Feeling some sympathy…
by Matt | August 31st, 2007 |I’m in the midst of listening to the police interrogation audio tape with Senator Larry Craig. I’ve posted on the situation once, as well as Brian.
To be honest, listening to the tape, I’m starting to feel some sympathy for the guy. His voice just sounds so lost and while he is a bit belligerent during the interview, I’m sure I would be as well if I thought I was innocent of a crime.
I don’t know why he pleaded guilty to the crime if he was really innocent. Perhaps he is guilty, but I don’t know.
Then again… maybe I’m just feeling sorry for the guy or sympathy for the guy just because of the way he sounds. Have you listened to the tape? He just sounds like a nice, old white guy… like my grandpa sounds. It’s sad really.
This whole situation is messed up and the more I read and listen to what is going on here and there, I’m starting to realize that there really are some major questions regarding entrapment and what exactly a police officer needs to have in order to make an arrest or assert that someone has attempted to commit a crime.
Among my friends and colleagues there has been a lot of discussion on exactly why it seems the police have all these stake-outs in order to target only men who seek to have sex with men. Where are the stake-outs for opposite-sexed couples who seek to have sex in public. We know that plenty of people do it, both gay and straight. If you have any doubts, just go to your local college and wait ’till right after the high party time at night. I have no doubt you’ll find sex in public.
At first on this issue, I thought it to be a cut and dry one and I took up a stance that many of my friends and colleagues called me out on. I’m starting to realize nothing, absolutely nothing, in this situation is cut and dry and I cannot even begin to imagine what Craig and his family are going through.
There are so many larger issues wrapped in with the smaller one of Craig’s arrest. And I think, as Brian said, this issue raises a lot of good questions about our society, the laws we make and exactly how our police departments go about enforcing them.
I don’t think many people at all are advocating the side that says public sex is okay, but I think some serious questions need to be asked, particularly on entrapment. Really… waving hands and a bumping of feet? I’m sure I’ve accidentally bumped someone’s foot in a bathroom before. Does that make me guilty of soliciting sex in public?
Technorati Tags: Larry Craig, public sex, entrapment
2 Responses to “Feeling some sympathy…”
Without commenting on entrampent, I can say with absolutely certainty that my foot has never bumped against the leg of someone sitting in the stall next to me. Nor has my hand ever crossed underneath the divider and into the other stall.
Still, I wonder what the guidelines are for this sort of undercover operation. CNN provided a little background information about the police officer involved here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/31/craig.cop.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText
By Brian Murphy on Aug 31, 2007
When I first heard this story, I thought, ‘Senator Craig is probably guilty.’
And I do think he has probably been struggling with same sex attractions for years.
However, after listening to the audio tape of his interview with the arresting officer, I am not so sure of the Senator’s guilt.
Undercover vice cops are not always honest when they interrogate. Lying and dishonesty are tried and true interrogation tactics used by police department across the country.
Policemen are trained to apply psychological pressure, including lying and deceit, to get suspects to admit guilt.
Cops have a vested interest in securing convictions, that interest being promotion and the rapid career advancement some news stories have mentioned that this particular officer enjoyed.
Did Senator Craig solicit the officer for sex? I don’t know. Its possible he did.
And it seems to me, if the Senator was not same sex attracted and had not intended some kind of solicitation, he would have been far more indignant and far more adamant that he would not plead guilty under any circumstances.
Its hard to imagine any genuinely straight man copping a plea to a charge like this if he wasn’t guilty.
But still, as I listen to the audio tape, I get the sense that the officer is using interrogation tactics to secure a guilty plea.
To me, the really weird part of the story is the alleged solicitation signal using the left hand.
To me, it doesn’t seem like it would be easy for a man of Senator Craig’s age and girth, to reach across his body and slide his left hand along the bottom of the divider between the stalls, to make the solicitation signal.
The Senator says he didn’t do that and points out how difficult that would be to do.
The vice cop claims he saw a gold ring, which is on the Senator’s left hand.
That part of the vice cop’s testimony just doesn’t ring true to me.
I get the impression the vice cop, true to his “interrogation training,” is signaling to Senator Craig that he will testify he saw the Senator’s ring, on his left hand, if the case goes to trial.
That part of the interrogation just doesn’t ring true to me but the Senator’s response to that part of the interrogation does ring true.
The fear of that veiled threat by the interrogating officer to offer false testimony, it seems to me, may have been the deciding factor that induced Senator Craig to plead guilty to a lesser charge.
Is Senator Craig gay? I don’t know.
What I do know is I feel compassion for him and his family as they struggle to come to terms with this.
By Rick Brentlinger on Aug 31, 2007