TRANSCRIPT: Police Interview With Sen. Larry Craig

ABC News ^ | 08/30/2007

[21stCenturyFreeThinker]

I can’t see where just the action of passing ones hand, foot, etc. by the wall would lead one to being arrested.

Well, if it was just by the wall it would be one thing. But he was well on the wrong side of the wall from what the report says.

I mean even on the streets they have to get an actual type of “verbal” agreement for such services don’t they before they just up and arrest someone.

If that were so then people could just use non verbal gestures to evade the law.

Maybe we should all listen to our mothers and go before we leave the house?

Like they say, you learned all you need to know in kindergarten.

[maggief]

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Concert violinist attacked by cops for riding a bicycle

The problem is that cops can harass you for no reason, treat any response except complete submission as resisting arrest, and their word carries more weight than yours, even if you have video evidence to the contrary.

I then heard him yell an order to Officer Bryant- ‘Shoot him!’. Officer Bryant then shot me with the taser. I fell uncontrolled to the pavement for the second time, experiencing the full force of a weapon that can only be considered barbaric. (There are many documented deaths by taser. For this reason police departments do not consider it a ‘non’ lethal weapon, but a ‘less’ lethal weapon. It was developed to be used in lieu of a gun, as a weapon of last resort when a person is seriously threatened. Needless to say, I did not give permission for this to be used on me as part of the exercise, nor was I asked in advance if I had any medical history that could have led to my death. Only after the fact, in the hospital, was I asked my medical history.)

As I lay still on the pavement, Officer Wingate walked over to my glasses and smashed them into the ground with his boot. I was handcuffed, body searched and baggage searched. Reinforcements were called in, a total of (4) squad cars and a paramedic unit.

Officer Wingate said, ‘Well, you wanted to speak to my supervisor, here he is’. I then asked Sergeant Karsnia ‘What in the world is going on here?’ He also wanted to know from me what had happened but said ‘first, I’d like to speak to my officer, and then I’ll get back to you’. He had a private conversation with Officer Wingate, came back, asked what had happened but immediately interrupted me and said ‘Look, I’ll do the talking here because you tried to take a swing at my officer’. At this point the collusion was clear. I then had no reason to believe that the brutality was over. As I stood on Outbound Rd next to the squad car, handcuffed, I called out ‘Help!’ to all passing traffic, hoping to draw attention to the situation, and in hope of a witness. No cars would stop. When ironically asked to ‘calm down’ I explained to Sergeant Karsnia that I wanted a third party present, as I no longer had reason to trust the police.

Posted by Jeff at 8:30 PM

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:o1-H_td62RkJ:spinthecat.blogspot.com/2007/06/concert-violinist-attacked-by-cops-for.html+david+karsnia+police+-larry+-craig&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=20&gl=us&client=firefox-a

http://greencycles.blogspot.com/

http://presspubs.com/articles/2007/07/20/white_bear_press/news/doc469e1aa46d057014929027.txt

[cynwoody]

Regardless of Craig being guilty or innocent, I think the cop is an assw*pe!

If this blogpost is true, the cop is much worse than that.

[lonestar]

What I don’t understand is-—WHY is it such a big deal if he put his L or R hand under the stall?

[scrabblehack]

I'm wondering what he meant by this line:

LC: So I go into the bathroom here as I normally do, I'm a commuter too here.

I assume what was meant was "I'm a commuter to here." So has he been going to MSP on a regular basis? Well, it could be a hub for DC to Idaho flights, I suppose, but even if I did fly DC-MSP-ID quite a bit, I don't think I would have said I was a "commuter" to MSP.

[Mannaggia l'America]

1. LC: Well..yes. I am frequently successful in these bathrooms. Only once I can remember, I came to shlt but only farted!

Sorry, I had to.

I was thinking the same thing! How does one determine "success" in the bathroom?

[When do we get liberated?]

I am going to put this nex to Pee Wee Herman stroking it in a theatre. It would not even be significant were it not for his position. Every line of the cops sounds like a man trying to corner someone from what they think the person did. I don’t condone homo activity in public places, but I am alarmed when someone uses the suble or not so suble force of the state to get you to admit to something you look like you were doing.

[keepitreal]

Just heard a commentator on CNN Anderson Cooper 360 say that Craig must absolutely resign because by his guilty plea he is a convicted criminal and convicted criminals are not permitted to serve in the US Senate.

I about fell over. The guy obviously has forgotten “Old Ted” from MA!

[VxH]

[there's nothing in what he confessed to which charges lewd behavior.]

 

Another strawman. 

 

The definition of Lewd includes obscenity.

 

lewd (lūd)
adj., lewd·er, lewd·est.

1. 1. Preoccupied with sex and sexual desire; lustful.
   2. Obscene; indecent.
2. Obsolete. Wicked.

