Gay activists in New
York are fighting back against a series of arrests targeting
middle-aged men in gay porn shops throughout the city.
According to
Gay City Newsreporter Duncan Osborne
, 30 men have been arrested over the past year by undercover
cops posing as male prostitutes throughout Manhattan.
The Coalition to Stop
False Arrests, an activist group born out of the surprising
rise in arrests throughout the city, has organized a rally this
Saturday in Manhattan's Sheridan Square to protest the arrests.
Last Saturday the group targeted the home of New York City
mayor Michael Bloomberg
The group was started
by Robert Pinter, a Manhattan-based licensed massage therapist
who works primarily with AIDS patients. He was arrested in a
sting operation on October 10.
Pinter says he was
targeted while shopping for a DVD after work at the Blue Door
video store. He says he was approached by a handsome Asian man
about half his age and that after a brief conversation, the two
agreed to leave together for consensual sex.
"While we were
leaving, he quickly offered me $50 to perform oral sex on
him," Pinter told Advocate.com. "At first I thought he
wanted me to pay him, which would have made a lot more sense --
I'm 53, and he was about half my age."
Pinter didn't respond
and decided that if the guy continued to act odd, he'd get out
of the situation.
He says he never had a
chance to change his mind. By the time the two had crossed the
street, he adds, he was shoved up against the fence by a group
of men who failed to identify themselves as cops. He says he
was cuffed and loaded into a patrol vehicle.
Nearly 24 hours later,
sleep-deprived and with no food in his system, Pinter was
advised by a lawyer from legal aid that the easiest way to make
the whole experience go away would be to plead guilty to a
lesser charge of disorderly conduct.
In the month since
Pinter's arrest, Osborne has managed to dig up numerous other
reports of arrests following a similar pattern -- middle-aged
men offered money for sex and then arrested before they have a
chance to respond.
The arrests have given
the city of New York an excuse to file suit
against at least seven adult shops throughout
Manhattan for allowing prostitution. At least two of those
shops have been forced to close down in the past year,
according to
New York University's
Washington Square News
.
New York City council
speaker Christine Quinn has stepped forward, calling these
"false arrests." So far, Mayor Bloomberg's office has had
no comment.
Saturday's rally is
scheduled to take place in Sheridan Square at the corner of
Christopher and Grove streets at 4 p.m. For more information
e-mail
StoptheArrests@aol.com
. (Ross von Metzke, Advocate.com)
