Goodbye Animal Planet

[BlackDude]

Incoming non PC rant coming:

 

This summer was one of the best summers ever. With the pandemic dying down, guys were out and horny. This large oasis in the middle of the city became cruising central. On any given night, 20-30 guys would be there, most fucking, sucking or on there way to doing  so. Guys were giving in to there most carnal desires right there in the woods.

 

After a few months, the homeless people stated creeping in. The cruisers and the homeless mostly stayed out of each other’s way. Neither was a public nuisance since the park was large enough and wooded so no one could see what was going on within.

Then one day, the cops decided to do a sweep and arrest all the cruisers. They homeless, who were trashing the place, trafficking and doing every drug in the book, were left alone. Fortunately, I wasn’t there with this happened and I’m an extremely caution cruiser.

I still don’t understand why cruisers are being targeted for “loitering” when they are allowing the homeless to run amuck. 

Well, it was fun while it lasted. 

[TravelGuy1956]

That reminds me of the double standard at a local federal park near where I live now.  A straight couple were actually caught having oral sex by park rangers and simply told to move on.  When two guys were caught,  the ranger got on the radio and called local police AND the sheriffs office and the "suspects" were arrested and taken to jail and had to be bailed out. 

[analluv27]

It's because the police know that some of the cruisers have lives that could seriously be impacted by being arrested for "loitering" as opposed to someone who's homeless. Plus majority of cruisers are working and they can fine them for "loitering"

[BootmanLA]

20 minutes ago, analluv27 said:

It's because the police know that some of the cruisers have lives that could seriously be impacted by being arrested for "loitering" as opposed to someone who's homeless. Plus majority of cruisers are working and they can fine them for "loitering"

Not only that, but they'll make bail and get out of the police's way, perhaps chastened by the experience. Homeless people may just sit there in jail for days or weeks until they can be tried (if the charges aren't dropped) and they'll be housed and have 3 meals a day - certainly not in any sort of luxurious setting, but for some it might beat living outside. 

Also: fair or not, being homeless isn't illegal. Broadly speaking, sleeping in public isn't illegal. There are lots of laws against the homeless that are "on the books" but police are rightfully reluctant to try to enforce many of them because a lot of them are unconstitutional and would be struck down by the courts if they're used in a place where there's an active ACLU chapter.

By contrast, public sex is illegal almost everywhere. I get it - some people like the public aspect of cruising, some people don't want to make the effort to connect online or at a bar and go to one person's home, some guys just prefer outdoor sex, some guys get off on the thrill of possibly getting caught. That doesn't mean the public needs to cede public grounds to people to use for sex. I'd note that nothing is stopping a group of gay men from buying, say, five or six acres, putting up a privacy fence around it, putting in parking, planting some bushes and trees, and opening it to "members" to have sex on private property.

There just seems to be some feeling that the public ought to provide this for them for free. To say "neither was a public nuisance" ignores the fact that by taking over a public facility for this kind of use, it becomes unavailable for those who don't want to see sex in public. People with kids. People who just want to enjoy the (almost certainly very limited) woods in an urban setting because it's the only place one can find birds and animals in the concrete jungle.