Police (public gay sex) decoys to end in Palm Springs

[Newsjock]

Source: Bay Area Reporter

Palm Springs Police Chief David Dominguez says he won't be doing more sting operations using police decoys to curb public gay sex.

... The city has been stung by criticism following the police sting a little over a year ago that resulted in 19 men being charged for public exposure. The men had been urged by a police decoy to expose themselves in a dark parking lot of a gay resort in Warm Sands. If convicted, the men would be required to register as sex offenders for life in a registry that is visible by law enforcement only.

... In the course of the sting in June 2009, an officer who was observing the operation from a police vehicle could be heard referring to a potential suspect as a "cocksucker" as another officer laughed. Dominguez told the B.A.R. that he was embarrassed by the remark and has apologized for it on behalf of the department and the city. The chief said that the police internal affairs department is still investigating the slur, which he first learned about last month.

... Roger Tansey, a public defense attorney representing six of the men who were accused in the sting, is trying to get the cases thrown out of court on the grounds that the sting was discriminatory because Palm Springs never conducted a sting aimed at public heterosexual sex.

Last month, a judge ordered the Palm Springs Police Department to turn over to the defense two years of records related to complaints about public sex and enforcement of laws against public sex. Tansey said that those records show no complaints about public sex in Warm Sands and only two complaints about public sex involving gay men. Ten of the 12 complaints about public sex were for heterosexual sex, Tansey said. The attorney plans to use those figures to argue for dismissal of the cases in a hearing that will likely happen in September.

Read more: http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=4952

[msongs]

1. "to protect and serve" - inititate a sex act then bust the takers nt

[Meldread]

2. No one ever answers the question why gays are always targeted.

The last bit says it all, "Last month, a judge ordered the Palm Springs Police Department to turn over to the defense two years of records related to complaints about public sex and enforcement of laws against public sex. Tansey said that those records show no complaints about public sex in Warm Sands and only two complaints about public sex involving gay men. Ten of the 12 complaints about public sex were for heterosexual sex, Tansey said. The attorney plans to use those figures to argue for dismissal of the cases in a hearing that will likely happen in September."

And conveniently only gays are targeted.

[asjr]

3. Why is this not termed entrapment? A

good friend of mine was a victim of the same thing about 15 yrs. ago in a small town near an interstate highway. He had a very good job and everyone liked him. He lost that job and left the town. I have not heard from him since. Cruelty knows no bounds.

[Swagman]

4. cops should be charged with importuning

cops should be charged with importuning

[Roon]

5. I used to work in a mall and men having sex with men

in the public restrooms was a real problem sometimes. This is why there are no doors on the toilet stalls and malls started setting up "family rooms". The stalls had to be made out of steel because wooden ones would just have gloryholes drilled into them.

Most of this is from the stupid closet cases who are afraid of being outted.

[TheMadMonk]

6. Get them to "bust" a 17 YO this way.

I believe the appropriate charge is procuring a minor for sex.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. And in unreleated news, Larry Craig is moving to Palm Springs

[saigon68]

8. There must be little or no crime in this place