[Middle English leued, unlearned, lay, lascivious, from Old English lǣwede, ignorant, lay.]

lewdly lewd'ly adv.
lewdness lewd'ness n.

http://www.answers.com/topic/lewd

 

The cited Disorderly Conduct statute DOES have a reference to conduct that is obscene. 

3) Engages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct

 

Obscene behavior is lewd behavior.

 

That seems to be the way that Sgt. Karsnia and Detective Nelson were applying the Minnesota statute.  I suspect they are a whole lot more familiar with the legal statutes and definitions in their jurisdiction than you or I are.

[21stCenturyFreeThinker]

Toe-tapping? I would say yes.

I'll vote with you there, toe tappers should be left alone as long as they do it in their own stall. I think nose pickers and farters should be protected as well. As for people who pee on the seat ...

Man, I respect you for holding your ground in the face of a withering assault over the last couple of days. I just have a hard time seeing how this could be a conspiracy. I'd like to think he didn't do this. But I'm guessing the other 40+ men caught up in this sting are making the same excuses to their friends and family.

[TigersEye]

Good find. The way Officer Wingate acted is right in line with the same sort of unprofessional badgering and offense taken at not agreeing with everything he said that Sgt. Karsnia displayed in this interview with Craig. Something stinks in Minneapolis.

[VxH]

[Yet you 100% assume Craig acted lewdly.

Sharpen those brains, boy.]

Sharpen? The strawmen you keep hoisting up can be perforated with a dull spoon.

You're not going to start asking us to define IS are you?

Some definitions of Lewd include Obscenity. Obscene conduct is included under the Disorderly Conduct statute Senator Craig was charged under.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889089/posts?page=289#289

[philetus]

Do men spread their feet out further sometimes to help keep their suit pants from touching the floor?”

Yes, but unless the stall is extremely narrow, not enough for your foot to be in the next stall.

[21stCenturyFreeThinker]

The cited Disorderly Conduct statute DOES have a reference to conduct that is obscene.

3) Engages in offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct

I think what they are trying to say is that using a strict parsing of the language of the statute by itself his conduct could have merely been offensive, abusive, boisterous, or noisy, rather than obscene. The problem is that the charging document explains specifically what conduct led to these charges and his guilty plea.

[VxH]

[The problem is that the charging document explains specifically what conduct led to these charges and his guilty plea.]

 

Sgt. Karsnia was investigating lewd conduct.   If the definition of Lewd includes Obscenity, then the obscenity reference in the statute includes lewd conduct.

 

Tap Tap, (zzzip) Waddle Waddle -  It's Larry the Lewd Duck.

 

[endthematrix]

What a railroading.

I’m in Chicago and the front page of the Sun-Times is a guy who was railroaded by undercover vice cops posing as a street corner whore. The guy stopped (with his wife and daughter in the car) because his wife had seen a female appear to need help waving her arms. They stopped to see if she needed help and the cop said $25 for sex and they family laughed. Next thing he’s arrested and the city impounds his car (Chitown scam) and thousands of $$$ later...

[TChad]

Thanks for posting the transcript. That cop spent way too much time emphasizing the benefits of pleading guilty.

You accept a job as a toilet cop only if you have been promised a reward if you do it well. Doing it well means getting convictions. An easy way to get convictions is to threaten innocent men with the expense and humiliation of a public trial, so they plead guilty even if they are innocent. Maybe that was not what the cop was doing, but it sure sounded that way to me.

Yesterday I was pretty much convinced that Craig was guilty. Now I am not at all sure he wasn't just the victim of a police scam.

Time will tell. This is an ideal time for Craig's gay partners to make money selling their stories, so we will either learn something from those stories, or from their absence.

[VxH]

If Mr. Greenpeace had simply WALKED his bicycle out of the terminal area the whole incident that he provoked would have been avoided.

But no, he had to make a point.

A Republic is a system of LAWS.

I was raised to question the authority of those who make the laws while respecting those whose job it is to implement them on the street.

Mr. Greanpeace's blog reminds me of the cop-hating posts that are typical on indymedia and he gets no sympathy from me.

[VxH]

[WHY is it such a big deal if he put his L or R hand under the stall?]

He caught Craig in a lie. Focusing on the lie probably cranked up the panic-o-meter and increased the psychological pressure within him to plead guilty.

[21stCenturyFreeThinker]

Tap Tap, (zzzip) Waddle Waddle - It's Larry the Lewd Duck.

lol

I can understand why this is hard for people to accept. Take the politics out of it. It's a lot easier to think only unaccomplished creepy looking degenerates who can be spotted a mile away ever do this stuff.

The guy looks like he could be your grandfather. Who wants to think their grandfather ever did something like this. I mean I'm pretty sure my granddad never even had sex.



It would probably be best if the Senator spent more time fishing, just not in any bathrooms.