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RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
Thu Feb 15, 2024, 03:43 PM Feb 2024

FFS!!! - (2024) A criminal court in South Florida sentenced a man for having consensual sex with another man.

(2024) A criminal court in South Florida sentenced a man for having consensual sex with another man, holding that the defendant committed an unnatural and lascivious act.

This year, a criminal court in South Florida sentenced a man for having consensual sex with another man, holding that the defendant “ committed an unnatural and lascivious act, to wit, performing and receiving oral sex from co-defendant.” Unnoticed and unreported, the ruling violates U.S. constitutional law — 15 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished anti-sodomy laws nationwide. Florida still has’t repealed its own.

In February, the Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence unit of the Hollywood, Florida, police raided a sex shop where, undercover, they paid to access a locked area of the store with private rooms and theaters. There, with pornography playing on the walls, past the sex toys and condoms and DVDs, the detectives arrested the defendant and five other men. They were charged with crimes against nature and exposing sexual organs in public. Now, the store sits at the back of a dead-end road between I-95 and the railroad tracks — the entrance of the pay-to-enter area has a giant red neon sign above it that says: Private Viewing. The name of the store is the Pleasure Emporium.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article219525910.html#storylink=cpy

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FFS!!! - (2024) A criminal court in South Florida sentenced a man for having consensual sex with another man. (Original Post) RKP5637 Feb 2024 OP
Couldn't read the article because of the paywall but ... VMA131Marine Feb 2024 #1
Here's the full article. RKP5637 Feb 2024 #4
Fuck you Florida. Fuck you very much Alpeduez21 Feb 2024 #2
Florida is a F'en pit, especially with the new political regime. RKP5637 Feb 2024 #6
What the F? That is totally screwed up. Scary. Biophilic Feb 2024 #3
Here's the full article RKP5637 Feb 2024 #5
Thank you Biophilic Feb 2024 #9
Go right ahead, Florida. SarahD Feb 2024 #7
It's changing fast in Florida. Angry people, horns blowing, etc., etc. It really is the MAGA invasion. RKP5637 Feb 2024 #8
Test case headed for the Supreme Court? Valdosta Feb 2024 #10
Everyone arrested Old Crank Feb 2024 #11
Absolutely!!! I'm so tired of this kind of crap. RKP5637 Feb 2024 #12

VMA131Marine

(4,672 posts)
1. Couldn't read the article because of the paywall but ...
Thu Feb 15, 2024, 03:47 PM
Feb 2024

Was the defendant’s lawyer asleep during the trial. How did the case even get to trial. This should easily be overturned on appeal.

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
4. Here's the full article.
Thu Feb 15, 2024, 04:00 PM
Feb 2024

This year, a criminal court in South Florida sentenced a man for having consensual sex with another man, holding that the defendant “committed an unnatural and lascivious act, to wit, performing and receiving oral sex from co-defendant.” Unnoticed and unreported, the ruling violates U.S. constitutional law — 15 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished anti-sodomy laws nationwide. Florida still hasn’t repealed its own. In February, the Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence unit of the Hollywood, Florida, police raided a sex shop where, undercover, they paid to access a locked area of the store with private rooms and theaters. There, with pornography playing on the walls, past the sex toys and condoms and DVDs, the detectives arrested the defendant and five other men. They were charged with crimes against nature and exposing sexual organs in public. Now, the store sits at the back of a dead-end road between I-95 and the railroad tracks — the entrance of the pay-to-enter area has a giant red neon sign above it that says: Private Viewing. The name of the store is the Pleasure Emporium.

It’s a dumbfounding thing — and the Hollywood police raided the shop again in July. In sworn affidavits, the undercover officers said they watched some of the men until they finished, and with the second raid, the arrest count jumped to 19, and the human toll with it. A lawyer for one defendant told me that her client was outed, fired from his job and, already diagnosed with a tumor, lost his medical insurance. These antiquated anti-sodomy arrests occur across Florida each year, with limited scrutiny. In the Hollywood raids, media outlets reflexively paired mugshots to police blotters and made clickbait. A cursory glance at the Facebook pages of the arresting officers shows a scattering of homophobia and, more prominently, a younger officer’s love and affection for a college friend who is gay.

In the churn of the criminal legal system, prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, and politicians deferred to habit — arrest, file charges, plea bargain. It’s a culture inured to and paralyzed by injustice and its sheer scale. One in three Americans has a criminal record of some sort. LGBTQ folks are three times more likely to be incarcerated than heterosexual individuals and black individuals five times more than white people. What propels these disparities is exclusion, racism, income and wealth inequality and discrimination, which, even in their most explicit and unlawful forms, are accommodated. Many of the Hollywood cases are pending. The defense lawyers, judges and prosecutors are working them. Someone in the state attorney’s office had the foresight to drop the unnatural-act counts from the July raids, but the other charges remain. This includes February’s so-called unnatural-act crimes.

