http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6192314Oh my.
Kievan Rus (296 posts) Fri Jul-31-09 11:58 AM
Original message
Who else thinks "disorderly conduct" is a load of horseshit?
I, for one, think "disorderly conduct" is a load of total horseshit. Basically, it's there for if you do anything a bully cop doesn't like but you aren't doing anything that's otherwise illegal.
It's meant to cover a disturbance of the peace...for example, playing load hard rock music at 120 decibels in a residential neighborhood in the middle of the night. But the way it's used, it's all a bunch of bullshit, pure and simple.
Ninety percent of the time, it's all a load of crap because some asshole authority figure is acting like a bear with a sore ass, the Consitution be damned. People have gotten arrested for it for calling cops "pigs," which they certainly are...hell, I'd probably get arrested if they heard my jokes about cops being swine flu vectors, since they're "pigs." A kid got arrested for it in Florida for playing the mud.
There's probably even more absurd cases I can think of or look up on Google News. Basically, if a cop wants you to simulataneously juggle eight flaming bowling balls weighed down with cement inside and you have the chutzpah to as much mutter, "that's dangerous," break out the cuffs! Disorderly conduct!
I'm surprised nobody's gotten arrested for it by uttering "Sarah Palin is an idiot," in Wasilla, or "I watch Star Trek," within hearing range of George Lucas, or "Go Steelers," in Baltimore.
Somebody must have had a problem with the cops lately.
The dysmenopausal Kansas school teacher, who knows a great deal about disorderly conduct:
proud2BlibKansan (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:01 PM
Response to Original message
1. Isn't it more common in the military?
And yes, I think it's a load of horseshit.
MineralMan (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:13 PM
Response to Reply #1
12. Disorderly Conduct is the charge used by police when they just want to arrest you, whatever the reason. They arrest you, haul you downtown, where you cool your heels for a while until you are released. Nobody gets prosecuted for it, unless there was a true breach of the peace. It's just an excuse to cuff you and haul you off.
It's been used that way for a long, long time. The cop is judge and sentencer. He has found you guilty and sentenced you to arrest, transportation, and a few hours of confinement. It's the cops' way of telling you, "Don't talk back to me, buddy."
If you are ever arrested for this, you won't actually be charged or have to appear in court, most likely. District Attorneys don't bother with this stuff. You'll be released, unless you really disturbed the peace.
Curtland1015 (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:01 PM
Response to Original message
2. Eh. It's good that the law EXISTS, but certainly it gets abused.
I'd rather have it on the books, in all honesty. But I won't argue for a second that a-hole cops can sometimes use it to stroke their egos and arrest people for no good reason.
Kievan Rus (296 posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:02 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. It's there for a true breach of the peace
90% of the time it isn't used for that, however.
Curtland1015 (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:04 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. 85% of all statistics are pulled out of thin air.
onenote (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. your 90 percent statistic is interesting. do you have a link?
Kievan Rus (296 posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Just conjecture
However, you rarely hear about somebody getting arrested for it for something truly disorderly...it's almost always crap like Prof. Gates, or the more recent guy whose great crime was singing "I hate the police" in DC.
zipplewrath (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:09 PM
Response to Reply #2
10. Not really
If someone is a threat, then they can be arrested because of the threat. It would be interesting to see statistics on the conviction rate for this. I'd bet it is near zero. It merely empowers the cops to be "judge and jury" since the entire purpose is merely to punish you and/or remove you from the scene.
If we really want the law, there should be significant and measurable consequenses for abuse thereof. It's only useful if there are sufficient "checks and balances".
BlooInBloo (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:01 PM
Response to Original message
3. In the fictional world where the police were on the side of the public...
Police would have the discretion to make case-by-case judgements on such things. They would also get reviewed on their use of that discretion, and canned/jailed if found to abuse their authority.
(shrug) Back to reality now....
iwillalwayswonderwhy (769 posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:02 PM
Response to Original message
4. Dude, I don't like your "tone"
ha ha!
Union Yes (718 posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
6. If it ain't disorderly, it aint activism!
Th1onein (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:10 PM
Response to Original message
11. Disorderly conduct charges require a PUBLIC place
A place that the public has access to. One's own front yard does not seem to fit this bill.
And, yes, it's a bullshit charge.
timeforpeace (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-31-09 12:16 PM
Response to Original message
13. Yeah, right on!
You know, I have a problem with the primitive attitude towards cops.
When it dawns upon the primitives that the Great Black Father in Washington has no ponies to give them, inevitably the primitives must get hostile, conducting themselves in a disorderly manner, and the Great Black Father's going to have to sic the cops on them.
Talk about a primitive dilemma.
