The NYPD has a gross history of entrapping gay men in what it considers to be sexual situations only to slap them with charges of public lewdness.
We reported an account of the disgusting practice in May, when the department settled with a man who came forward claiming that he had falsely arrested for — as the NYPD claims — trying to engage a plainclothes officer in a sex act. The man, like many others, claimed he did no such thing.
This week, the Times consulted three of at least 12 victims of the NYPD’s homophobic practices who are now suing the department over their “aggressive and intrusive police tactics.” Represented by the Legal Aid Society, they all claim they were accused of masturbating while peeing at urinals in the second-floor bathroom at the Port Authority bus terminal.
Though Port Authority police commander Capt. John Fitzpatrick says “the bathroom is hardly a hotbed of sexual activity” and that sexual complaints are “few and far between,” the NYPD has arrested at least 60 men for allegedly masturbating there this year alone.
How about we take this to the next level?
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According to the report, at least two arrests are made each week.
Cornell Holden, a 28-year-old baker, describes his experience being arrested in one of the regular stings:
Mr. Holden, a 28-year-old baker, said he noticed that a bald man at the urinal next to him — who he later learned was a plainclothes police officer — was looking at him. A privacy divider, as well as a duffel bag slung over Mr. Holden’s shoulder, separated them.
“While I’m using the bathroom, he stepped back and kind of looks at me and then walks off,” Mr. Holden recalled. As he left, two officers approached him, asking what he had just been doing. “I said: ‘Nothing. I was using the bathroom,’ ” Mr. Holden said. “They pulled me aside, asked for my ID and then put handcuffs on me.”
Holden suspects officers target men who “fit the description of a homosexual male,” and even says he heard a police officer refer to the plainclothes officer who arrested him as “the gay whisperer” during his arrest.
Another victim, identified as Miguel, also shared his account:
“You know how when you have a feeling someone is looking at you?” Miguel, 43, said of the episode, on July 9. “So I look over and see someone is smiling at me. It was like a smirk.” He described the man as stocky and wearing blue shorts.
Miguel said he “paid it no mind,” washed his hands and left the men’s room. Walking toward his bus to New Jersey, he was arrested. The officer kept saying, “Oh, you know what you did,” when Miguel asked why he had been arrested.
Miguel said he was not sure whether he had been targeted. “Anyone who would have gone next to that man, who would have stood in that particular urinal, would have gotten the rap that I got,” he said.
The fine, upstanding officers of the NYPD: protecting and serving New Yorkers since… well, we’ll let you know when that starts happening.
vive
Just the latest installment in the NYPD’s long history of fascism.
bjohnmasters
I used to work as the records manager for a larger city in North Carolina (this was a while back), and each year we’d microfilm the vice-squad records. One time I decided to read through a few where they were conducting one of their “stings” at a local mall. Talk about entrapment, and arresting people on the flimsiest excuses. The narratives written by the officers made it clear the officer would just keep going and going at the target, and you have to know the officers were dialing it back some in what they wrote.
But, alas, those arrests are easier and safer that working actual crimes, so that’s what we get. It’s the kind of thing Polk County Florida Sheriff, and reality show wannabe, Grady Judd does all the time. I’m not even sure Polk County has officers working actual crimes, just doing sex chats and prostitution stings. But hey, it makes great headlines.
Bauhaus
NYPD is so completely frustrated without Stop and Frisk on the streets, they have to bring it to the restrooms.
These Pigs have nothing better to do than troll dirty restrooms, trumpiming up charges on innocent folks?
hyhybt
New York must otherwise be a great place to live, if there are so few real crimes that the police have to fill their time arresting people for using urinals for their intended purpose.
th cjprof
The facts just don’t matter?!?!? The agency responsible for the enforcement highlighted in this article and the lawsuit is not the NYPD but the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Police Department. The NYPD does not patrol the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The knee jerk reaction and vitriol against the NYPD in the article and the comments are misdirected, inaccurate, off base and completely unnecessary. If this website is to be considered a legitimate source of news and commentary, then there should be a bit of a more serious endeavor to ensure accuracy. As a biased outlet you have remained true to one sided reporting, alarmist rants and inaccurate accusations, but don’t ever let the facts get in the way of your agenda!
Saint Law
I am a Yurpean and have to say, to us here in Yurp American policing is dismazingly vindictive.
How do you stand it?
Saint Law
@th cjprof: Oop cop slut alert.
Saint Law
@th cjprof: Yeah coz the NYPD are so known for their responsible, community led policing aren’t they?
redcarpet30
And I thought NY was the paradise at the center of the world! At least that’s what New Yorkers, SNL, and crappy romantic comedies would have you believe.
It’s shocking that all the NYPD needs is the cops word to stick a sex crime charge on someone when all they were doing was trying to take a piss. I’m surprised no lawyers have tried to rake them over the coals over this.
tjr101
@redcarpet30: And I suppose you spoke to every one of the atleast 8 million NY’ers who have told you the city is a paradise? Quite a feat!
The NYPD is more unpopular than the rats you see in the subway.
Bob LaBlah
I remember a horrific ‘sting’ a few years back that involved the video arcades along 8th avenue. The NYPD sent young, fresh out of the academy rookies into those arcades to arrest people for lewd conduct. One arrest was so absurd it defied belief: a man from the Netherlands comes to NYC on business, checks into the Waldorf hotel, and allegedly goes to the 8th avenue arcade to turn twenty dollar tricks.
The complaint alleges that the man entered the arcade area and approached a twenty-four year old officer, told the young office he would give HIM oral sex for twenty dollars and was arrested. It seems right at hard to believe a fifty-eight year old man would fly to NYC, check into a hotel whose rates start somewhere around $750 per night and then go turn twenty dollar tricks in a video arcade whose reputation as a cruising ground had long since diminished. But yes, that is just what a jury would have been expected to believe as the truth as told by the NYPD.
A rally was held down the street from then Emperor Bloomburgs 72nd street mansion. I went and witnessed things even more absurd. A young female Asian officer had to be told (very loudly by her sergeant) to shut up as she stared down every person of color as though they were a terrorist. She really gave the impression she wanted to shoot any one that she thought might get her sergeant stripes. To become a NYPD officer one only has to have sixty credits from ANY community college in order to enter the academy. This means any knucklehead who can get past the background check gets an instant pass to kill whomever they wish.
The actions of that young woman and those false arrest led me to believe that there really are two sides to every story and the strong possibility that the NYPD does not always tell the truth nor plays by the rules. Those arcades have long term leases and are in very valuable locations. You go figure.
As for the Port Authority police I always did and still do see them as nothing else but those who washed out or could not get into the NYPD for whatever reason so mommie/daddy or uncle Vinnie made a few phone calls and got them into the Port Authority Police Dept. I am actually shocked they drummed up the energy to do ANYTHING. I guess they took the easy way and went after the defenseless, or should I say most vulnerable.
seaguy
There should be a law that says police cannot conduct these kind of stings where they use entrapment unless all murders and rapes and assaults have been solved in the city. Because it always pisses me off to read about them entrapping sex workers or men in public restrooms when there are more important crimes needing worked and solved. Priorities are messed up
vive
@seaguy, they’ll excuse it by calling part of the freakin’ “broken windows” philosophy of policing; never mind that broken windows has been discredited long ago.