This needs to change. Broward County’s state attorney for should drop the charges against the men. The judiciary should vacate the convictions and the chief of police in Hollywood, in concert with the mayor and city manager, should issue an apology. Finally, the state Legislature should repeal Florida’s anti-sodomy laws and work toward meaningful criminal legal reform. Florida has a long way to catch up to other states— Republican and Democratic-led. Scott Greenberg is the executive director of the Freedom Fund, a non-governmental organization that works to eliminate the mass jailing of people, particularly LGBTQ individuals.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article219525910.html#storylink=cpy

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
5. Here's the full article
Thu Feb 15, 2024, 04:01 PM
Feb 2024

This year, a criminal court in South Florida sentenced a man for having consensual sex with another man, holding that the defendant “committed an unnatural and lascivious act, to wit, performing and receiving oral sex from co-defendant.” Unnoticed and unreported, the ruling violates U.S. constitutional law — 15 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished anti-sodomy laws nationwide. Florida still hasn’t repealed its own. In February, the Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence unit of the Hollywood, Florida, police raided a sex shop where, undercover, they paid to access a locked area of the store with private rooms and theaters. There, with pornography playing on the walls, past the sex toys and condoms and DVDs, the detectives arrested the defendant and five other men. They were charged with crimes against nature and exposing sexual organs in public. Now, the store sits at the back of a dead-end road between I-95 and the railroad tracks — the entrance of the pay-to-enter area has a giant red neon sign above it that says: Private Viewing. The name of the store is the Pleasure Emporium.

It’s a dumbfounding thing — and the Hollywood police raided the shop again in July. In sworn affidavits, the undercover officers said they watched some of the men until they finished, and with the second raid, the arrest count jumped to 19, and the human toll with it. A lawyer for one defendant told me that her client was outed, fired from his job and, already diagnosed with a tumor, lost his medical insurance. These antiquated anti-sodomy arrests occur across Florida each year, with limited scrutiny. In the Hollywood raids, media outlets reflexively paired mugshots to police blotters and made clickbait. A cursory glance at the Facebook pages of the arresting officers shows a scattering of homophobia and, more prominently, a younger officer’s love and affection for a college friend who is gay.

In the churn of the criminal legal system, prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, and politicians deferred to habit — arrest, file charges, plea bargain. It’s a culture inured to and paralyzed by injustice and its sheer scale. One in three Americans has a criminal record of some sort. LGBTQ folks are three times more likely to be incarcerated than heterosexual individuals and black individuals five times more than white people. What propels these disparities is exclusion, racism, income and wealth inequality and discrimination, which, even in their most explicit and unlawful forms, are accommodated. Many of the Hollywood cases are pending. The defense lawyers, judges and prosecutors are working them. Someone in the state attorney’s office had the foresight to drop the unnatural-act counts from the July raids, but the other charges remain. This includes February’s so-called unnatural-act crimes.

This needs to change. Broward County’s state attorney for should drop the charges against the men. The judiciary should vacate the convictions and the chief of police in Hollywood, in concert with the mayor and city manager, should issue an apology. Finally, the state Legislature should repeal Florida’s anti-sodomy laws and work toward meaningful criminal legal reform. Florida has a long way to catch up to other states— Republican and Democratic-led. Scott Greenberg is the executive director of the Freedom Fund, a non-governmental organization that works to eliminate the mass jailing of people, particularly LGBTQ individuals.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article219525910.html#storylink=cpy

 

SarahD

(1,732 posts)
7. Go right ahead, Florida.
Thu Feb 15, 2024, 04:05 PM
Feb 2024

Pretty soon, all the decent people will move away and you can wave your flags and hug your guns and marry your siblings.

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
8. It's changing fast in Florida. Angry people, horns blowing, etc., etc. It really is the MAGA invasion.
Thu Feb 15, 2024, 04:11 PM
Feb 2024

Valdosta

(331 posts)
10. Test case headed for the Supreme Court?
Thu Feb 15, 2024, 06:17 PM
Feb 2024

Overturning the previous decision? I expect that's the plan being hatched.
Leave it to the states, like Roe, see?

I don't expect it will happen, not this time. But they won't stop trying.

Old Crank

(4,761 posts)
11. Everyone arrested
Fri Feb 16, 2024, 07:14 AM
Feb 2024

And or convicted needs to sue the city and state for
Millions. The police and courts need to all be fired.

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