Cruiser "Crime" Crackdowns: Who are the Victims?
 

After looking through this site and reading about some of the "Heads Up" crackdown descriptions, other stories listed about cruiser crackdowns, and the informative and scary "clip" that is listed in this section (re: Watch This Now), I keep asking myself "Where are the victims in these so called 'crimes'?". Where is the victim when two (or more) consenting adults are locked in a booth together? Or even in an unlocked booth or seat? Where is the crime when someone is sitting in a theater, that legally shows XXX hardcore pornographic films/videos in which cocks are being stroked, licked, swallowed and are penetrating any ol'hole and spewing cream all over China, and this someone is stroking their cock (in or out of his pants). What's the difference between what's happening on the screen and what's happening in the seat or the booth that makes the image legal but the act illegal?

Who's the victim in any situation of a crackdown in an establishment where sexual activity is explicitly portrayed, and yet cannot be enjoyed. They give you the seat or the booth. What do they think that you're supposed to do, sit like a zombie and only watch? What idiocy! You can look at the act but you can't enjoy it. "Look but don't touch". It's as ridiculous as saying "Don't ask, don't tell". These issues seem to be steeped in a haze of ignorance and denial about sexuality that permiates our American culture. Who should really care about what goes on in an adult establishment between consenting adults? And again, where is the victim in this so-called "crime"? And yet we have a culture of IGNORANCE that turns sexual acts between consenting adults in "crimes" and a culture of DENIAL that persectutes deviancy ("deviancy" being simply "different from the norm" or more simply being "different") by forceably and actively prosectuting victimless crimes. Absolute sheer lunacy! The victims of the so-called "crimes" end up being the cruisers themselves.

Just wondering if anyone has any other depth of insight into this.

[This message has been edited by BLUEii (edited April 01, 2001).]

Interesting question. I had a friend a few months ago who was busted in one town while playing with himself inside a booth. Door closed, no glory holes... The cops busted in on him and arrested him. He had to admit to his wife that he was bi. Hired a lawyer, saw a shrink... the whole works. He finally got out of the charges and he and his lawyer were able to convince the judge that the policy had no reasonable cause for the "search and seizure" routine they used. Still, it cost him $1,500 to get the charges dropped after all was said and done. To say nothing of what this may have done to his marriage. (Although the last time I talked to his wife, she acted like nothing had changed).

Did your friend have his arrest record expunged after the charges were dropped?

Many people have 'assumed' their arrest record is expunged if charges are dropped. His arrest record could come back to haunt him some day in the future. I had a friend who was arrested under similar circumstances. The charges against him were dropped. However, the arrest record was not expunged. Subsequently, when he applied for a job that required a security clearance in government, he answered the security questionnaire erroneously about being arrested. He was operating under the assumption his prior arrest record did not exist because the charges were dropped.

My point is that arrest records are never automatically expunged if charges are dropped.