Posted on 09/04/2007 7:48:46 PM PDT by RightOnTheLeftCoast
Ben Stein: Gestapo Tactics Got Larry Craig
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 7:39 PM
Former Sen. Larry Craig didn't do anything illegal and was railroaded with "Gestapo tactics," says actor and commentator Ben Stein.
Appearing recently on Your World With Neil Cavuto program, Stein remarked: "I don't like the idea that people are sitting in the next stall from you at a public bathroom listening to whether or not you tap your foot. This is, as I said, Gestapo tactics. Gestapo, Gestapo, Gestapo. It's not America."
Stein says Craig, who was arrested June 11 by Minneapolis police and pled guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct, is a victim of "pure police entrapment and thuggery."
"The police have real work to do at the airport," Stein says. "It's an airport, hello. There are security problems at airports. Al-qaida: Are you listening? Our security people are entrapping perfectly honest U.S. senators in lavatory stalls instead of looking for you terrorists."
Stein charges that police intimidated Craig into pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after he was arrested for tapping his foot in a bathroom stall at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.
Police say foot tapping is a common overture used to signal interest in a sexual encounter. Minneapolis police had reportedly made several arrests in recent months for lewd conduct in restrooms at the airport.
"A policeman drags him off, or verbally drags him off, starts browbeating him, essentially threatens he's going to ruin his career if the guy doesn't plead guilty right away," Stein tells Cavuto. "This is Gestapo tactics in Minneapolis-St. Paul. It's not nice."
Stein adds that it was wrong for GOP stalwarts to join the drumbeat for Craig's resignation: "This is some way to treat the people who have been loyal members of your party for many years. What did he do wrong? Suppose he was soliciting for gay sex. Gay sex is not illegal in the United States, the Supreme Court has said that. If it were illegal, it would be a different story. It's not illegal. He didn't do anything illegal, they're just bludgeoning him into a confession."
The Craig scandal points out a fundamental question about the balance of political power, according to Stein.
"On trumped up charges, they bring down the legislator and change the balance of power within the United States generally," he says. "This is a really serious case of police overreaching and the victim here is Larry Craig and the Constitution of the United States."
Craig has represented Idaho in Congress for over a quarter of a century and was up for re-election next year.
In who's endo?
And they are free to arrest anyone who has sex in a public restroom.
susie
gay men are cruising for sex everywhere, parks, truck stops, wherever.
I am with a earlier post that says Craig was toppled by Gestapo tactics.
LEO’s can be very forceful and confrontational and may intimidate gullible subjects. Somehow after hearing the tape, this don’t add up.
Charging a person with a crime they have yet to commit.
...Such behavior is not illegal that I know of.
Nope. It's clear that in Minneapolis (and elsewhere), soliciting a sex act (at least in a public restroom) is a crime. That's why Sgt. Karsnia arrested Sen. Craig.
Hmmm are you insulting me??
;)
susie
The problem I hve with this whole affair is WHY WAS CRAIG SO STUPID?
If that were me, and these Gestapo police tried intimidate me, I’d say F U. Arrest me, do as you please, but as soon as my lawyer gets here to post my bail, there will be hell to pay when I get back to my office.
There would be headlines alright, but they would be about RATS being hauled off to prison for their part in the conspiracy.
I can’t believe Craigs innocence because his actions are too stupid. Even a truly stupid person wouldn’t have gone down this way.
oh okay. you’re talking about some of that new fangled libertarianism. Just like when the city governments pass some soft ban on smoking and the citizens are supposed to police each other, you spect stuff to jes work itself out in the public stalls of america. Sort of state or community standards and such. Okay then if the police won’t shield my sons from this bull then it’s bloody knuckles to get it solved citizen style. That’s what happens when you rub it in the faces of good citizens. See Berlin 1934 for examples. We don’t want extremism to take hold. That’s why the cops go into known queer toilets where the community standards dictate this activity is not desired and put the kibosh to it.
Also, I can't imagine that a completely innocent US Senator would fold so easily, simply because a city cop was browbeating him.
But, Ben does stick up for Craig: "What did he do wrong? Suppose he was soliciting for gay sex. Gay sex is not illegal in the United States, the Supreme Court has said that. If it were illegal, it would be a different story. It's not illegal. He didn't do anything illegal, they're just bludgeoning him into a confession."
Yeah, there you go, so what if Craig was soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. It's not illegal! So just back off! Hmm, so what did he plead to?
Oh boy, that's quite the endorsement.
I disagree, but it’s late. I’m off to bed. And no one better come in there tapping their toes!
susie
And they are free to arrest anyone who has sex in a public restroom.
Yes, and they are also able to arrest those who only solicit others for sex acts. And that ability is essential for the prevention of predatory sexual behavior.
It's similar to the distinction between conspiring to murder somebody and actually murdering them: both are crimes.
-—Anyone can do that to you now. -—
No they can’t. I live in Montana. Nobody I know around here would tolerate that for one moment.
Whatever...
susie
And it is likely that the cop could well have initiated the events for reasons we’ll never know. And what kind of sick twisted cop would volunteer for this detail? I’d like the cop and his superiors investigated to determine what if anything they knew of Craig prior to their operation. Afterall, we’re talking about a sitting US senator.
Uh, until Sen. Craig tossed his card down on the desk, he was just another john nabbed in the john. And, yes, Craig was a sitting U.S. Senator alright...sitting in a 'wide stance'! Sheesh.
What else would he do to keep that information from coming to light? Just about anything, it appears. THAT is why he needs to go.
-—LEO’s can be very forceful and confrontational and may intimidate gullible subjects. -—
Craigs is/was a Senator not some illegal peasant from Sonora. We don’t need his kind in the Senate, no sir!
So quote the statute then. A lot of people would disagree that "it's clear" that alone is a crime.
don’t get mad. you make excellent legalistic arguments. it’s just that you have to consider not only the acceptability but also the socially redeeming aspect of behavior. A vagrant doesn’t really do anything wrong just by being there does he/she? and yet vagrancy laws exist. maybe they are being written off the books but they sure existed back when a ford and a chevy would last 10 years. Vagrancy is the promise of or the potential for mischief, not the act. Trespassing is the promise of or potential for mischief, not the act. Soliciting sex in the rest stop, it is the promise of mischief, not the act that we choose to police. And the mischief could be backlash from citizens who are repulsed by this behavior. Or it could be the act itself if viewed by someone offended by it.
i applaud the cops for being proactive here and using the vague definition of a law and trying to make the quality of life better one public restroom at a time. if it's unconstitutional, let the courts say so.
I don't know what claudiustg was suggesting, but I have no problem with saying that -- although such uncategorical statements are a bit problematical -- you are close enough for government work, as they say.
Of course, gays are eager to project the image of two lovely neighbors who are especially talented at gardening, cooking and decorating, and are lovely neighbors.
Reality: Cursising behavior, dangerous anonymous liasons in public places...these kinds of things are endemic to the lifestyle of young homosexual males, although perhaps some get beyond it as they age.
It is simply a given that risk-taking seekers of gay sex, anywhere and everywhere, are -- at least potentially -- pedophiles. Think about it before you send you teenage sons on a field trip with one.
Jimminy Christmas, is this the Macarena?
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