Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Groups address the Adult Book Store Sting Operations


Adult Book Stores are under attack by the NYPD. Within a year, 25+ gay men have been entrapped and arrested on questionable prostitution and solicitation charges.

Questionable because of the format of the sting game. Here's the breakdown: a young, hot man approaches a guy in the video store. After some light verbal foreplay, they agreed to have sex and head out for some fun. Then once they are outside, the hot man says, ’I’ll pay you fifty bucks to suck your dick.’ Then a group of undercover officers almost appear out of nowhere and arrest you.

Pretty shady, huh. After many complaints and faulty arrests, several groups got together to end this mess and stop police misconduct.

The town hall meeting marked the first in The NYC LGBT Center’s new MOVE (Mobilize, Organize, Visualize, Educate) for Social Change series. Kim Fountain, deputy director for regional and national programs at the New York City Anti-Violence Project, introduced the series as a “collaborative effort to enact social change” between community organizations, elected officials and individual activists. The standing-room-only crowd of about 300 people surprised many of the organizers.

Joey Nelson, coordinator of the Queer Justice League said:

“We want to document stories of police misconduct, particularly on video if victims are comfortable revealing their identities. We will continue to collect information about entrapment and provide the community with warnings and advice. As a direct-action group, Queer Justice League will distribute leaflets, post legal developments online and ask members of the community to come forward with personal stories of harassment or police abuse. This is a new coalition, and we’re still figuring out who’s accountable. But clearly people are outraged, and we want to sound the alarm and see what reforms we can get.”

I agree with their efforts, but I have to say if a hot young boy asked me for sex, I would think he's looking for drugs or I'm on Candid Camera.

4 comments:

David Dust said...

This is so ridiculous and is obvious entrapment. However, there ARE a few notorious Times Square boothstores where the boys DO sell their goods. I wonder if they have been targeted also.

XOXOXOXO

Todd HellsKitchen said...

This actually made the front page of a local freebie gen'l circulation commuter paper yesterday... City Councilwoman Christine Quinn was quoted so I guess she has gotten involved... The Bloomberg administration likes changing the rules of the game... Typically Republican play book... And it applies to schools, zoning, term limits, and everything else he has domain over...

Anonymous said...

The thing is, some of these very same people, when asked about online stings of gay men and teens by malicious minded cops, approve of them.

They turn into blithering hypocrites and defeat their own cause.

This is why this story doesn't get any airplay beyond gay media. If this is illegal....

Jonathan Pizarro said...

Queer Justice League, love it!

The Stuff

My photo
Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.