MIXED MEDIA 1
POLICE REFUSE TO ARREST
STABBING SUSPECT SEEN AGAIN, ESCAPES AGAIN
"… a prime suspect in [the] stabbing of a … 15-year-old boy … at the headquarters of the Radical Gay Christians … was spotted… preaching through a bullhorn at a [rock] concert [and] condemning … homosexuals, and all anti-Establishment people and praising Jesus, the Bible, and the police…. Police refused to arrest him [despite being informed] that there was a felony warrant out for his arrest."
—The Advocate,
account of incident occurring
November 25, 1975, in Los Angeles
"Middle America's visceral distaste for sexual deviation is not… easily put down…. In New York City, the City Council seems about to vote [a civil-rights bill for homosexuals] down. In Missouri, a bill has been introduced that would require all homosexuals to register with the state…. In Boulder, Colorado, a university town with a reputation for easy-going liberalism, voters rejected by a 2-to-1 margin an ordinance that would have forbidden job discrimination against homosexuals….
"[In the fight in New York City] the Uniformed Fire Officers, in a $10,000 ad campaign, charged that it 'would force an employer to hire a pervert… expose our children to the influence of sodomites … destroy the teamwork of the fire department … permit sodomites, perverts, and deviates to live and work where they choose.' The archdiocese newspaper Catholic News called homosexuality 'a menace to family life….'"
—Newsweek,
May 20, 1975
CHURCHES REVIEW ATTITUDE ON 'GAYS'
"… The American Lutheran Church drew some fire recently when it was learned that a $2,000 grant was made to the gay caucus in its ranks…. Tor a major board of one of the country's major denominations to identify through its budget with an organization promoting blatant transgression of the revealed word of Cod is a sign of a sinking back to the level of official immorality ….'"
—Los Angeles Times,
July 7, 1975
"A last and particularly important finding [based on a study of the effects of liberalized laws in certain states], given the present concern for crime control, was that 50% of the police reported that decriminalizing private homosexual behavior had allowed them to spend more time on serious crime…."
—Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed Page,
October 16, 1975
INTELLIGENCE UNIT RULES ELUDE POLICE PANELISTS
"… The current 1975-76 PDID [Public Disorder Intelligence Division, a Los Angeles police division which gathers information on dissident groups and individuals] budget of $3.26 million pays for 91 sworn personnel and 15 civilians. This is nearly double the number of sworn personnel—52—assigned to robbery-homicide and compares with 44 assigned to burglary-auto theft, 63 to bunco-forgery, 144 to administrative narcotics, and 72 to administrative vice."
—Los Angeles Times,
December 28, 1975
BURGLARIES ON RISE, D.A. SAYS
"Substantial increases in burglaries during the last ten years in both the city and county of Los Angeles were reported…. In the city, the volume of burglaries climbed from 50,771 in 1965 to 67,799 in 1975. Last year 22.1% were solved."
—Los Angeles Times,
December 5, 1975
HOMICIDES LEAD
3.6% JUMP IN
LA. CRIME RATE
"… Homicides in Los Angeles rose to 619—the first time murders had topped 600 for a year. The figure presented an increase of 17.5% over 1974 figures."
—Los Angeles Times,
January 7, 1976
"The Los Angeles City Attorney's … office now handles up to 500 gay-bar arrests a year, and many of them … involve offenses no more serious than patrons holding hands or dancing together."
—Los Angeles Times, Editorial,
April 24, 1974
ELDERLY WOMAN RAPED, ROBBED
"An elderly woman was raped and robbed in her West Hollywood apartment, police said. It was the 37th such incident in Los Angeles' West Side since police began their search for the so-called West Side Rapist in November, 1974."
