This Saturday gay-rights activists will rally in Sheridan Square to protest a spike in the arrests of gay men on prostitution charges in Manhattan.
In the last four years, over 50 Manhattan men have been arrested in pornography shops on such charges. Many members of the gay community have complained that the charges are unjust and specifically targeted at gay men.
The upcoming rally follows a protest held last Saturday near Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s house on the Upper East Side.
The primary force behind the protests is the Coalition to Stop the Arrests, an organization founded by Robert Pinter, who was arrested last October.
Pinter described his arrest at a town hall meeting last month. He was shopping at an adult video store in the East Village when a young male undercover officer approached him and began flirting with him.
According to Pinter, they agreed to have sex, but the man offered him $50 as they were leaving. Pinter said that he did not respond, but when they exited the store, he was surrounded by police and arrested on charges of prostitution, as the undercover officer stated that Pinter had agreed to take the money.
Similar arrests have occurred at various sex shops in Manhattan.
Kerwin Kaye, a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Science, calls the police’s methods “blatant tactics of entrapment” and “prejudicial policing.” He suspects that the arrests are part of a bigger plan.
“It is very rare for police to care much about male prostitution,” Kaye said. “One has to suspect that this series of cases was motivated by a desire to rid the areas of the gay porn stores.”
Indeed, the NYPD has cited the arrests as evidence to sue seven of the shops for allowing prostitution. The lawsuits evoke the nuisance abatement law, which enforces the closing of businesses where criminal activity is shown to thrive.
According to Gay City News, one of the stores closed in 2007 and another in 2008.
The police have stated that they were simply responding to complaints of criminal activity in relation to these establishments.
Dr. James I. Martin, chair of the Caucus of LGBT Faculty and Students in Social Work, said that the targeting of businesses with gay patronage is not a new phenomenon; it has been occurring in New York for years.
“There’s a concern that this is part of an effort to privatize public space in New York, to sanitize it and to make it comfortable for affluent, straight, white people,” Martin said. “They don’t want sexually related businesses next door; they don’t want transgender kids being noisy at night.”
In the meantime, the primary focus will remain on increasing awareness of these types of arrests.
“I hope it will stop,” Martin said. “People get hurt in this. People get charged with prostitution, and it can be very harmful for them.”
http://www.nyunews.com/news/city_sta...hops-1.1487890
Prostitution is illegal.... Why this is such a big deal i dont know, the fact that the cops are targeting gay men and actually getting arrests just shows that they are doing the right thing, if they were targeting gay men and not getting arrests then id be worried.
If you dont want to get arrested on prostitution charges... Dont accept payment for sex and dont offer to pay anyone for sex.. Problem solved $0.02
Regards,
Lee
