ane@hal.UUCP (08/19/84)
*************************************************************************** *** THE PLAIN DEALER *** Thursday,August 16, 1984 page 1 " Homosexuals sue Metroparks for $3.3 million, claim bias " by John Griffith A $3.3 million class action on behalf of homosexual men was filed in U.S. District Court yesterday, saying Cleveland Metropark rangers and officials have turned the Emerald Necklace into a "land of persecution" for them. According to the suit filed by lawyer Mark N. Miller, a detail of plain- clothes rangers has harassed and entrapped homosexual men. ... The defendants include park commissioners, rangers and six municipal courts... Miller requested those municipal court records be sealed by court order to protect the plaintiffs' privacy. ... The suit ... said park policies violate the rights of homosexual men because "Metroparks has never employed rangers assigned to lure women with a view to charge such women with sex offenses." The suit says rangers who report the arrests by the "special anti-homosexual detail" write "pervert" in the nature-of-incident blank on report forms and called the arrests unconstitutional deprivations of liberty without due process. Miller has asked that the suit be certified as a class action representative of about 40,000 Greater Cleveland residents. .... ****************************************************************************** It appears that the men were being arrested for "public indecency". Yes, that is right. Demonstations of affection between men is indecent in Cleveland. I'm surprised they aren't giving deer castrations to prevent public matings.