Mitt Romney’s been arrested for disorderly conduct
Because he was detained for disorderly conduct in 1981 after launching his boat into a lake in Massachusetts while on a family vacation, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is familiar with what it's like to be on the receiving end of the legal system. According to BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski, Romney was about to launch his family boat when a park ranger cautioned him not to because his license seemed to have been painted over. Romney was warned by the police that he would be fined $50 if he placed his boat in the water. Romney chose to defy the officer's directive and pay the charge because he believed that his license was still clearly visible. Romney said that the officer just informed him that doing so would result in a fine rather than telling him not to launch his boat. The officer returned, this time clearly enraged, and detained Romney for disorderly behavior when Romney launched the family boat. Romney was immediately placed in handcuffs, transported to the neighborhood police station, and lodged.
When Romney campaigned against Sen. Ted Kennedy for the U.S. Senate in 1994, the details of his arrest first surfaced. The accusations against (Romney) were withdrawn a few days later, and Natick District Court formally dismissed them in February 1982, according to The Boston Globe in 1994. Romney also asked the judge to seal the documents, preventing the public from seeing them. An arrest for disorderly conduct isn't the only occasion when Romney's behavior has flown in the face of the status quo. Romney's involvement in controversial war demonstrations during his first year at Stanford University was brought up again in The Stanford Review.
Kyle Huwa for the Stanford Review reported that in 1966 Romney and a few other students staged a demonstration on campus in favor of the draft rather than against the Vietnam War. "Though they’re probably being used against him today, the photos show a conservative willing to go against the mainstream in an era when such a position was very unpopular, an admirable act in my mind," he said.
