Civil Liberties Under Attack in Florida
by Tatu Note: As more and more facts come out since my original writing, I have revised this essay to be as accurate as possible.
A few years ago, I attended a funeral for a biker in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was some sort of officer in a local motorcycle club. In short the funeral attracted some 300 people... family, friends, and representatives from an assortment of clubs, everyone from the Hells Angels, to Gold Wing Riders, to the Christian Motorcyclists - all there to pay their respects. When I arrived, there were police everywhere, video taping everyone and everything. I figured they were going to run some license tags while everyone was inside and pick up a couple of people on outstanding warrants or something. Was I ever wrong. The funeral service went off without a hitch, then everyone moved across the street and down the road to the cemetery. When the closing prayer at graveside was said, two big yellow Ryder trucks pulled up and blocked the gates to the cemetery and out jumped dozens of combat clad swat people with weapons raised ordering everyone to the ground. With everyone face down in the dirt, they used plastic ties to cuff everyone's hands behind their backs. For the next 3 to 4 hours with everyone laying face down in the dirt, a combination of Volusia County sheriff's deputies, ATF, State Troopers, and who knows who, searched everyone's vehicles and processed all 300 plus people, taking fingerprints and photos of everyone. They ended up arresting about 10 people for various misdemeanors (pot in their saddle bags, etc., and one or two had no permit for a weapon in their saddle bags). Undercover had infiltrated one of the clubs and detected some worse crimes as well, that were later charges filed. Something changed in me that day. I am not a lifestyle biker. I have never belonged to a motorcycle club, although I have always loved riding Harleys. Most people who ride motorcycles are just average hard working law abiding citizens. Like any social group, yes there are handful of the "bad apples" around, but you hardly ever see them. Regardless, I have wondered many times through the years how these law enforcement people could show such disrespect for a cemetery and the grief of family. I have wondered what the local citizens would have thought if they had known 300 bodies would be lying over their loved one's graves in such a manner. I felt my country and the rights of citizens had been cheapened somehow. How could they hold everyone like that? I felt like I had witnessed something out of Nazi Germany. It was bone chilling and frightening. They could have arrested those 10 people anywhere, but they chose to commit sacrilege to a family in the midst of their pain and grief. They showed no respect for a grave yard, the final resting place to thousands of the community citizens and abused the civil liberties to at least 290 other people, who did nothing wrong, but were detained and humiliated for hours. That day, I lost most of my respect for our system of law enforcement. The West Palm Beach Swat team practices across the street from my place of business, and they meet for lunch at a little restaurant next door. Now every time I see them with those military style combat boots and fatigues, a chill goes up my spine.
I am not an attorney, just an average citizen, who has never been in any trouble with the law. Never intend to be. Not even a speeding ticket. But I feel it my 1st amendment right to voice the following atrocities that have been committed recently on Florida citizens. Over the past three months or so, four private membership alternative lifestyle groups been the target of what appears to be statewide coordinated raids by law enforcement. Club Scream, a BDSM-Fetish club in West Palm Beach was descended upon one Friday evening in early November 98 by fire inspectors with TV camera crew in tow. The club was cited for numerous fire code violations, which they may have been guilty of, but that is not the point. The question is, a government official after hours on a friday night brought a local news station along! Why? There is only one answer and it is obvious. Fire codes were not the true issue. The idea was to try to harass and embarrass them out of business with threats of displaying members pictures on local TV. In response the owners closed the club to avoid this harassment for themselves and their members. In January 1999 two private membership swingers clubs in Ft Lauderdale were swarmed by "heavily armed, jack booted, black hooded swat style 'task forces.' Athena's Forum was a new private membership, on premise swingers club, that had been open for about 6 months. After the raid, club owners were charged with selling alcohol without proper licensing and numerous lewd conduct citations were given to patrons. After considering the expense of defending the charges for all patrons, I understand the owners cut a deal to close permanently if police would drop all charges. See how easy it is to get a club closed. How can individual citizens fight the unlimited resources and dollars behind such bogus prosecution. He can't. In early February 1999 another private membership, on premise swingers club in Ft Lauderdale, Trapeze II International was raided commando style. The local press reported that the police were acting on anonymous tips via "Crime Stoppers" that prostitution was going on inside. Prior to the raid, under cover officers found no prostitution or drugs and that the club was properly licensed. So they knew the tip was false, but it still gave them a reason to stage a raid anyway and charged a number of people with lewd acts. Interestingly enough, three police officers were among the members arrested for lewd acts. I'm told, that a Broward Judge not arrested or present is a member of that club, as well as a number of attorneys and government employees. So, my question is, what ever happened to the little guy with the bow tie, coke bottle glasses and clip board, handing out warnings for citations with 30 days notice to rectify? I get those visits a couple of times a year by code enforcement at my place of business. They give me a slip of paper that says a light bulb is out in my exit sign. No swat team. A fourth club called ALCH in Kissimmee, Florida was also raided recently simply on the premise of code violations. Faced with egg on their face for finding nothing substantive, the police lucked out however accidentally stumbling upon some video equipment which the owners secretly taped members at their Fetish parties without their permission. If this turns out to be a valid claim, the owners did a great disservice to the alternative lifestyles community and deserve harsh punishment.
