Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / March 1, 1987, edition 1 / Page 6
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PAGE 6 Q-Notes ■ March 1987 Thomas: Solicitation Airests Rise First Of Two Parts By DON KING Editoi Bob Thomas is the Charlotte Police Department's personable attorney. He spent almost three hours during Febru ary talking with Q-Notes about the cam paign against sex and soliciting in adult bookstores and parks. These ore excerpts. Q-Notes: Is there a stepped-up cam paign directed at men who indicate an interest in having sex with other men? Thomas: It's stepped up in the sense that there ore more arrests now than a year ago. We've been in the bookstores with undercover officers since the mid dle of 1984 and we've said repeatedly that police officers in an undercover capacity would be in and out fre quently. We are not in there with the sole purpose of arresting men interested in having sex with other men. Our pur pose originally was to determine whether violations of the law were oc curring. As we announced in December of 1984 there are several different types HELP\WJTED Stevens Cafe & Bar Opens March 13 Qiialinc‘l Maiiaj;er trainees, eooks, vvailcM’s, waitresst‘s and Iiartenders needed. Apply at 316 Rensselaer Avenue (rornierly ^Vinanda Rost‘) of violations taking place. We intend to take appropriate enforcement action for any kind of violation we encounter. There are more arrests now. In the early stages of our bookstore investiga tion, any arrests would have revealed the existence of low enforcement peo ple on the premises. Further — and I don't hove any way to prove this — my personal belief based on conversations with officers is that there is on increased frequency of sexual approaches. I just don't buy that gay men must engage in sex on the premises. The root cause is not homosexual vs. heterosex ual; it is the presumption on the part of gays that anyone who walks into these stores has given permission for a sexual encounter and talking in very graphic terms with them on the spot. This is not the cose, of course, with respect with everyone who enters. Q-Notes: Do you know ol any anests fox soliciting ioi crime against nature in on adult bookstore that have been made based on normal citizen com plaint rather than on complaint by on undercover oliicer? Thomas: No, to my knowledge there has not been one. Q-Notes: Do you know of any anests of soliciting for crime agoinst nature in a public pork that hove been made based on normal citizen complaint rather than on complaint by on under cover officer? Thomas: I think that the only arrests that hove been made hove been from undercover officer activity. Q-Notes: Is the police department concerned with the social conse quences of those anests? Thomas: We're concerned with the social consequences of p^eople commit ting crimes, particularly crimes of this nature. One of the reasons we ore so CONTINUED, NEXT PAGE 364-4967
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
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