—Los Angeles Times,
May 10, 1976
"We used to have to stake out in [a certain public] restroom—a lovely job, you can imagine. Talk about where have all the flowers gone, let me tell you. So we would have to make arrests down there, and one gay painted a sign on the wall—an arrow—and it said: 'Vice Cops Watch Here.' And it pointed up to a screen on the wall where, indeed, we would be concealed…. The L.A.P.D. has always maniacally prosecuted vice and victimless crimes far beyond what they have to do…. Well, the police will beat up anybody…. Let me tell you about reality…. If a guy [arrested] hits you, being a human being … you hit him back, only you don't hit him back once, you hit him back three times or four or five or however many it takes to get the rage out of your system, because you're a human being…. He knocks one tooth out, you knock all his teeth out…. Just life. So when a gay says: 'Cops beat us up. The cop beat me up.' Well, the fact of the matter is, I've nothing to brag about, but I was a vice cop and I probably arrested 300 or 400 gays in my life."
—Ex-cop turned writer,
speaking on beatings, vice arrests, and being a "human being."
New West Magazine,
July 19, 1976
AN INSTANT CURE
"… when the board [of trustees of the American Psychiatric Association] voted last December to cease classifying homosexuality as a 'mental disorder,' … opponents of the ruling circulated petitions, issued angry statements, and forced the APA into an unprecedented action:… for the first time in [its] 129-year history, a board decision is being put to a vote."
—Time,
April 1, 1974
"… Probably the most recent information in the matter [of child molestation] is [a] report by the State Department of Mental Hygiene, 'Another Look at Sex Offenders in California.'
"That study of 887 pedophiles (persons favoring children as partners) at Atascadero State Hospital-65% of them from Los Angeles County—revealed that 75% were heterosexual, while only 20% were [exclusively] homosexual."
—Los Angeles Times,
October 28, 1973
"Historical evidence has shown that homosexuals are prone to violence and other forms of criminal conduct, most notably … molestation of adolescents and children."
—Testimony of a Los Angeles policeman during hearings to review the penal code,
—Los Angeles Times,
March 25, 1974
LAPD SEX SCANDAL
MORALS PROBE REVOLVES
AROUND POLICE, GIRL SCOUTS
"A number of Los Angeles police are under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct with members of the Hollywood Division's girl explorer scouts … a youth auxiliary group for girls 14 and up…."
—Valley News,
August 24, 1976
SOUTH PASADENA OFFICER CHARGED IN SEX CASE
"A 10-year South Pasadena police department veteran was arraigned … on charges resulting from an alleged sexual encounter with a 15-year-old … girl."
—Los Angeles Times,
October 15, 1976
NEW SEX CASE AT TWO POLICE DIVISIONS PROBED
"New allegations of sexual misconduct involving some of its officers are being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, the agency said in a cryptic statement…. Department rumors have circulated for weeks that some officers … set up an agreement with nurses at a local hospital for sexual favors…. Questions [include] whether money passed hands for the alleged sexual favors…."
—Los Angeles Times,
October 29, 1976
"It was on … a Sunday that … Taylor went to a party … a private fund-raiser … held in a gay bar…. Two friends arrived, and he and one friend moved to the bar to talk … but a Los Angeles Police Department vice officer [a "balding blond man of about 40"] later testified that Taylor and his friend kissed and fondled each other…. The blond officer and 3 other plainclothesmen … were augmented by 5 more plainclothes and 10 uniformed officers, and the arrests began.
"Taylor later testified that as the arrested men were handcuffed and led to a police van parked at the rear, he heard one officer call, 'We've got room for two more.' Another man, and then Taylor, were taken along, making a total of 21.
"His first reaction, he recalls, was to say, 'You're kidding.'"
—Los Angeles Times,
March 25, 1974
CHIEF SUPPORTS THEM
GAY S.F. OFFICERS URGED TO 'COME OUT OF CLOSET
"There are 20 homosexuals on the San Francisco Police Force, police chief Charles Gain says, urging them to 'come out of the closet' and show that gays can be good cops. He promised them his 'full support.'"
—Los Angeles Times,
October 19, 1976
URGES TOLERANCE FOR INCURABLE' GAYS….
