This article was in the Boston Herald. Police were monitoring Craigslist for prostitution. How much more proof do we need that cops view sites like CFS for illegal activity?



5 arrested for soliciting on Web site
By Jessica Fargen
Monday, October 17, 2005 - Updated: 11:43 AM EST

Women posing in racy photos on the Internet are advertising sex-for-sale at suburban hotels on a popular Web site that sells everything from books to apartments, police say.
Braintree police arrested five women for prostitution in the past two weeks during a sting operation after they called women from www.craigslist.org and met up with them at local hotels. The Web site has ads for jobs, furniture, jewelry, tickets and a raunchy section called ``casual encounters.''
``These rendezvous . . . draw an undesirable element and (lead to) an all-too-frequent spike in crime,'' said Deputy Police Chief Russell Jenkins.
One 20-year-old told police she's been hooking since she was 14, serves eight men each day and nets $1,500.
Some working gals rolled up to the hotel in Mercedes, BMWs and Cadillacs and smoked marijuana in the rooms, police say.
Police believe some of the women who posted ads on craigslist.org are linked to a prostitution ring.

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Yes, I am sure cops are looking at CFS. It is a public space.

Historically, the real problem has been with vice policemen who try to entrap individuals into doing something illegal that they would not have done otherwise. I guess we have to be careful not to post our fantasy of being a rent boy -- some cop might try to "buy" our services.

A bigger problem is police who invade private spaces. The FBI currently has their "Carnivore" system attached to many ISP network servers to monitor EVERY packet of information, including private emails, even from people who are not a target of their investigation. The legality of this has never been fully tested all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Of course, by the time President Bush stuffs the court with right wing cronies, we will have lost many of our freedom.

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yes police know of cfs and other cruiser sites, there are gay and bi cops too, no they dont entrap guys they only want hook up spots to be safe for the public, like parks and rest areas. and remember prostitution is illegal..

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Right. Guys going at it in the bushes in the middle of the night are making the public park unsafe?

Gee, I did not know I was posing a threat to public safety, just cause someone was sucking at my dick?

Go, figure...

KD

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It never is the discreet guys who are the problem. It's the guys who let their small head do their thinking who cause the problems.

Here in Topeka, Gage Park is no longer a safe hookup spot because too many guys were seen fooling around half- and fully naked. This park is one that is very kid-friendly and is frequented by families. The police give this park a lot of attention because of all the complaints made by parents who found their kids exposed to adult behavior.

Now, if these idiots had just used more discretion, this park would still be a safe haven to play.

There are still many places where guys hook up for fun. One is the Shunga Trail. But the guys that play out there take it into the woods. They don't do it on or near the public paths. So the police have not received complaints and do not patrol the trail like they patrol the park.

Law enforcement's view on this behavior is that if people are using the area for sexual encounters, they could be using the area for other things such as drug dealing and, like Worm pointed out, prostitution. Law enforcement looks at public sex as a gateway offense. If this kind of behavior is allowed to happen, it attracts criminal behavior that is much more nefarious. So to keep other crimes in check, public sex has to be kept in check.

Read some of the stories about encounters here on CFS. "there we were going at it on top the the picnic table. I knew someone could come along at any time and catch us, but I didn't care. All I knew was..." Fact or fiction, this site is full of admissions by guys that they really weren't all that discreet in their anonymous encounters.

Bottom line is: law enforcement doesn't need to check out CFS. There are enough idiots out there bringing a site to their attention by their acts of indiscreet behavior alone.

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I see GT's point of view.

I have been around a lot and have seen a few things, but I simply cannot recall ever seeing guys going at it in the full view of the public. Which admittedly, does not go on to say that dumb dudes do not do it. Yet, I would qualify these rather as exceptions. Wouldn't you?

Most cruising in public parks, etc., takes place pretty late, at the time when you do not expect kids roaming around and getting the unseeming sights of m2m sex...

