politics.
Hi Donna,
I feel the same way. I may not like his politics, but he shouldn’t have been railroaded. Or let himself be railroaded.
[...] Parallel opining. Posted by Dan Collins @ 8:08 am | Trackback Share [...]
The Democrats and the media have perfected the art of personal destruction. As they scream about their fantasized Bush police state, they are busy applying the tactics of one to their political enemies. They have figured out that it is much easier to destroy their rivals via the media than beat them in elections. To use a sports analogy, when you have the refs in your pocket, you don’t even have to pretend to play by the same rules as the losers.
Dear Reasonable Democrats,
Thanks.
It’s nice to see you can put politics aside and defend someone you disagree with.
I’m not used to seeing that attitude on many left of center websites frankly and it speaks well of you however much I disagree with your politics.
However much I don’t know or really care about Senator Craig, heck, I’m Canadian after all, I think he was railroaded.
If I take the cops account verbatim, and I don’t, I still wonder what crime the Senator committed.
Do I think he’s gay? Maybe. Wanted sex? Possibly. But then so do I. Any takers?
(I’m kidding and my girlfriend, whom I love, might not appreciate it! But I guess my point is, to this Minnesota “cop”, have I just committed a crime of some kind… or in the United States, does a person have the right to speak and even — gasp — make a pass provided they respect the results of that pass, even if it’s rejection?)
But he had not done anything wrong before he was arrested however much the cop believes he intended to.
Great post — I enjoyed it!
Christoph
[...] guilty. Fellow blogger Karoli e-mailed me while I was on vacation and asked this very question (here’s her post on the topic). She writes: Well, if you get this, I’d love to hear your take [...]