"Bag a Fag" Stings Under Investigation

By Michelle Garcia

An investigation into whether a gay sex sting in Lansing, Mich. was carried out appropriately will be conducted starting Wednesday.

Jan Kolp (pictured), a member of Lansing's board of police commissioners, admitted last week that she requested a sting on the Fenner Nature Center by calling the head of the police department's special operations unit, according to the Michigan Messenger.

Several city officials are looking into the May 22 sting, but Kolp said she made the call only as a concerned citizen, not using her clout as a member of the board to get in touch with high-ranking officers.

Two men were arrested at the park, but police and local activists are looking to put an end to similar operations. The arrestees were booked procedurally and then allowed bond, but neither received a citation. Capt. Ray Hall said that such stings would no longer be carried out.

There have been many similar stings, which Lansing police once notoriously deemed "Bag a Fag" operations, according to the Triangle Foundation, a Michigan LGBT rights organization.

"Whenever you are a police commissioner or city council member or you're mayor, you have to be careful what you say, how you say it, because it's taken with a greater weight," said council member Eric Hewitt.

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Reader Comments

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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/5/2009 1:35:00 AM
Hometown: Michigan

Comment:
Philip, I accept gay people just as they are, even if the choose to stay as they are, or even choose to try the het life. Obviously gays cannot accept any other option except changing to and staying with gay! That's sad. But who you are and where your going is totally up to you. What you do is your business, one way or the other. However, that don't mean I agree with your choice, and for sure it don't mean you got a right to muscle in and redefine my institutions just to twist things around to console you for your choices and resulting guilt. It's that simple, and that, my friend, is how the majority thinks! By the way, didn't Perez Hilton just suffer some gay outcry for just the very same kind of insult tactics being used by gays on this comment section, by some of the same people who derided Hilton??? Interesting!!
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Name: Brad Bailey
Date posted: 7/3/2009 1:48:00 AM
Hometown: Fayetteville, Arkansas

Comment:
Humility or humiliation. It's your choice, PJR.
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Name: Brad Bailey
Date posted: 7/2/2009 7:15:00 PM
Hometown: Fayetteville, Arkansas

Comment:
Let's all put our penises where PJR puts his so we can all be as moral as he.
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Name: Luke
Date posted: 7/2/2009 6:59:00 PM
Hometown: Canton

Comment:
Heterosexuals have sex everywhere and they are not arrested. This is discrimination pure and simple.
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Name: Philip
Date posted: 7/2/2009 6:14:00 PM
Hometown: Phoenix

Comment:
PJR...you just don't get it. Lots of straight people already accept gay people just as they are and lots more straight people will accept gay people just as they are in the future. You're already on the wrong side of history.
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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/2/2009 5:50:00 PM
Hometown: Michigan

Comment:
Philip: "gay positive" .... just as long as you know "gay positve" doesn't require anyone to agree that gay is morally correct, then you are correct.
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Name: Philip
Date posted: 7/2/2009 2:39:00 PM
Hometown: Phoenix

Comment:
It's a good thing that the number of "gay positive" straight people in the world today is greater than ever and ever increasing and people like PJR are becoming more and more the exception.
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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/2/2009 2:27:00 PM
Hometown: Michigan

Comment:
Third place: "police reports that have now been released, show that one man exposed himself only after an undercover officer asked him to" Yeah, how unfair! Everyone knows you should be able to drop your pants and expose yourself to anyone that asks you to when in a public park!! HA!! This stuff is comical!!
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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/2/2009 2:23:00 PM
Hometown: Michigan

Comment:
By the way, the runnerup in The Absurd Post Comment Award contest came in a damn close second, razor thin loss: "They were lured by policemen into exposing themselves or proposition them for sex. It should not be against the law to cruise." My, My, My, the gay gene truly is the same gene as the dumbass gene!
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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/2/2009 2:19:00 PM
Hometown: Michigan

Comment:
WINNER! Absurd Post Comment Award: "let's make the state so antigay friendly that our gay work force wants to leave and gay people don't want to visit" - HA! That a runaway winner. That's pretty funny stuff. Yeah! Gotta open up them public parks to out of state gay cruisers who might want to visit a Lansing public park for some muddy road action! There's millions at risk for Michigan's economy!! HA!!!

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