Perhaps the biggest moodkiller is a police officer armed with a semi-automatic weapon knocking on the door of your private room. That’s what happened to patrons of an Albuquerque, NM bathhouse this week when officers entered with a warrant to search the place for illegal liquor. Why they were wearing bulletproof vests and carrying huge guns, we aren’t sure. Also unclear is why they were grabbing 70-year-old naked men and making them lie face-down on the ground while they cuffed them.
The police say it was “for the safety of the officers,” but we suspect that humiliation played at least a small role in this incident. The building is now closed due to “numerous firecode violations” that were discovered during the raid.
Police Raid Albuquerque Gay Bathhouse [365 Gay]
StinkyLulu
The ABQ police have made this over-the-top style all too typical. Not long ago, a particularly notorious boothstore was shut down with everyone on the premises (clerk, security guard, patrons) all charged with prostitution — because the $3 token charge was considered payment for sex.
Of course, the same aggressive allocation of resources does not extend to the murder of gay men in ABQ, as the utter neglect of the now cold case of Carlos Esquibel’s vicious murder last October demonstrates.
Rant. Grr.
Mari
APD has been frequently harassing gay establishments for a while now (the “raids” on a few local gay bars recently), as well as drivers. I’ve had a few incidents with APD, along with my roommate, for the past couple of months for unexplained reasons. This harassment should be looked into, but no one wants to do it, on a city level.
JayL
The cops pulled this crap way,way back a few years ago in San Jose, CA at the local bathouse there, raids, pulling over and harrasing customers as the leave, or arrive. they were smart and hired a private dick to investigate and document every bit of the harrasment they could. then they hired a really good attorney and sued the hell out of the city and the city police department. results? the city and police ended up paying out huge court ordered damages to the owners of the bathouse. next they used some of that money to completely re-build and remodle into a very, very nice, much larger facility with way better amenities such as outdoor spa and swiming pool, indoor spa and many new jobs. last time I checked that bathouse is still going strong more than 20 years later and the cops needless to say never harrased anyone there again due to the pain of the millions of dollars and lost jobs they suffered? this could be done here as well, but the owners and patrons would need to get behind the effort of not laying down for the illegality of what is happening to them??
bert269
I would LOVE for something like this and are willing to help where I can to get this off the ground.
Recently moved from a big city that had two of these highly successful businesses.
C’Mon guys, ABQ is not that small – we just need someone with balls and a little money to get this off the ground (I don’t have the later!).
This could be a goldmine as there is a huge population of gay men in ABQ.
Where do we start?