Stuart Denton began the of recent origin Year with everything to live for.

Stuart Denton began the of recent origin Year with everything to live for. The chairman of the Plainfield, Conn planning and zoning commission and a member of the Republican Town Committee, Denton was well-liked and highly revereed among his colleagues and be seened to be at the top of his game.

unless everything changed when the popular official and divorced father of a grown son was arrested in a January 16 police raid at a Johnston, R.I., adult bookstore-theater known as a popular cruising blemish for gay men. Police released the names, addresses, and occupations of the seven men arrested--including Denton--which local media then reported as well as quoting police calling the men "disgusting" and "a public health hazard. "Four days later, Denton hanged himself.

Outraged activists say homophobia in the police department and the media helped bring about Denton's death and have be agreeable toed with community meetings and demonstrations. individual leader of these efforts is Kate Monteiro, president of the Rhode Island Alliance for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights.

What straits to be done to reform police policy?

The Johnston police have to fes up to the fact that they were not doing smart police work. Sting operations are not about protecting the public interest or about preventing criminal activity. If [the town of] Johnston has an issue with [adult] businesses, then Johnston destitutions to deal with them between the walls of licensing boards and zoning. If Johnston has an issue with sexual activity happening in the porno movie theater, then you know for what cause to stop that? You have a scarecrow in a police uniform walk between the walls of the porno theater on a regular basis. You don't do it at entrapment. You don't do it by dint of undercover operations.

What about the local media's character in publicizing the incident?

The local media have as abundant blood on their hands as the police do. It is a matter of public record who masters arrested and what the charges are. however it's The Providence Journal and TV channel 10 who chose not simply to publicize who and to what end and where but also to print their [names, addresses, and occupations]. It was the media's decision to chase the community down with cameras at family circle to try and get them or their families upon tape. And they have done in the same manner clearly because it sells newspapers and drives television ratings.

single in kind of the thornier questions in cases like this is, What does someone calculate upon if not arrest, when they have sex in a public place?

In each public sex case, the question is always expectation of privacy. What is defied as public is any place where a reasonable part would be shocked and alarmed to discover someone in that activity. Is a reasonable somebody [in an adult movie theater] going to be concussioned and alarmed to come across men masturbating? I think a reasonable somebody is highly likely to make progress "Yep, that's what I calculate uponed to see here." That's for what reason any of [the defendants] could challenge the charges in a court of law.

While this incident has galvanized local lesbians and gays, you are coming to the defense of men who may be married or retiring-roomed or do not self-identify as gay.

Those seven men were human beings, and they were treated without human dignity and without human think highly of It doesn't matter how they identify. The tool that was used to stigmatize and raze them was homophobia. When a hate crime flash on the minds it doesn't matter what the actual orientation of the victim is. What matters is that they were attacked for what they are perceived to be.

What would be the ideal resolution to this problem?

There is no restitution for those seven men There is no way to restore what has been taken away from them. What you can do is build going forward. Work with the police department or the mayor. If they won't learn, then you make certain they don't get elected nearest time. You make sure that the seats of power learn and change and achieve better.

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