Monday, August 27, 2007

i <3 stories

"Craig denied any lewd intentions and told police he has a "wide stance" in the bathroom and reached down to pick up a piece of paper from the floor."

that totally explains why he pled guilty for lewd conduct.

11 comments:

Adam said...

Who's picking up paper in the bathroom? Unless I drop money (which maybe he did, "How's $20 my man, oops, lemme get that") I'm not picking things up off of bathroom floors.

edluv said...

well, the officer involved says that there was no paper, and nothing picked up. and, when arrested, he pulled the "do you know who i am?" card.

Adam said...

Here's a really interesting take on the issue.

edluv said...

from the article, "If he'd been arrested for soliciting a prostitute, I'd be all in favor of him getting nailed. But as near as I can tell, he's guilty of subtly asking another adult to have consensual sex"

true. except, it is illegal to engage in sex in a public place like that. every society has public and private aspects to sexuality. and, most say that you shouldn't engage in sex in public.

i thought it was strange that they were doing a sting @ the airport, but, since they are doing it i'm assuming that there has been an issue with people have sex in the restrooms. it would be difficult to imagine that the police just randomly picked a secure airport bathroom as the place to run a sting if there wasn't an issue. (actually, i reread the story, and it says that there have been numerous arrests regarding sexual activity in the public restroom.)

you know, i started thing about the consensual vs prostitution thing. how do we know that he wasn't soliciting that? perhaps he was sending the "signal" and had the other person reciprocated with an offer, it would have evolved to prostitution? i admit that this is probably a stretch, especially because i can't imagine prostitutes buying plane tickets to get in through security to "work," but maybe if the money is good enough...

finally, the end of the article contains this, "I won't gloat over this, either, because the ultimate message of this arrest is that the desire to engage in sexual activities with someone of the same sex is in and of itself offensive, and lewd, and criminal."

no that's not the ultimate message. it is a possible message that could be derived, but not the ultimate message. the obvious message is that if you solicit sex in a public place, consensual or for pay, you're going to get in trouble (misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct in public). if i stand outside a women's restroom at an airport, and ask/give signals/leer at women on their way in, i'm sure the police/security are going to be called. i imagine that i'd be up on similar charges pretty quick.

Adam said...

how do we know that he wasn't soliciting that? perhaps he was sending the "signal" and had the other person reciprocated with an offer, it would have evolved to prostitution?

That's a good question. How do we know his solicitation was going to lead to sex in a public restroom? We don't. It's these kinds of things where we arrest people for things that we're assuming they were about to do that worry me. In a very "Minority Report" kind of way.

If I meet a girl at a bar and suggest or offer sex that night, is that a crime? Tom has made overtures to me, or however you want to describe it, while I've been sitting at Landmark. Should I have pressed charges for lewd conduct?

Adam said...

I'm gonna retract most if not all of that last statement. It was the germ of an idea and I was thinking out loud and it didn't really go where I wanted it to.

Adam said...

I think a stronger position and one that I frequently fall back upon is to blame conservative/fundamentalist religions who work very hard at shaming homosexuals.

It takes a high level of self-loathing to try and pass laws against your own sexual orientation. If we lived in a society where it wasn't such a stigma to be out and proud, where it was accepted, I have a feeling these incidents of public bathroom sex would decline, but for the exhibitionists and those people come from all sexual orientations.

edluv said...

retraction allowed. although, i would also say that if someone makes an unsolicitated advance towards you (anyone, not just you particularly), and you feel harassed or threatened, you can always call cops/security.


myself, in posting this story, my thought was, "look at this wacky defense this guy is claiming." i didn't want to revel in his downfall. but, it cracks me up when people get caught and throw out the "do you konw who i am?" card or other crazy defenses (i was reaching for a paper). like, another guy who was recently busted for solicitation and then said he felt afraid because the man was black and there were a lot of blacks around so he offered him oral (bob allen, r. fla.), that is, after he barged into the black guy's restroom stall.

Adam said...

No no, he ammended his story. He went into the bathroom because there was a lightening storm approaching.

edluv said...

really? that's even more recoculous.

"lightning storm coming, so i went into the restroom. there, i was afraid that i might be assaulted by the mean, black men there. so, i barged into his closed stall, and offered him gratification in the hopes that he would be placated."

that sounds believable.

edluv said...

on drudge report, the conservative news site, they have the story labeled 'brokeback bathroom."