"Vatican City (AP) …. Without discounting what the church considers the gravity of all homosexual acts, [the Vatican] … drew a distinction between homosexuals 'whose tendency comes from a false education, from a lack of normal sexual development, from habit, from bad example, or other similar causes' and a second group 'who are definitely such because of some kind of innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be "incurable"….'
"It added that Scripture does 'not permit us to conclude that all those who suffer from this anomaly are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no case be approved of.'"
—Los Angeles Times,
January 15, 1976
"Perhaps the greatest perversion of all is to use the Bible as a social weapon that harms, hurts, and dehumanizes."
—Gerald A. LaRue,
U.S.C. School of Religion,
Los Angeles Times,
June 10, 1975
10:34 P.M. Greenstone Park.
NO MOON.
Jim passes the stone alcove, descends through ashen shadows toward the wall against the trees. He sits on the back of a concrete bench, his outline visible in the mute lamplight. A lean shadow floats by. Attractive, masculine. Jim spreads his legs wide. Two other men are lurking. The lean man—dark, angular, with a gypsy face, the most attractive of the three men Jim has lured—sits next to him on the back of the bench; he too spreads his legs, one knee touching Jim's. Another man squats before Jim. The sexual current rising, the third man bends before the lean one. Rhythmically the two kneeling suck the two sitting, Jim and the man next to him staring at each other.
Jim moves away, glancing back at the lean man, inviting him to follow. Jim waits against the wall near the water fountain. The lean goodlooking man approaches him. Gliding together, they kiss, erect exposed cocks pressed against each other. The other goes down on Jim. Inside the warm throat, Jim's cock grows full. Now the other stands for Jim to reciprocate. Jim bends and takes the other's cock in his mouth; he feels the round tight shaft slide past his lips, along his tongue, into his mouth. They alternate sucking each other, briefly each time, and kiss, as if to connect both cocks with both mouths.
Car lights flush the area, pulling shadows from the slain darkness.
The two separate in opposite directions. The car lights shift. Not the cops—only another hunter driving in.
Jim stands on the ledge of the concrete grotto. Motionless, like ebony statues, three men wait below against the wall. Nothing happens, no one moves for a seeming eternity. Four figures stand in the dark pool, Jim on the ledge as if commanding the traumatized hill. More moments pass. Nothing. Minutes. Nothing. Jim feels a stab of desperation. A man moves toward him from the path, climbs the ledge as if to approach him—and moves on. Still, nothing! Despair stabs more deeply. Another outlaw moves toward the alcove. The three others remain frozen. Jim stretches his body, touching his bare chest through the open vest. As the man climbs the ledge, his lips brush Jim's pants at the groin. Despair lifts. The lips press tightly against Jim's crotch.
Jim jumps off the ledge, onto the curving path, a tunnel through the trees. Stifled sighs. Matted leaves. Shadows of men wait. In recurring islands of lamplight, figures materialize for seconds. Men stand against trees, alone, in twos, threes.
To be seen clearly Jim pauses in a wing of yellow light. A man stands before him, his fingers spidering along the bare flesh of Jim's chest. Jim flexes exhibitionistically. Eyes adoring, the man stands back, jerking himself off silently staring at Jim's muscle-tensed body.
Jim moves farther along the path. A man in a leather jacket, shiny even in the dark, abruptly, suddenly, as if in a speeded-up film, kneels before Jim, opening Jim's pants, sucking his cock, hands pulling Jim's hips forward, to push the cock farther in, farther; he gags. Now one finger tries to penetrate Jim's ass. Jim jerks away immediately, pulls his cock out of the other's mouth, pushing him away, rejecting even the hint of penetration.
He moves deeper into the thick-treed area. Past others. And a muscular youngman. Both pause, wait. But each expects the other to advance first. Neither will. They walk away, not glancing back.
