Manhattan Adult Entertainment: Police LGBT Liaison Units: How Effective Are They?
Officer Jose R. Rios is the LGBT Liaison assigned to Chicago’s 23rd District. He describes police-community relations, as being “in really good standing; and it is continuing to grow. We deal a lot with the [LGBT] Center on Halsted, right next to my district. We also deal with the Howard Brown Health Center, and work closely with the North Halsted Merchants Association.”
Thayer disavows that last sunny assessment. “If you’re a businessman on Halsted Street who contributes to the city administration,” he says, “then things are probably fairly good for you.”
If, however, you’re a young African American (the target of numerous complaints by local gay business owners), “Your life is considerably different if you can’t afford the bars and you just hang out on the street,” Thayer says. “We hear over and over again allegations of prostitution; and those all are focused exclusively on the youth – not their alleged patrons. The latter have got the money to patronize the bars. There’s not only a racial thing going on here, there’s a class thing.”
See the full article from “EDGE Boston”