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 Cops
Turn Attention To Airport Gay Cruising
by The Associated Press
Posted: April 12, 2007 - 8:00 am ET
(Atlanta) At the world's busiest airport,
plainclothes officers patrolling public restrooms in search of luggage thieves
have instead uncovered a rash of other crimes.
The new
restroom dragnet has led to the arrests of more than 30 people
in three months for indecent exposure and public sex acts at
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Airport
restrooms apparently have become such popular meeting places
for men looking for sexual trysts with other men that they
have been suggested several times as meeting places in
personal ads on the Web site Craigslist.
"Hey
... I'm stuck at the airport from 5 p.m. and I'm looking for a
good time ...," one ad reads. In another, the person
posting says he is stuck at the airport for three hours in the
evening and is looking for "discreet, quick action."
The new
patrols were started to stop theft, not catch people in sex
acts, police officials say.
Officers
started monitoring the restrooms after figuring out that
thieves were pulling bags off baggage-claim carousels and
taking them into toilet stalls to comb through them.
"We're
trying to provide a safe environment for everyone at the
airport," said Officer Joseph Villafane, a police
spokesman. "We're not out to get all that - it's just we
encounter it."
Among those
arrested is Ed Wall, the board chairman of the Metropolitan
Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. An officer said he saw Wall
having oral sex with another man. Wall, who has temporarily
stepped down from his post, has maintained his innocence. A
court date has not been set.
The other
court cases are pending.
James Cates,
a clinical psychologist, said airport indecency arrests
usually involve people getting caught performing sexual acts.
He said it illustrates compulsive behavior known as
exhibitionism.
"They're
not a lot different from any compulsion ... it's just that
this kind of behavior can be offensive to people and can be
traumatizing," said Cates, who counsels and performs
psychological testing on sex offenders and people with sexual
disorders. "They've got to have the thrill and as they
keep not getting caught or reported, the thrill gets less and
less. It has to become more risky and daring to keep the
thrill up."
Still, some
say the airport police should have better things to do than
stake out restrooms.
"Police
have far better things to do with their time than to arrest
people for this," said Kenneth Sherrill, professor at
Hunter College of The City University of New York. "Being
'sex police' in bathrooms strikes me as a perversion of
rational law enforcement activities."
Atlanta's is
not the only airport to have had restroom-related arrests.
Former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was ordered to pay
$35,000 in damages to a custodian who said he shoved her and
exposed himself to her in a bathroom at Baltimore-Washington
International Airport in 2000. A year later, a county judge in
Michigan was arrested at Detroit Metro Airport for allegedly
exposing himself to an undercover officer, although a district
attorney decided not to prosecute.
The Atlanta
airport police efforts may be working, as new personal ads
have on Craigslist have warned people to be careful.
"Do NOT
do anything at the airport," one posting from March 29
reads. "If you want to hook up, do it outside the
airport! Have fun but be smart about it. It's not worth going
to jail for the night and having your face put on the
news."
©365Gay.com 2007
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