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Los Angeles Hub



04/19/2007


Police Actions, Media Reaction Surrounding Manhattan Beach Sex Sting Criticized

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center is protesting the publishing of the names and photos of 18 men arrested in an undercover sex sting at a Manhattan Beach men's room earlier this month, the L.A. Times reports:

ManhattanbeachJim Key, chief spokesman for the Gay & Lesbian Center, said the Manhattan Beach Police Department could have worked with the center to try to stop men from meeting in the restroom, located beside the beach at the foot of Marine Avenue. Key said the Los Angeles Police Department took the public education approach, rather than mass arrests, to cut down on a public sex problem at Griffith Park.

Darrel Cummings, the center’s chief of staff, said news organizations should use more discretion before identifying suspects in what he called a victimless crime. “Naturally we don’t condone illegal activity of any kind,” Cummings said in a statement, “but these men haven’t been proven guilty and historically, charges such as those leveled against them have involved police entrapment. Publishing their photos serves no purpose other than to humiliate and destroy their lives.”

The Center suggested names and mugshots were released because double standards were applied due to the same-sex nature of the incidents:

Key argued that some big-city police departments are less likely to release photos and that Manhattan Beach should exercise more discretion. Among the media that displayed some, or all, of the photos were the Torrance-based Daily Breeze newspaper; the alternative LA Weekly newspaper; CBS2, KCAL9, NBC4 and KTLA, the latter owned by Tribune Co., which also owns the Los Angeles Times.

Previously...
Manhattan Beach Arrest 18 in Sex Sting [tlrd]


L.A. Man Learns Lesson About Texting and Walking After Running into Huge Black Bear: VIDEO

Bear

They always warn you to pay attention while you're texting and walking, and well, this just proves that point.

Happened in La Crescenta, near L.A. this morning.

Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP...

Continue reading "L.A. Man Learns Lesson About Texting and Walking After Running into Huge Black Bear: VIDEO" »


NEWS: Nazis, Mega Millions, Nick Cage, John Cage, God, Surveys, Science

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Road Armed neo-Nazis patroling Sanford, FL:

Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are "prepared" for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect "white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety" in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. "We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it," he says. "We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over."

Because nothing diffuses racial tension like gun-toting racial separatists patrolling an already on-edge community.

Road Some pro-equality activists don't like what other pro-equality activists do with their money.

Road A survey for your mothers. (HT: Joe.My.God.)

CageCage Road Only dubiously witty, but unexpectedly fun: Nicholas Cage does John Cage.

Road Apparently, Los Angeles isn't superficial, New York drives aren't that bad, and Miami isn't full of fit people.

Road PinkIsTheNewBlog has a pic of Zac Efron's bum.

Road Andrew Sullivan on America's bad religion:

"When I go and see young people, their image of Christianity these days is one of judgment, intolerance and to some extent bigotry and politics," Sullivan said. "They associate it with one political party in this country, because of the fusion of evangelical and ultra-orthodox Catholics with the Republican Party. They don't see it as the message of Jesus, they don't see it any more as a message of love and forgiveness. They see it as a bunch of people trying to control their lives through political mechanisms.

Road Gallup probes American religiosity:

... it’s no surprise that all of the “top” ten [religious] states are in the south save Utah and Oklahoma, which, as Abbie Smith will attest, may as well be in the south. It’s also no surprise that the least religious states are in New England, with the proportion of “very religious” being 23% in New Hampshire and Vermont, 25% in Maine, and 28% in Massachusetts ...

What did surprise me was the 32% of Americans who see themselves as “nonreligious" ... Since roughly 10% of Americans don’t believe in God, and only about 1.5% go so far as to describe themselves as “atheists” or “agnostics,” I wonder how many of these 32% of “nonreligious” Americans are secret atheists who just don’t like the label, or are unwilling to confess to an interviewer that—horrors!—they don’t believe in God.

Road Teen sells kidney for Apple products:

He received 220,000 yuan ($35,000) for the transplant, gave the student 22,000 yuan ($3,500) and shared the remaining money with the other defendants and several medical staff involved in the operation, Xinhua said.

When the student returned home, he was asked how he could afford a new iPhone and an iPad and he told his mother that he sold one of his kidneys

Road High up in Chile's Atacama desert -- at almost 17,000 feet above sea level, where heads ache, noses bleed, and "dizziness overcomes the researchers toiling in the shadow of the Licancabur volcano" -- scientists are turning Chile into one of the world's elite destinations for astronomical research. But for how long? From the Times:

At the same time, the financial crisis in rich industrialized countries has raised concerns that funding for some ambitious astronomy projects could face constraints. In the United States, a Congressional panel last year proposed killing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope before a compromise spending plan saved the project.

“It would be very sad for humankind if we were so spiritually decadent to forgo the pleasures of consciousness and of knowledge,” said Mr. Mosterín, reflecting on the funding choices political leaders need to make. “These things make human beings a very interesting animal indeed.”


Silver Lake Steps Dedicated to Pioneering Gay Rights Group 'Mattachine Society' on Harry Hay's 100th Birthday

Harryhay

The Cove Avenue steps have been renamed 'The Mattachine Steps' in honor of the pioneering gay rights group founded by Harry Hay and will be dedicated tomorrow on what would have been Hay's 100th birthday, Patch reports:

MattachinestepsAt 11 a.m. on Saturday, mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti will officially rededicate what we have long known as the Cove Avenue Steps. State senator Mike Gatto will also be join neighbors at the base of the stairs for the event. He'll present a proclamation honoring Hay, who many call "the father of the gay rights movement."

Karen Ocamb at LGBT POV has more:

A ceremony at the foot of the Cove Avenue Steps on Silver Lake Blvd. recognizing the site as a historic place by the City of Los Angeles. The dedication of “The Mattachine Steps” (which lead up to the house where pioneer gay activist Harry Hay founded the Mattachine Society in 1950) will be followed by a Radical Faerie-hosted picnic in an adjoining park overlooking the Silver Lake Reservoir (east side). Then, at 2:30, a book signing and reading of Stuart Timmon’s newly updated biography “The Trouble with Harry Hay” at nearby Stories bookstore, 1716 Sunset Blvd. (in Echo Park).


Manhattan Beach Police Arrest 18 in Sex Sting: VIDEO

Manhattanbeach

Police have arrested 18 men in a sex sting at a Manhattan Beach, CA public restroom.

Watch an NBC Los Angeles report, AFTER THE JUMP...

Continue reading "Manhattan Beach Police Arrest 18 in Sex Sting: VIDEO" »


Take A Hike From A Dog's POV: VIDEO

DogHike

Ever wanted to know what a hike up LA's Runyon Canyon looks like from a dog's perspective? Of course you have, and now you have the opportunity: a YouTube user attached a GoPro to his dog, a Corgi named Riley, and posted the video results. It's described as a "test run," so perhaps we'll start seeing Riley cruising around other trails.

Watch the video, AFTER THE JUMP...

Continue reading "Take A Hike From A Dog's POV: VIDEO" »





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