NEW YORK - In the past four years, nearly 50 men have been arrested on what are being called questionable prostitution charges as the City of New York steps up efforts to "clean up" Manhattan. The cases might not stand out as odd if all of them weren't associated with a small group of seven stores that cater to a gay clientele.
Now six of the stores have been sued by the city, and court documents indicate the arrests are justification for closure.
"It seems as though there is a pattern of arresting innocent men in an effort to try and close these places down," Robert Pinter, a 52-year-old massage therapist who was among 12 men arrested at Blue Door Video told Gay City News. "It's extremely troubling that the police have so little regard for the gay citizens of New York that they use them as pawns to try and close these porn shops down."
Blue Door has been the site of 10 arrests; two after the store paid a $2,500 fine and installed video monitoring equipment. Pinter is contesting the charges, but the others will plead no contest, pay a small fine and go on about their lives after the court records are sealed. That has been the pattern in the vast majority of cases, suggesting plea bargains with men who otherwise had no criminal records.
The city sued three other stores earlier this year. One closed and two remain open, as does a fourth store that saw a customer arrested in October, allegedly after agreeing to accept $60 for having sex with an undercover police officer.
Yet another store temporarily closed in 2005 after police arrested two gay men there. It's back open now.
In the case that stands out the most for locals, though, Video Video Video paid a $35,000 fine and closed after police arrested 21 men on prostitution charges and an additional four for selling marijuana. All the arrests were made between 2004 and 2007, when the store closed. The property subsequently was acquired for $12.3 million by a real estate developer.
Gay City News noted the activity also is unusual because it appears to be confined to Manhattan. The paper could find no similar arrests in Brooklyn, the Bronx or Queens.
Gay City News also pointed out that although it is possible an alarming rate of prostitution occurs in and around gay adult stores, it's statistically unlikely the men who were arrested are prostitutes. Most of them were between the ages of 42 and 54, and several were from out of state. How likely is it that Californians, Virginians and Europeans would travel all the way to New York to sell themselves when they could do so more conveniently and profitably at home?
According to men caught in the dragnet, the scenario is an unusual one: A young, attractive man approaches them and says he wants to have sex with them. After they agree and leave the store, he offers them money. That's when the arrests happen.
"A lot of what's known suggests that this was a massive violation of the civil rights of those arrested who were charged falsely," William K. Dobbs, an attorney and gay civil libertarian, told Gay City News. "The circumstances surrounding these arrests don't add up to what the police claim."
New York City's Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project issued a statement about the situation: "[AVP] is concerned about the recent arrests of men for alleged prostitution at adult video shops. In particular, we are concerned about the number of arrests and the locations that suggest a pattern of targeting gay men."
City authorities, however, maintain the legitimacy of their efforts.
"Regardless of age or involvement of out-of-towners, the fact remains that the locations had become notorious for solicitation of sex acts, with complaints from the public resulting in police attention," police department spokesman Paul J. Browne told Gay City News in an email. "All investigations were supervised by a sergeant or above. All of the locations were visited after the NYPD received complaints from the public."
