The other night, my son wanted me to pick him up from a friend’s house. It was one of those winding and confusing townhome developments and I couldn’t find any house numbers. He cheerfully offered to just run over to the nearby park. It was 10pm and very dark. I shouted “No!” into my cell phone. Didn’t he realize who hung out in that park at night? Thankfully, he really wasn’t aware of that side of night life and I’m glad we had an opportunity to discuss it on the way home.
This morning, Ian and Margery Punnett discussed their recent daytime stop at a local park. Their discussion led to a mention of Mara Gottfried’s recent article on sex in public parks highlights many disturbing things, least of which involves homosexuality. This sentence from the article has stuck in my brain this morning:
“…her perception is that law enforcement’s attempt to crack down on men cruising for sex “waxes and wanes with public outrage.”
Can I interpret that statement as police crack down on certain crimes based on how much citizens complain about particular laws being broken? What is wrong with that? The radio discussion this morning led to questioning of whether the police are wasting public dollars. I think that it would be wasting public dollars to NOT keep the park usable by all for public activities. I wonder if Mara Gottfried could find no one else to make an argument against the sting operation. Her idea that public outrage is somehow not valid surprises me.
An excerpt from the article:
The man was watching a pornographic video in his minivan in a St. Paul park. He turned the portable screen so an undercover police officer, sitting in a car next to him, could see it and invited him into the van.
When the officer got in, the man exposed himself, the officer said.
The officer quietly told the 48-year-old he was under arrest and walked him to a nearby vehicle, where officer Heather Weyker was waiting to take down his pertinent information and get a mug shot.
“You can’t do this kind of stuff in the parks,” she told the man. “This is inexcusable for the people who want to use the parks to walk their dogs and hang out with their kids and they can’t.”
The man was one of four arrested by St. Paul police for indecent exposure Wednesday in Crosby Farm Regional Park, off Shepard Road. In the past six weeks, police have arrested about 40 others for similar activity in this park and another on Meeker Island, said Sgt. Steve Anderson.
The stings have been driven by complaints about men engaging in public sex and lewd conduct in both parks, police say.
Police are taking a multipronged approach: They’re working with prosecutors, suggesting that perpetrators who are convicted and sentenced to community service be assigned to parks to clean up trash, Anderson said. Condom wrappers and other debris are a big problem, police say.
Shrubbery recently was cut back on Meeker Island in the Desnoyer Park neighborhood to allow fewer places to hide, Anderson said. Signs warning that the park is under surveillance and that no loitering or lewd conduct is permitted were posted on Meeker Island and in Crosby Park years ago, but new ones have been put up on Meeker Island, Anderson said.
Critics said the sting operations are unfair.
“We often downplay or pay little attention to indiscretions between males and females who engage in sexual encounters in public - be it in the back seat of a car, in the back of a bar, in a unisex restroom - and then sensationalize any cases that involve same-gender contact,” said Lorraine Teel, executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Project.
Teel said there’s a double standard and her perception is that law enforcement’s attempt to crack down on men cruising for sex “waxes and wanes with public outrage.”
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Tags: Current Events, parenting, radio by TK
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