how much taxpayer money in total is being allocated across the country by local police to protect us from people whom the Sgt. Karsnias of the world think might, at some point, commit a crime?
We at HuffPost are working to pull these numbers together by calling local police departments all across America, since the numbers don't seem to be readily available. We'd love your help on this; please send us any figures or worthwhile information you can find (post them in the comments section below or email max-at-huffingtonpost-dot-com).
Newsweek reported that since mid-May, the Minneapolis airport bathroom sting netted 41 arrests.
the Minneapolis airport police went undercover inside that restroom in mid-May. Since then, they have arrested 41 men, including business executives and airline and airport employees, according to police reports. Several undercover cops have pulled the shift inside the stalls and at the urinals. They don't initiate contact, says airport police spokesman Patrick Hogan. Instead, they wait for a lingering glance, a head nod or that familiar foot tap. "Sometimes it does involve a considerable amount of time," says Hogan. "It's not glamorous work."
Good for HuffPo. These stings, like all vice stings, should be ended.
If the police don't have bigger fish to fry, maybe the counties should consider having fewer police and putting the salary savings towards providing health care for its uninsured residents.
Update: Check out Laura MacDonald's op-ed in the New York Times, America's Toe-Tapping Menace.
WHAT is shocking about Senator Larry Craig’s bathroom arrest is not what he may have been doing tapping his shoe in that stall, but that Minnesotans are still paying policemen to tap back. For almost 40 years most police departments have been aware of something that still escapes the general public: men who troll for sex in public places, gay or “not gay,” are, for the most part, upstanding citizens. Arresting them costs a lot and accomplishes little.
