Minnesota Police have released the audio from Larry Craig’s arrest. Download the transcript PDF here here. Listen here. Enjoy an excerpt here:
Sergent Dave Karsnia: Okay. Um, I just wanna start off with your side of the story, okay. So –
Larry Craig: So I go into the bathroom here as I normally do, I’m a commuter too here.
DK: Okay.
LC: I sit down, um, to go to the bathroom and ah, you said our feet bumped. I believe they did, ah, because I reached down and scooted over and, um, the next thing I knew, under the bathroom divider comes a card that says Police. Now, um (sigh), that’s about as far as I can take it, I don’t know anything else. Ah, your foot came toward mine, mine came towards yours, was that natural? I don’t know. Did we bump? Yes. I think we did. You said so. I don’t disagree with that.
DK: Okay. I don’t want to get into a pissing match here.
LC: We’re not going to.
DK: Good. Um…
LC: I don’t, ah, I am not gay. I don’t do these kids of things…
Another doozy of a quote comes from Karsnia, “I guess I’m gonna say I’m disappointed in you, sir. I just really am… I mean, people vote for you.” Not anymore…
Gregg
I’ve dealt with bad cops before, cops who lie in court (it was about a traffic ticket, but whatever) so I tend to be distrustful of the police, especially in this kind of situation which borders on entrapment. But this cop really sounds like he’s trying to cut Craig a break. And the Senator is clearly lying. Tragic.
I still think it’s ridiculous to arrest someone for giving hand signals in a restroom. But Craig is a scummy liar.
Jean Meiring
Clearly, it’s a waste of public resources for this sort of behaviour to be policed. Are there not many actual crimes being committed in the US to which the police’s time might be more fruitfully devoted? Yet, the irony is, of course, that this sort of family-values policing is exactly what men like Craig have abetted over the years. In fact, this little script is priceless – especially the way in which the Craig wedding band emerges as a key player in the little tearoom drama. What a desperately sad man he is – and I mean this without any sarcasm.
dizzyspins
Im sorry but having sex in a bathroom is an actual crime. No its not murder, but Im sick of my fellow gay men thinking they we dont have to follow any rules of decorum or decency because we’re “outlaws.” Put your fucking shirt back on, zip up your fly and grow the FUCK up.
As for Craig, dude can twist in the wind for all I care.
Dawster
so no one else is bothered that there was no actual crime committed or that this arrest is based off bag positioning and toe tapping and it’s a case of unprovable “he said/he said”?
no one else is worried that somewhere down the line they may be arrested because of a presumptuous cop?
THE MOST that can be proven is that Craig was annoying, or soliciting sex for another location (like a hotel room – however unlikely that may be).
there was no penis grabbing, there was no crude comments or actual display befitting of solicitation (at that location or at another)… there were fingers… and toe tapping.
regardless of what a slime-ball craig is, no one else is bothered by the potential overstepping of our civil liberties here? no one else worries about some small town in america that might have other police officers who now target more “obvious” gays who may use public restrooms for legitimate reasons… arresting them for doing nothing at all?
craig is NOT innocent, but they are dancing on a slippery, slippery slope here….
Mr. B
Dawster, you do make a good point. I guess what bugs me most is that the cop even gave him a few outs and he was just too damn dumb to take them. If Craig was any kind of perceptive he could have talked his way out of legal trouble–at least to the point where he could draw on the fact that the officer’s case is not provable–but instead he was so caught up in denying any hints of gayness that he just blew it altogether.
And now this whole stupid case is going to create a moral panic about men cruising bathrooms and no one’s going to feel safe in them (queer men for fear of being targets and straight men for fear of getting propositioned). Poorly done, Craig, and poorly done, all others involved.