Gays, City Police Differ on 'Harassment Issue
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SpartanServing the San Jose State Universitv : tttttDaily :mink% Since 193 1 Volume 68, Number 64 Thursday, May 12, 1977 Phone: 277-3181 Gays, city police differ on 'harassment issue By Doreen Carvajal and taken to the Travel Inn Motel at Hernandez said that the Harassment is a charge that has 455S. Second St. for booking. techniques used by the vice squad been directed against the San Jose Ricky Hale, a gay nurse, met a are an accepted part of procedure. Police Department many times. similar fate during an early March Hidden tape recorders are used in Add gay harassment. evening. Hale said he was sitting on prostitution cases as well as arrests Gays charge a dramatic rise in a chain link fence on San Salvador for lewd conduct. The tapes are used the rate of arrests related to Street between First and Market for corroboration of officer's homosexual conduct and streets when an unmarked car testimony before a jury, according questionable vice squad tactics cruised past and then backed up to Hernandez. indicates a police pattern of in- toward him. He added police maintain a timidation toward the gay com- He said the undercover separate booking facility in a munity. policeman inquired "what he was downtown motel for these types of Vice squad officer Sgt. Louis into." When he replied that he was cases in order to spare the defen- Hernandez denied allegations of gay gay, the officer asked him questions dants the "hassle" of being driven harassment. "We don't discriminate of a sexual nature and invited him to far from their original location. The against any group be they gay, a motel. police administration building is bisexual, heterosexual . or Hale entered the officer's. car on located on West Mission .Street, two whatever they want to call them- his own initiative and was taken to a blocks west of San Jose City Hall. 'selves." downtown motel, but not for the Hernandez said the motel Arrests stemming from the purpose he expected: he was booked booking rooms are only used once 647(a) charge, solicitation for for arrest on lewd conduct charges. every two weeks, about twice a engagement in a lewd act, or in most During the arrest, Hale claimed he month, and only six to 10 people are cases a homosexual proposition, was threatened physically by of- processed through the facility have increased almost 400 per cent ficers. Hale added that a vice squad during that time. from last year's arrest rate, ac- officer who identified himself as Sgt. Hernandez said the vice unit cording to SJPD records. Louis Hernandez allegedly called works closely with the district at- Increasing arrests 14,hard him a "fruit" and purportedly said, torney's office and vice tactics have Last year only 15 people were "We've got a cutey here, don't we." stayed within legal boundaries. Travel Inn Motel, located on 456 S. Second St. once was the site of a San Jose Police Department vice squad booking operation. arrested on the lewd conduct charge Hale's conversation was also However, a defendant charged Several other motels have been used by police for this purpose. during the months of January, taped by a hidden tape recorder and with lewd conduct was ruled not February and March. During the he is attempting to obtain a copy. guilty by Municipal Court Judge same period this year, 71 people "They mentally and verbally Robert Beresford in April because were arrested on the charge. abused me. I still don't know what I the arresting officer behaved in a File disclosure disputed The rate of arrests for another did wrong. I didn't deserve the manner that could be viewed as sexual crime prostitution have harassment," Hale said. solicitation. The officer lingered in remained constant. Arrests on the Hale claims that the officer the vicinity of the defendant's car, lewd act charge have been solicited him. approached the car without in- plan averaging one a day. Sgt. Hernandez denies that the vitation, and initiated the con- Bunzel sent promotion Gays who are a part of the rising vice unit is involved in a campaign versation. statistics claim the police modus to use entrapment techniques to Hernandez said he had not heard By Cheryl Dennison The evaluations included in the "It ought to go both ways," he operandi is to use male decoys and arrest homosexuals. about the case. Recommended changes in reten- file were written for the personnel said. hidden tape recorders. "We don't have anything to hide. Margaret Crosby, a staff at- tion, tenure and promotion (RTP) process and must be used in that "Confidentiality should be used Art James is an acknowledged We don't go out of our way to harass torney for the American Civil procedures, including a controver- context, he said. to protect the person who is spoken gay