What Is Disturbing If indeed the owners of any of these clubs skirted the local building & licensing codes they share some blame. They should have played by the rules and run a tight ship. Regardless they nor their members did not deserve the treatment they got however. Not in America!!!! Private membership clubs are legal. Code violations gave the puritanical busy bodies in the community and the media hungry politicians, anxious to polish their resumes, what they needed to harass in order to try and illegally force the clubs out of business. The commando style raids only served one purpose. PUBLICITY for the POLITICIANS. Charges of lewd acts are baseless at a private membership club. Arrests of that nature will in all likelihood be dropped and the police know that. Lewd behavior at a club that exists for alternative lifestyles that feature adult sensual and fantasy activity is not possible. For alternative lifestyle activities to be called a crime of lewdness, the act has to offend someone. Members join with full understanding of the nature of the club. Undercover officers had to lie to gain membership into these alternative lifestyle club and cannot legally or truthfully make any such claim that they were offended. If they were offended, it was their own fault for falsely signing legal membership papers, which is a crime is it not? These undercover officers signed memberships applications which included an informed consent. They knew well what was going on so they can't be offended. No, the obvious real purpose was to harass and try and embarrass patrons and scare people away. Signing legal documents for that purpose is nothing less than criminal if not pure entrapment. It is my understanding that the Broward Sheriff's department is wanting to drop everything, but Alan Mostow, owner of Trapeze II has said no. He and dozens of patrons are in the process of filing a multimillion dollar lawsuit against Sheriff Jene and his department for their invasion of privacy and harassment. They will win this one. We all need to stand behind them in their effort.
THE CRUCIAL QUESTIONS ARE: 1) Are alternative lifestyles such as swinging, BDSM-Fetish, or for that matter gay and lesbianism legal in Florida? I have always been under the impression that we had privacy rights and laws to protect that privacy. Private consensual lifestyle behavior is just that, private. However my search of Florida statutes revealed to me that oral sex is still illegal in this state. Sleeping with someone not you spouse, is called lewd behavior (798.02) and you can charged with a misdemeanor of the 2nd degree and fined $500. 2) Can the police raid a private membership club, lie and charge people for consensual acts done in privacy, knowing full well the nature of the club? The simplest answer is YES, the police can do anything they want to do. It is not legal to do so, but you have to come up with the money to make them back off. There are so many vague laws on the books, they can make up an excuse for anything in order to harass people out of business and scare the patrons away. You then, if unjustly charged, must bear the weight of tens of thousand of dollars in legal fees to defend these unlawful intrusions into your private life. Unfortunately the price of justice is not affordable to the average citizen, and the police know it. They know that the average person doesn't have the money to fight it, nor desires to go public with their sexuality (just ask Bill Clinton). So many will stay away from these types of clubs fearing police intrusion into their private lifestyle choices. It was horrendous that the police would carry out these SWAT style invasions for what they knew were simple code and ordinance violations only. It's all for the camera and the next episode of "Bad boys, bad boys.... America's most wanted". It's all about somebody's resume. Some politician needed to score brownie points for the next election, or pay off favors to the far right religions extremists for their contributions to his last campaign. It's no secret that elections are coming. And its no secret that Broward Sheriff Jenne wants to be the 1st mayor of Broward county when the legislature approves the new governmental entity. Indeed I have had it confirmed from three independent sources from persons close to him that the Broward county raids were orchestrated to generate PR to kick off his campaign. Just recently in April, he was introduced at a political fundraiser as "the next mayor of Broward County.". Remember, in Florida oral sex is still illegal, even between husband and wife. Private sexual behavior with someone other than one you are married to is considered lewd conduct. Could a swat team descend upon you and your spouse or lover in your private bedroom? Absolutely. All it takes is a tip to "Crime Stoppers" by a nosey neighbor about possible illegal activities going on in your house, and its lights, action, cameras and "bad boys, bad boys......." They want to drive us all back underground. All alternative lifestyles gay, lesbian, hetero, BDSM/ Leather should be outraged, by these storm trooper police tactics. A cry must go out to stop this harassment, intimidation, misbehavior and abuse of power by law enforcement. All Americans who cherish their freedoms must stand together against this assault upon our constitutionally protected right of privacy.
HOW? 1) Well, one way is to hit these law enforcement officers and sheriff's in their own pocket books with civil lawsuits. 2) All lifestyle groups must ban together to have the financial resources to stop this nonsense. 3) We must write letters to the editors of these various newspapers and tell the truth. 4) Undercover officers who lie and break the law in order to unlawfully gain membership to a private membership club should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But alas.... We all learned in the OJ Simpson case that innocence is bought with a high price. Not many of us can afford justice. Do we have dare pool our resources? Do we have the courage? As Franklin said speaking of the fight against tyranny during the Revolutionary War, "If we do not hang together, we shall all hang separately."
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A NEW THOUGHT Lewd behavior is generally defined by what the courts call "The Community Standards Test", but are not relevant to a private membership club. A private club becomes a community unto itself and establishes it's own standard. Local authorities need to realize, however, that a new standard has been set by our chief law enforcement officer of the United States, President William Jefferson Clinton. If one thing came out loud and clear in the entire Clinton-Lewinsky affair ,it is that 70% of the people of the United States of American could care less what goes on in private among consenting adults. So back off "Dudley Doright", we're on to ya'.
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