The real problem here is:

In reality, there is no necessary connection between 'sexual encounters' in public parks and other more nefarious crimes, such as drug dealing and/or prostitution. Sometimes, they go together, sometimes they do not. Yet, societies are based, among many other things, on their almost sovereign right to impose the moral views of the majority upon the societies as whole. And admittedly, conservative societies tend to criminalize sex and everything that goes with it, unless it is limited to the confines of one's bedroom.

I believe that GT truthfully presented the view of the law enforcement and their usual policies. I also believe that these are based upon largely false premises and are representative of an outlived ideology which is still mostly clinging on to life in rural areas of the country.

KD

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I was arrested once here in Florida at some beach trails that were famous for sex (and yes, I've seen as many as 8 guys at a time going at it, including once about 5 guys sharing a (female) hooker).

One of the cops that arrested me (the nice guy), said "if you guys would just clean up after yourselves this wouldn't be happening ... we've gotten a lot of calls from families that either see what's going on themselves or see condoms and wrappers all over the trails".

I gotta' admit ... he's right.

And when you drive down Gandy Blvd and see 12 cars parked by the trails at lunch (half of 'em with pride flags on the bumper), you don't need to log onto the web to figure out what's going on.

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Rest areas may become unnecessary
Transportation Department
By Merritt Melancon | juliana.melancon@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:05 PM on Monday, October 24, 2005

Before Waffle House built a diner at every other off ramp in Georgia and before McDonald's had a restaurant at almost every single interstate exit, Georgia families on the road had few places to stop for rest during long car trips. The interstate rest stop served an important purpose, especially in rural areas.

But now, with the state's rural areas disappearing into suburbs, there aren't many stretches of highway where motorists can't find a fast-food restaurant or convenience store.

And highway planners and local officials continue to debate whether to invest more money into the system of rest areas or close them altogether.

The state Department of Transportation recently decided to close one of Gwinnett County's last rest areas - a public restroom and picnic facility just south of Suwanee where police arrested half a dozen people just this month. Over the years, it had become a haven for criminal activity and a traffic hazard.
Silver Sun Tan USA

While the DOT doesn't have a formal plan to phase out interstate rest areas in Georgia, the closing of the one in Gwinnett shows a larger trend taking shape along the nation's highways, said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.

"Many rest areas were originally built in remote locations along roadways where lavatory facilities and other services were unavailable," Hecox said. "As many formerly rural areas have become urbanized in the decades since, the need for rest areas has been minimized, if not eliminated outright, in certain locations."

In some suburban places, rest stops have become areas of illegal activity.

That's part of the problem with the soon-to-close stop in Gwinnett County, said Capt. Clyde Byers of the Suwanee Police Department.

"The majority of the people who congregated there had Gwinnett County license plates - these were not motorists who were just passing through," Byers said. "If you live in a county, why would you spend your time hanging out at a rest area there?"

Suwanee police and the DOT conducted stings for indecent exposure at the rest area about twice a year. The last one, earlier this month, yielded six arrests.

Despite the rest area's reputation as a place to meet up for illicit sexual activity, no serious crimes ever took place there, said Byers.

He remembers that someone did have their purse snatched there about a decade ago, but the police caught the suspect fairly quickly and no one was hurt.

However, after enough calls from truckers who had received unwanted solicitations or families with children who had happened upon a clandestine restroom tryst, it was time to shut the rest area down, Byers said.

"Personally, I don't have a problem with what two consenting adults do in their own homes or in a hotel room," he said. "But the public facilities are not the place for that."

It's this kind of activity that has ruined the reputation of rest areas and prompted the residents of several counties to oppose the DOT's plans to add an I-85 rest area, said Jackson County Sheriff Stan Evans.

"About 10 years ago, DOT wanted to put (a rest area) in Jackson County along I-85," Evans said. "The residents and business owners in the area opposed it. And so did I. We just didn't want what it brought. One of the reasons given for the closing of the rest area in Gwinnett County was, besides the traffic problems it was causing, the crime problem there. We certainly don't want that."

