Michael Perelman wrote:
>I am surprised that nobody mentioned the pleasures from public goods -- such
>as parks -- which have the potential to bring people together rather than the
>private pleasures that tend to isolate people.
Public parks (like all other spaces) have been contested spaces: who
is allowed in; what activities you can engage in; where you draw the
boundary between public and private; etc.
***** Arresting Behavior
By Stephen H. Miller
Police stings routinely raid and entrap men engaged in consensual
sexual activities on private property; sensational press coverage
finishes the job of devastating the arrestees' lives. Law
enforcement agencies have no business pursuing indoor activity in
private commercial establishments whose owners do not object to it;
in other settings, they must at a minimum be prevented from engaging
in entrapment and selective enforcement.
RECENTLY, NEAR ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, plainclothes police officers
swooped into an adult video store, entered the video booths, and
arrested those men deemed to be engaging in "lewd behavior." The
Washington Blade newspaper reported that at least 48 men were taken
into custody. One victim, Don Chandler, sat in a cell block with his
hands and feet in cuffs from 9 pm until 5:30 am the following
morning, charged with "indecent exposure" (behind the locked door of
a video booth). When the Annapolis Capital newspaper published
Chandler's name, address, and the charges against him, he was
summarily fired from his job as director of music and organist at a
local Episcopal Church. Chandler is now trying to make ends meet as
a part-time piano tuner.
Sadly, his story is all too typical.
Many victims of police sex raids fare even worse. Outside the big
cities, it's common for newspapers to publish the names of men taken
into custody during police stings, making no distinction between
those arrested in private commercial establishments (sex clubs,
closed video booths in adult porn stores) and those arrested in
public restrooms or public parks. One man committed suicide last
January in Pulaski County, Ark., after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
in Little Rock published his name among those arrested in a sex raid.
The newspaper, by the way, did not report his suicide and ignored
requests from five major gay organizations to discuss its policy of
selective publication of the names of men arrested for misdemeanors.
The Fresno Bee in June reported that a sting of a restroom in a local
park netted "five schoolteachers, some business executives and a high
school football coach." In the case of the teachers and the coach,
police were required by law to notify the supervisors of those
arrested, ending their teaching careers. The paper noted that one
teacher in an earlier raid asked for a court trial in which he was
found not guilty. His lawyer argued successfully that an act wasn't
lewd if it wasn't witnessed by someone near enough to be offended by
it, and the activity in question took place at night, when the only
people in that area of the park were police officers and men seeking
sex.
Still, few arrestees are willing to take their cases to court and
earn more publicity for themselves. Rock star George Michael
(arrested in a Beverly Hills park restroom while alone with an
officer who indicated an interest in some action) can survive being
the center for a scandal; most working stiffs (ahem) can not.
It's been widely reported in the gay press that a slew of television
stations from Miami to San Diego have run sensationalist news reports
during "sweeps week," showing hidden camera footage of men cruising
in parks and rest rooms. The news operations found these sites
through listings on the web site cruisingforsex.com. The site is
intended to inform about where quick, anonymous sex can be found, but
it seems that many listed locales become subject to either police
raids and/or local television hidden-camera news coverage. Yikes.
Helpfully, the web site provides "alerts" of where recent raids have
occurred. For example: At the Paradise Bookstore in Pomona,
California, police entered video booths and made apparently random
arrests. At the Adult Video store in Hallendale, Florida, undercover
police entered booths and "grabbed themselves" before arresting the
men unlucky enough to have fallen into their trap. At the Adult
Superstore & Theater in Las Vegas, police left arcade doors ajar to
invite in guests, who were then arrested. Come into my parlor, said
the state-armed spider to the fly.
The alerts listed at the crusingforsex.com site go on and on -- a
litany of entrapment. A report from Houston, Texas says that all
over town the vice squad is actively monitoring and entrapping men in
adult bookstore arcades and theaters. "They will grab their crotches
and rub themselves to let people think they aren't cops. They dress
sloppy to casual, wearing baseball caps sometimes, shorts and
t-shirts, etc., straight looking to gay acting. Will stare at you,
or just stand next to you watching the video acting as if they are
getting off to it. Many guys are being busted every day."
The consequences can be devastating. One poor soul in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania left the following account: "Nine of us were arrested at
Adult World for 'publicly masturbating while other men watched.'
That's how it read in the paper with our names published for all to
see. Official charges are public indecency and public lewdness. It
has ruined my career and marriage. I have not been fired, but I am
going to leave due to being either shunned or scorned. It is awful.
My wife has thrown me out saying: 'I didn't know you were a queer!'
I am without hope."
Finally, I should mention that in these self-reported accounts it is
not unusual for the vice cops to extort money on the spot in lieu of
arrest. Most men pay up and consider themselves lucky, given the
alternative....
<http://www.indegayforum.org/articles/miller35.html> *****
Vice crimes (criminalizing consensual sexual activities such as
prostitution, sex in public parks & commercial establishments, etc.)
tend to breed more police corruption than otherwise, providing a
fertile ground for extortion, etc. Moreover, the practice of
entrapment highlights the fact that _the law literally incites what
it ostensibly prohibits_ (aside from general incitement that Foucault
discusses in _The History of Sexuality_). The same goes for sting
operations in the war on drugs.
The wages of sin indeed!
Yoshie