who was arrested on the 647(a) anybody. We keep in mind the rights Liberties Union police practices sial measure to let the faculty re- The confidentiality of the persons about, not so much the person who charge in the St. James and Fourth and individuality of everybody," project, said the law is not clear lease materials in their dossiers, filling out the evaluations must be does the speaking," said Bud Ander- street area. He claims a plainclothes Hernandez said. whether the use of hidden tape have been sent to SJSU President protected, Sasseen continued. sen, associate professor of psy- police officer started a sexually Hernandez said officers do not recorders by police could be con- John Bunzel by the Academic Sen- chology. suggestive conversation with him spend an inordinate amount of time sidered illegal. ate. By not restricting disclosure of Other changes in the recom- designed to elicit a homosexual with homosexuals in order to elicit a Traditionally, she said, the courts The change most heavily debated personnel files, the administration mended procedures are: proposition. proposition. have refused to interfere with police by the senate Monday concerned the would encourage "people to publish The conversation was recorded An officer doesn't get in the car operations. 16-11 vote to allow faculty members their files on the front page of the the president's decision must on a hidden tape recorder, a copy of and he doesn't spend 20 minutes Vice Mayor Susanne Wilson sent to release materials in their dossiers Spartan Daily to show what a 'dumb be given to the HTP candidate in which was later obtained by James trying to get someone to talk, he a memo to Chief of Police Robert and personnel files for others to use ass my department chairman is'," writing before it is final; from the police department. said. McNamara last week inquiring in grievances or court hearings. Sasseen said. the president can reject recom- James said the encounter lasted However, both Hale and James about the vice squad's use of tape Some senators said faculty mem- Faculty members ought to be mendations made by the depart- for about 20 minutes. The officer said their encounters with the under- recorders, arrest statistics of bers should be allowed to release trusted to use their files "as they see ment and school committees only in approached his car, he said, stared cover police lasted for close to half homosexuals and the maintenance their files to anyone. fit," countered Dr. Dave Elliott, "rare instances and for compelling for a few minutes and struck up a an hour. James' tape of the con- of pre-booking rooms in downtown Allowing persons to show their speech professor. reasons which shall be stated in conversation before entering James' versation lasted approximately 17 motels. files to anyone "invites the kinds of Geoffrey Tootell, associate pro- writing," car upon invitation. The officer minutes. Councilman Jim Self is at- disclosure we don't want," said Ro- fessor of sociology, said he reads the university-level commit- continually steered the direction of "Occasionally an officer might tempting to arrange a meeting bert Sasseen, dean of faculty. "We "very personal things" about fa- tees will only review a candidate's the conversation to sexual matters, say, 'Hi, how are you?' but he between members of the gay shouldn't suggest that it's perfectly culty members in the Spartan Daily file to make sure procedures were according to James. does not seek out the individual to community and Chief McNamara okay to show the files to anyone you which have been released by the ad- followed properly at the school and When James propositioned the set the climate for a proposition," within the next few weeks to discuss please." ministration. department level. plainclothesman, he was arrested Hernandez said. the issue of harassment. SJSU economics professor's prediction U.S. coal could be gone by the year 2000 This is the second of a two-part into a petroleum -type product within possible "horizontal" anti-trust as hazardous when compared with Although much of the industry is In arguing against a "horizontal" series. 10 or 15 years. action and transportation. fire-fighting or other mining/manu- operated by small mining firms, break-up splitting up trusts of ac- "But it's not the ultimate Labor is the number one cost in facturing occupations. Further- many of the major oil producing ross-the-board energy control By H. Kim Lew solution," Brooke said, "the auto the coal industry, said Greer, who more, the United States has the companies have spread tentacles coal producers say that anti-trust Coal, that high-energy definition industry is going to change teaches a course in Industrial worst mine-safety record among all into the coal industry, such as action would inhibit capital in- of blackness.