Re: WORTH READING BBtv: Star Simpson's first interview on the Boston airport LED sweatshirt scare. - Boing Boing

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Drzyzgula <bob () drzyzgula org>
Date: September 20, 2008 2:40:11 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   WORTH READING BBtv: Star Simpson's first  
interview on the Boston airport LED sweatshirt scare. - Boing Boing

On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 12:54:32PM -0400, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Dave CROCKER <dcrocker () bbiw net>
>
> [...]
>
> The dissonance with that is that, at the time, the police press
> interview stated explicitly that Simpson behaved well and followed
> instructions.
>
> What, exactly, was disorderly?

IANAL, but a while back I was having an informal discussion
with a local police officer about a variety of topics,
and he indicated that "disorderly conduct" can be thought
of as pretty much anything that calls inordinate attention
to one's self. If what you are doing causes people to look
up, point, maybe be annoyed or concerned, then there is
a risk of this being considered disorderly conduct. This
might extend, for example, to someone walking down the
street whistling loudly. Perhaps someone with more legal
knowledge could confirm or refute this characterization.

Now, disorderly conduct laws do vary from jurisdiction
to jurisdiction, and I expect that the behavioral
threshold beyond which the police (and more importantly
the prosecutor and ultimately the judge) are likely to
take action is variable and perhaps context-sensitive,
e.g. this particular case may never have been an issue
outside the context of an airport or other sensitive area
such as a federal building.  But in any event I expect
that it was the conduct that occurred *prior* to being
approached by the police that was considered disorderly,
not the way in which she responded to the police.

--Bob Drzyzgula





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