That proposed stop would have been between Braselton and Jefferson, Evans said.

Jackson County already plays host to two small rest areas on U.S. Highway 441, one near Center and one near Commerce. These pull-offs have no bathrooms and only a few picnic tables and a parking area.

Hardly anyone ever uses them, but county residents sometimes call to complain about loitering, indecent exposure and other illegal activities there, Evans said. Someone was raped at one of them several years back, he added.

"Some people will pull over from time to time to take a break there. And I understand the need to do that," he said. "But most of the time now, there are other places alongside the road where people can stop off, take a break and pick up a sandwich."

Still, DOT and local officials in other communities maintain that the rest areas provide a needed service. In the past decade, the DOT has built one new rest stop and welcome center on I-85 at the South Carolina border in Franklin County. It's also paid to replace two existing rest areas along Interstate 20 in Morgan County.

Franklin County doesn't have many problems at its rest area, said county Sheriff Steve Thomas.

"Every once in a while, we'll get a call that someone's trying to break into the snack machine, but that's about it," Thomas said.

Morgan County does have some problems at the I-20 rest areas, Sheriff Robert Markley said, but it's not worth scrapping the stops.

"The state has put a lot of money into redoing our two rest stops," Markley said. "They razed them and then rebuilt them with a lot more light in the parking lot. These areas are so isolated, we don't have the concentration of people to see the crimes or to do the crimes. People don't want to come this far to commit a crime, and we don't want them to."

No matter if the rest area is semi-urban and crowded with travelers or rural and lonely, motorists should take precautions when they stop off at one for a quick break, said Mike Healey, manager of the Metro-Atlanta AAA South.

"You need to be careful," Healey said. "If you're going to stop off at a rest stop, especially after dark, you need to stay aware of your surroundings. For many drivers, this will be their only time ever at this particular rest stop, so they will be very unfamiliar with their surroundings."

But interstate rest areas, even if some have become a bit shady, still are a valuable part of Georgia's road system, Healey added.

"People still use rest areas a lot," he said. "It just depends on what highway you're on. There are still highways out there where it's 60 miles between exits. And rest stops can be very useful when nature calls in that situation."

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As much as I enjoy an occasional hook up in the locker room at the gym I go to, I get annoyed when the same 3 guys--who look completely out of place, are dressed in street clothes, don't have a gym bag, or even a towel--hang out in the locker room for an hour at a time, hoping to get lucky. It also is irritating when I walk in the shower room and find some guy on his knees sucking some cock and the cocksucker neither flinches nor stops. If these guys would be more discrete and less obvious, the straight homphobes, as well as the guys who simply don't appreciate this behavior, wouldn't have to call the police to have the locker room patrolled. As much as I can understand the need or desire to bust a nut, it is illegal to engage in such sexual activity and when guys are too obvious, they shouldn't get pissed at the police or the people who call the police--they should get pissed at themselves for not being able to use some sense and discretion.

__________________
Always looking for a JO buddy

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Samgone,

That behavior isn't nearly as bad as a local campus' lockerroom. The way it was described to me was older men (obviously not students) walk around naked with hardons hoping some campus guy will take notice.

The student who told me this also said that these guys will follow someone around, even if he shows no interest. How'd you like to have to run a naked troll gauntlet each day just to use the local gym?

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GT,

The same things you just mentioned happen in my locker room as well. There is one older guy who will hang out in the locker for hours at a time, taking countless showers while shamelessly strokintg his cock and then walking around the locker room with a hard-on. Then there is another older guy who shows up in the evening, strips downs, and reads the newspaper while camped out next to the shower room. If he sees someone interesting, he follows them in the shower and plays with his cock. Another guy sits in his street clothes on a bench and simply waits for someone to his liking, then follows him into the shower.

At this point, I ignore these naked trolls. However, I can see why some guys get irritated and call the police. I'm not in favor of cops busting a fun sex spot, but when these guys lack discretion as well as restraint, then perhaps police presence is warranted.

__________________
Always looking for a JO buddy

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