Disorderly Conduct

For some defense lawyers, the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was less about racial profiling than about how persons can be arrested simply for speaking angry words to a police officer. The laws against "disorderly conduct" give police wide power to arrest people who are said to be disturbing the peace or disrupting the neighborhood. In Massachusetts and elsewhere, courts have said the "disorderly acts or language" must take place in public where others can be disturbed.

In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public restrooms have an expectation of privacy. Craig (R-Idaho) is asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a restroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport. The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig.

The Orange County Museum of Art's new mixed-media response to our trying times, "Disorderly Conduct," doesn't trade in mopery. Instead, the artists tackle issues such as terrorism and the environment with hackles raised, "in a poetic, absurdist, funny way," curator Karen Moss says. To wit, Martin Kersel's video work "Pink Constellation," in which a teen's bedroom takes a Keystone Kops approach to unpredictability. Ends May 25. www.ocma.net

In a recent talk at REDCAT, New York-based artist Walid Raad described what it was like growing up in 1980s Beirut under the constant threat of car bombs. The frequent explosions -- he cites more than 3,600 in 15 years -- turned cars, buildings and bodies literally inside out. They also created a persistent, visceral awareness, not only of the possibility of sudden, violent death, but of a world out of order.

washington -- The Senate Select Committee on Ethics harshly criticized Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) on Wednesday for his actions during and after his arrest last summer in a men's restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. In a strongly worded "public letter of admonition," the panel of three Democrats and three Republicans told Craig that his behavior constituted "improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the Senate."

Disorderly-conduct charges have been dropped against a 26-year-old dance student who used profanity at John Wayne Airport, officials said. A related free-speech lawsuit challenging Orange County's law governing conduct in airports is still pending, but settlement negotiations are underway, the student's lawyer said Thursday.

washington -- In the latest personal conduct controversy to roil Capitol Hill, Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested by an officer investigating lewd-conduct complaints in a men's restroom. On Monday, Craig denied engaging in any inappropriate behavior and said he regretted his plea. "At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said in a statement.

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) is expected to announce today that he will give up his Senate seat, transforming in less than a week from a leading voice on Western issues to political pariah after it emerged that he had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a men's restroom sting. Craig scheduled a Boise news conference for 10:30 a.m. to announce his plans. Greg Smith, an Idaho pollster who has worked for Craig, said Friday that he expected the senator to resign.

Three passengers aboard a Santa Catalina Island ferry jumped off the ship Friday afternoon as it cruised into the Port of Los Angeles and were detained by authorities when they swam to shore at a Coast Guard base. The jumpers -- two women from Ventura and a man from Moorpark -- were detained by Coast Guard personnel and turned over to the Los Angeles Port Police. Their names and ages were not released.

Idaho Sen. Larry E. Craig appealed a lower court judge's decision that he could not withdraw his guilty plea for disorderly conduct in a restroom of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. He did not detail the grounds for appeal, filed in St. Paul. And in a television interview to be broadcast tonight, Craig said that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney "threw me under his campaign bus" after the story broke that the Idaho lawmaker pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a sex sting.