Jim returns to the concrete alcove. A youngman is already there, pressed against the shadows. Jim stands on the ledge, the other takes his cock in his mouth. Another man suddenly there squats sucking the youngman blowing Jim. Jim breaks away, the youngman follows him down the slope to the deserted concrete wall. The youngman offers his ass to Jim's erect cock. But Jim doesn't want to fuck, not now, doesn't want to chance ending the hunt in this area, even for a short while. He merely rubs his cock against the other's smooth buttocks while the other jerks off.
Jim drives to another side of the circular park, gets out, stands by the road. A car stops. The driver gets out. He tries to kiss Jim, to rub his body against his—but he is not attractive enough for that. Jim guides his head down, down. The man accepts his cock. Lights flash around the curving road. The cops? Another hunter?
The outlaw excitement demanding rashness, Jim holds the man's head at his groin. The man continues sucking hungrily as the carlights near. The car stops in the middle of the road, the driver watches.
Jim turns away, as if to enter his car. The others drive off. Again he stands by the road.
Another car. The driver is young, goodlooking. Yes. Jim crosses the road, ascends a short incline toward the playground there, deserted now. The youngman follows him.
A slide. A merry-go-round on the sand. A tangled jungle gym. Skeletons of children's games, somber in the night. Both men sit on the merry-go-round. They kiss. The merry-go-round moves slightly. Their hands explore, holding cocks, balls. The youngman leans over Jim's cock, sucking it. Jim's finger moves past the lightly furred balls, touching, then entering the knotted asshole. The other's tongue swirls about Jim's cock.
The merry-go-round begins to turn slowly.
11:48 P.M. Montana Street Hanson Avenue.
Hunters are scattering from the park in their cars. The soundless signal to shift the arena has been given. Now the placid residential district below the hilltop park will become, totally unaware of its transformation, the center of this floating underground.
Until a year ago, there was an old unoccupied house on one of the corners, its yard cluttered with branchy trees and bushes. Late at night hunters congregated there in fleeting orgies. There were recurrent rousts by the cops; outlaws were lined outside, handcuffed.
Now cars are swirling around the block, stopping, moving on, U-turning. The more daring men get out, stand, walk along the sidewalks.
Jim waits outside his car in the parking lot next to a sleepy apartment house. Several cars drive around, drivers look at him for a signal. A car stops. A man calls out: "You hustling?"
"Yeah." He wasn't, and this isn't hustling territory—but the man's words aroused the mysterious excitement to sell his body.
The man surprises him: "Sorry—but I'm not into paying."
The man drives away angrily.
Another replaces him. Jim walks to the driver's window. The motor of the car continues to purr. Shirtless, too, his pants at his ankles, cock hard, the driver, goodlooking, reaches out to touch Jim's groin. Now he pulls out Jim's cock. Jim touches the other's bare chest, stretching cock. He would like this man to come home with him, but he will not commit himself to suggesting it. Through the window the man's mouth pulls Jim's cock expertly into the deepest part of the throat—the rash scene instantly over.
By mutual signal, they withdraw.
Now a very handsome dark youngman drives by in a mangled sportscar. "You got a place?" he asks Jim.
Jim is very attracted to him; he's glad he didn't go home with the other man. "Yeah—just a few minutes from here," he says. But he won't ask him over, can't commit himself even now.
"Follow you there?"
"Sure."
And so the night will end early, Jim thinks.
And long before the purgatorial dawn he avoids.
12:10 A.M. The Apartment.
Two beautiful male bodies lie side by side naked. They don't touch. Neither moves. Each looks straight ahead, away from the other. Used to being pursued, each waits for the other to advance first. Both are severely turned on, cocks rigid. Now they glance at each other, each wanting the other even more now. But they look away. Their cocks strain in isolation. Nothing.
Nothing.
Jim jumps off the bed, the other reaches for his clothes simultaneously. Looking away from each other, both dress hurriedly, each cut deeply by regret they did not connect.
