Pinter spent several hours in a police van, more time at the Seventh Precinct, and "16 or 17 hours in the Tombs," the city jail downtown. They handcuffed me and said, 'Why the f- do you think we're arresting you - loitering for the purpose of prostitution.'" "I asked them why they were doing this to me.
"I thought I'd been set up by a gang," he said. As the men left the store, Pinter said, a group of men who did not show police identification pushed him against the wall ' I didn't respond, but I thought it was strange," Pinter recounted. He was "charming and persistent, and we agreed to go home for consensual sex, but as we were leaving he said, 'I want to pay you $50. He said a young man - a 29-year old undercover cop who, Pinter said, looked even younger - cruised him in the store. Robert Pinter, a 52-year-old gay man who was arrested for prostitution at the Blue Door in the East Village on Oct. "These are false arrests." Recounting the ArrestsĪnger over the arrests also brought more than 200 people to a town hall meeting at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in January. We need to see stopped and to figure out how it started," Quinn told Gotham Gazette, calling the arrests of gay men "the most egregious I have heard of" going back to her days as executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, which is part of a coalition to stop these arrests. Gay activists and civil libertarians see the arrests as part of a continuing effort to shut down porn operations in the city and a tendency by the police department to criminalize gay sexual behavior.
Then, as they walk out of the store, the victim, despite never having agreed to any exchange of money, is surrounded by undercover cops, handcuffed and charged with prostitution. As they leave the store together, the cop offers to pay the man for the sex, confusing the victims who can't imagine why the younger man would make such a proposal. Police are allegedly using handsome young undercover cops to cruise middle-aged gay men, offering to go home with them for consensual sex. The arrests have been documented by Duncan Osborne of the Gay City News over the last several months. She said she is working with the mayor's office and commanders of the police department to set up a meeting that will include gay community groups "to get to the bottom of this." Last week, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined in the outcry. There has been a sharp increase recently in the number of gay men arrested for prostitution at adult video stores in Manhattan.Īnger is building against the police department in the wake of an increase in arrests of gay men for prostitution at Manhattan adult video stores.