Feature Story

Warm Sands—13 Months Later
By PJ Maytag

The incandescent green light peculiar to night vision videotape was unmistakable in the file-footage video loop playing in the background of the latest local newscast’s report on the Warm Sands sex sting. It contrasted nicely with the Zoom smile of the anchor reporting the Palm Springs Police Department’s announcement they would no longer be conducting undercover operations in Warm Sands. Welcome news for many in the LGBT community, but for the 19 men facing criminal conduct charges that have already suffered devastating effects on their lives resulting from the June 2009 sting operation, I’m sure it had to be a bitter pill to swallow.
And even though it was playing in the background and not actual footage from the Warm Sands tape—the eerie green glow of pixilated-faced men in shorts standing by a hedge, rubbing their crotches (which were pixilated too) made me a bit uncomfortable and raised a few questions for me.
Were the men on that tape cajoled for up to 15 minutes before exposing themselves? Were the men in that footage charged with California Penal Code 647 (A) or CPC 314? Were any of these men ruined financially, romantically or professionally by their arrest? Were the officers recording the operation using gay slurs to belittle the suspects while they watched the proceedings? Were the men permanently captured on the tape even from California? And finally, and most disturbingly, how many other stings like the one in Warm Sands last year are currently being run in gay communities throughout our nation as I watched this report? They’re troubling questions, and ones I’m probably not alone in asking in the wake of last years Palm Springs Police Department’s undercover sting.
Discriminatory. Homophobic. Entrapment. Untrustworthy. Hypocrites. These are terms people would never associate with the Palm Springs Police Department two years ago. Now, unfortunately, the PSPD badges aren’t so shiny in light of some of the facts breaking the surface of public awareness as the cases start their snail-paced grind through the court system. And the circumstances surrounding the entire operation and decision to charge the 314 are at best dubious, at worst homophobic.
Maybe the easier question to ask the PSPD following this publicity nightmare is—“To Protect and Serve” who?
PSPD Chief David Dominguez attempts to answer some of the questions foremost on our collective community minds about our police in the following feature.
Not completely satisfied by Chief Dominguez’ answers, Public Defender Roger Tansey pointedly and frankly responds in his rebuttal to Chief Domingeuz’ answers. 
And if you have any questions about the wreckage left by the stings wake, please take a moment to stand in the shoes of a defendant and read the poignant letter from a BottomLine reader.
Paying for a harmless moments indiscretion with a lifetime registration as a sex offender if convicted doesn’t seem fair for men participating in what has always been consensual adult behavior for some in Warm Sands. Whether you think they deserve to be arrested or not; being branded a sex offender for life (even if it is only in a police database as claimed by Chief Dominguez) is a draconian consequence for such a minor misdemeanor in the grand scheme of things.
The only thing beyond question now is a concerted effort for this community to heal—and that includes working with the PSPD to close the rift and rebuild the trust in our policing force.
I do believe our police department realizes the error they made back in June 2009. I do think they are going to take a hard look at themselves and change the way they deal with policing the LGBT community. The cessation of future sex sting operations in Warm Sands is a big step in the right direction towards building a relationship with our police force on the foundation of trust, and not on a substrate of fear and homophobia.