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<\/p>\nIn the US state of Georgia, nine men were arrested after police targeted them on Grindr, among others. The names of the men were subsequently published in newspapers. Queer activists speak of catastrophic misconduct and a rule book from a different era.<\/p>\n
The arrests were made between March 2 and 4 by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office in northern Georgia. The men, aged between 23 and 50, were charged with a range of offences, including prostitution, obstruction of justice and possession as well as online trafficking and posession of methamphetamine and marijuana.<\/p>\n
One of the nine men anonymously reported to Atlanta-based queer magazine Project Q that he was gay and was being targeted by the police on Grindr. He contradicted the description of Sergeant W. Dereck Johnson in his arrest warrant. The sergeant had claimed that the arrested man had offered him an act of prostitution in exchange for marijuana on Grindr.<\/p>\n
Screenshots provided by the arrested man to Project Q revealed that Johnson had initiated the chat under the nickname “Charlie [looking for]420” and offered to get a hotel room for a meeting. When the man told Johnson that he had marijuana, the man asked Johnson if he wanted to share – and wrote: “I want to get high and fuck”. The man simply replied, “There’s nothing wrong with that.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now he has been charged – with facilitating prostitution, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and attempted criminal offense. After the arrests, the names, photographs and in some cases employers of the nine detainees were printed in a local newspaper in Dawsonville.<\/p>\n
The police report on the incident does not give details of the other arrests. Project Q also reports that Sheriff Jeff Johnson did not respond to questions about whether all the men arrested were looking for sex with other men and which apps were used in the sting operation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Usually you hear this kind of news from queer-hostile countries where the data security of such apps is a high risk for the queer community, because authorities, policemen and private persons use the apps to spy on queer people and lure them into a trap. In 2019, this scam led to at least thirteen arrests in Egypt.<\/p>\n
Gregory Nevins, lawyer for the US-American civil rights organisation Lambda Legal, which fights for the queer community through legal assistance, education and public relations, expressed his horror at Project Q. After viewing the screenshots, he explained that the case was not tenable in court – for a prostitution charge, the alleged sex worker had to make it clear that without the exchange of money or objects, no sex would take place. This had not happened here.<\/p>\n
But Nevins went further – he described the entire undercover action as catastrophic misconduct. According to Nevins, this type of arrest is a result of other cases of prosecution directed against gay men. These are the priorities of another era that has missed the last twenty years, the lawyer said. He explained:<\/p>\n
“In the past, we used to be told we had to stop cruising in parks because there were children in the parks. But now Grindr is looking for a problem that doesn’t have that side effect. The platform has moved to another arena, which they should be happy about if it was really their only concern that their children are not accidentally exposed to these things”.<\/p>\n
According to Nevins, the police have violated their oath – it has nothing to do with the motto “to protect and serve” when you prosecute and lock up people who will not harm anyone instead of dealing with the really serious crimes. Such operations make a not inconsiderable contribution to the often lamented overburdening of US prisons, the lawyer accused the Georgia police force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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