Lewd Behavior Gets Pass by LGBT Crowd

Drug stings by law enforcement target the crime of selling drugs. In a similar fashion, law enforcement has employed stings in areas known to be frequented by gay men in order to target lewd conduct, indecent exposure, and sex in public places. These activities, unfortunately, often happen in restrooms of family-friendly areas such as parks, seaside areas, and wooded hiking and camping areas.

Just call it the “They Can’t Help It, They’re LGBT” defense.

Not so fast — say some who see bias everywhere. These stings may be discriminatory against LGBT individuals.

Using that logic, however, a drug sting would be unfair because perhaps the seller had a genetic predisposition to drugs — which affected his ability to resist drugs and drug-related activities when approached by an interested party. The activity is still illegal, sting or no sting.

Just call it the “They Can’t Help It, They’re LGBT” defense.

“Burbank lewd conduct is not defined as any one particular act. The offense involves engaging in sex or sexually related activity in a public place,” says the website of California defense attorney Michael Kraut, in explaining the “lewd conduct” charge. “Law enforcement sets up sting operations in and around public restrooms, parks, and beaches in order to catch people engaging in this conduct.”

This doesn’t sound like behavior that would be particularly welcome during a family outing — where parents and children are spending a day on a blanket, enjoying a picnic and some nice weather.

Think this is an exaggeration? “My best friend and I were walking home from the mall when a man exposed himself, and did a few other things I can’t even share,” one 54-year-old Maryland woman told LifeZette about an experience during her adolescence. “It was the first time I had ever seen a man naked, and that is not the way you want to experience that,” she said. “Disturbing is an understatement. Haunting would be a better word.”

Related: The LGBT Crowd Pushes Sex — It’s That Simple

Yet the website criminaldefenselawyer.com explains the use of sting operations in the sex trade: “Law enforcement agencies often use — and courts usually allow — ‘sting’ operations, where officers go undercover to catch people involved in the sex trade.”

It continues: “Sting operations are a practical response to the way prostitution is carried out. Most other crimes come to the attention of law enforcement through victim or witness reports. Prostitution, however, presents unique enforcement challenges. Most prostitution is consensual, in that the parties to the encounter agree to an exchange of sex for money. It’s in neither party’s interest to report the other. And because these sex acts usually occur in private, the chances of innocent third parties observing and reporting them are slim. As a result, police agencies mainly enforce prostitution laws through sting operations.”

Now go back and insert “lewd conduct” for “prostitution” in the above description — and you understand law enforcement’s choice of methods to combat a crime that is carried out in secret.

The reality today is that some don’t see exposing oneself or soliciting sex in a public place as criminal or even lewd behavior at all. They say it’s just “boorish.”

[lz_ndn video=27566971]

“Nobody is going to defend lewd conduct, but there is a qualitative difference between sexual predators and people who engage in boorish behavior,” Los Angeles County Assessor Jeffrey Prang told the Los Angeles Times. “Criminalizing them isn’t really justice. You just want them to stop.” Prang is gay, and has worked as a special assistant in the sheriff’s department on the LGBT advisory council.

One doubts, however, that a father walking his little girl to the restroom only to see a man exposing himself would use the word “boorish” to describe the disturbing scene.

Is this how the gay community views this behavior?

“I actually find it offensive, if this creepy behavior is viewed as ho-hum,” a gay 42-year-old man from Boston, Massachusetts, said. “This makes it seem as if this behavior is a compulsion that goes with the lifestyle, instead of what it is — wrong, and illegal.”

Where are the rights of families in all this? They’re undoubtedly the majority of the people who use these recreational public spaces.

In Long Beach, California, a judge who said police improperly targeted gay men in sting operations has dismissed charges of lewd conduct and indecent exposure against an individual arrested in a public bathroom. Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina ruled on April 29 that Rory Moroney’s arrest in 2014 was based on discriminatory enforcement and prosecution, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.

A detective acting as a vice unit decoy said Mahoney, 51, exposed himself in a bathroom at Recreation Park in a Los Angeles suburb. In turn, Moroney said the detective — who smiled, nodded at him, and made eye contact in the restroom — appeared to be interested in sex with him. If convicted, Moroney would have been required to register as a sex offender for life.

During the trial, police indicated they had arrested about 55 men for lewd conduct in the past two years, The Associated Press reported. Police said they based lewd-conduct operations on complaints, but the judge countered there was little evidence of such complaints at the men’s restrooms where most stings took place.

“The presence and tactics of the decoy officers actually caused the crimes to occur,” Dhanidina ruled.

“This judge knows discrimination when he sees it,” said Bruce Nickerson, one of Moroney’s defense lawyers, according to AP. “His ruling is powerful because it sends a message far beyond this case. It sends a message to police departments throughout the state who do these decoy operations for lewd-conduct cases.”

Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna said the department is “100 percent committed to civil rights and equality for all people, including the LGBTQ community,” and that it has many openly gay employees.

Yet this begs the question: How is this a question of discrimination, and not of catching and punishing illegal behavior? And where are families’ rights in all this? They’re undoubtedly the majority of the people who use these recreational public spaces.