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News & ArtsMonday, July 19, 2010
Homo / News Don't Visit Beautiful Palm Springs
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 10:55 AM
The Palm Springs tourism board needs to have a few words with the Palm Springs Police Department:
Last summer, Palm Springs police used undercover officers to arrest 24 men in a gay neighborhood for allegedly trying to engage the officers in sex. While few in the gay community defend anyone having public sex—whether gay or straight—the anger is over the unusual charges in the case: The men are charged under Section 290(c) of the California Penal Code, making those who are convicted register as sex offenders for life, their names added to a police database. That charge is essentially a life sentence, defense lawyers say, and has never been used against straight couples arrested for similar activity in Palm Springs.Adding fuel to the community anger is surveillance tape shot inside a patrol car during the sting. One officer can be heard using an anti-gay slur, while another officer laughs. All of this flies in the face of city's reputation as a welcoming place for gays, says longtime gay rights pioneer Cleve Jones, who relocated to Palm Springs from San Francisco 10 years ago.
The cops who conducted the sting were reportedly sent out in tank tops—you know how we get around bare-shouldered men—and the cops, according to men who were arrested, groped themselves and asked the men to "show [us] what you've got." When a guy showed the nice officers what he had, he was promptly arrested. Palm Springs doesn't have any gay cops on its police force despite the fact that the city is 30-40% gay and very heavily dependent on free-spending gay tourists.
2
30-40 percent gay and hardly a peep about it from any queer locally — person interviewed the exception. Something smells off here.
In this blog re-posting of the original story, there was an oversight to mention that the Palm Springs police force do have a lesbian openly serving. It's not a completely non-queer force.
"The economic fallout on the city is not lost on City Manager David Ready" is why this was made into a story when other police force targeting tactics on queers elsewhere in the U.S. so seldom make the news. Usually it takes a police brutality event followed by a body in custody before the press hears much about it.
In this blog re-posting of the original story, there was an oversight to mention that the Palm Springs police force do have a lesbian openly serving. It's not a completely non-queer force.
"The economic fallout on the city is not lost on City Manager David Ready" is why this was made into a story when other police force targeting tactics on queers elsewhere in the U.S. so seldom make the news. Usually it takes a police brutality event followed by a body in custody before the press hears much about it.
3
Every time I see a new incident of undercover cops arresting gay guy I wander if policeman don't have more important stuff to do. You must feel very useful for the community after a day of doing that.
4
People also forget that while PS might be 30% queer, the other 70% are either old, white conservatives or the Latinos who wait on them and do all the crappy service industry jobs...and, a lot of those queers are old and conservative, too. The only liberal parts of PS are the 10 blocks of gay sex resorts and a couple liberal hippy, dippy, arty neighborhoods; the rest is VERY conservative.
5
In CO, a "simulated sex act" (Groping oneself or others, making your mouth look like you're doing the suck off motion, even the offhand jerkoff motion you do when you're disdainful of something) is treated the same as if the police found you actually engaging in public sex when arresting you.
6
@3 Exactly! The cities demand more and more money be spent hiring police and they waste it entrapping harmless people!
8
I cannot believe this kind of entrapment shit is still going on in the 21st century... If people having sex "in public" is a problem, then they (the people having sex in public) could simply be cited for doing so. To send undercover cops out to instigate this non-crime and then arrest people for responding to their overtures serves no purpose other than harassment.
9
#8: Thank you! Exactly. How is this not total entrapment? I mean, where were they - in a day care center, for chrissakes? My guess is, they were in a relatively out-of-the way location - an alley or behind a bush or something. "Public" my ass. I hope they get their asses sued off.
11
There's more. Now the PSPD is making nice with the gay community. There won't be any charges requiring registration as a sex offender (a total absurdity) and the police, themselves, have to attend "sensitivity training". One thing PS does have is a Human Rights board and that board is DEEP in the PDs shit over this incident. The expected screaming from the religious nuts is going on here, but letters to the editor are harshly critical of the cops and if silence on the issue is any indication (around CONSERVATIVE PS it is) then the silence for the community means they're not supporting the cops on this charade.
Palm Springs is plenty safe to come and visit just as long as you don't try to have sex on public streets. You can get all you want INSIDE the resorts where these guys got arrested. Really. It was pretty stupid to be out there on the street trying to pick up a trick and have sex in the curbside bushes. Dumb. Get a room!
Palm Springs is plenty safe to come and visit just as long as you don't try to have sex on public streets. You can get all you want INSIDE the resorts where these guys got arrested. Really. It was pretty stupid to be out there on the street trying to pick up a trick and have sex in the curbside bushes. Dumb. Get a room!
12
I was in Palm Springs for a wedding in April, and I'm amazed that....
A.) There was anyone walking around - they hardly even have sidewalks there.
B.) They could find another pedestrian with which to have sex, and
C.) They could find bushes to have sex in.
The only advantage that town has, a la pedestrian perv, is that is has almost no streetlights.
A.) There was anyone walking around - they hardly even have sidewalks there.
B.) They could find another pedestrian with which to have sex, and
C.) They could find bushes to have sex in.
The only advantage that town has, a la pedestrian perv, is that is has almost no streetlights.
13
As anyone who grew up watching Scooby-Doo knows, whenever you're faced with something odd and seemingly inexplicable, it all turns out to have something to do with real estate.
The neighborhood where the sting went down is a winding street along which several gay clothing-optional resorts are located. No--or at least very little--actual sex in public takes place here, but ONE straight homeowner didn't like the fact that cars and a few pedestrians circulate slowly past his house morning, noon, and night, and complained repeatedly to the cops, who completely over-reacted in order to shut him up.
Of course, the numerous gay resorts--and the slow-moving cars--were here long before said straight homeowner over-paid for his house at the height of the market.
Saw much the same go down when straights began moving into historically gay neighborhoods in NYC. The police never need much provocation, only an excuse, when it comes to policing gay men having--or trying to have--sex with each other. And one straight guy--who, I believe, is a real estate agent--concerned about property values, is all the instigation that's needed.
The neighborhood where the sting went down is a winding street along which several gay clothing-optional resorts are located. No--or at least very little--actual sex in public takes place here, but ONE straight homeowner didn't like the fact that cars and a few pedestrians circulate slowly past his house morning, noon, and night, and complained repeatedly to the cops, who completely over-reacted in order to shut him up.
Of course, the numerous gay resorts--and the slow-moving cars--were here long before said straight homeowner over-paid for his house at the height of the market.
Saw much the same go down when straights began moving into historically gay neighborhoods in NYC. The police never need much provocation, only an excuse, when it comes to policing gay men having--or trying to have--sex with each other. And one straight guy--who, I believe, is a real estate agent--concerned about property values, is all the instigation that's needed.
14
Please don't punish the businesses of Palm Springs by telling people not to come here. We don't support these actions by the Police. Why would you want to hurt us for something the cops did?
15
Please don't punish the businesses of Palm Springs by telling people not to come here. We don't support these actions by the Police. Why would you want to hurt us for something the cops did?
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