Posted on 06/03/2007 3:50:13 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Madison police have started their annual crackdown on sexual activities in the woods of Turville Point, the 65-acre conservancy that's part of Olin-Turville Park.
Lt. Jane Stoklasa said that the South District police station has received numerous complaints from visitors seeing "all the sexual activity" in the park, which borders the southwest shore of Lake Monona.
The park has become a meeting place for men looking for sex partners, who are issued a $172 citation if caught in the woods.
The tickets aren't for sex in public, but rather for violating the preservation of a conservation park by leaving the trail.
Visitors to the conservancy are required to stay on the walking paths, a rule officials say is in place to protect restoration efforts of the area's oak savannah.
On May 21, Madison police conducted its first sweep of the conservancy for the summer, issuing 23 citations to 21 people, including 20 tickets for walking off the paths, two for lewd and lascivious behavior and one for urinating in public.
Just as the swallows return to Capistrano every spring, the Olin-Turville Park crackdown is a yearly tradition, said Madison police spokesperson Joel DeSpain.
"It's an annual event, when the leaves come out," he said.
The newly grown leaf cover hides many of the explicit goings-on, but not all, so Stoklasa said the police have to visit the park several times a summer to try to stem the activities.
"It happens at all times of the year but it really goes up in summer," she said. "People just walking in the park see others engaged in sexual acts."
Madison police have now enlisted a community policing team to patrol the park, going in on certain days and times. Stoklasa wouldn't say when the next sweep will take place.
Russ Hefty, conservation resource supervisor for the parks department, said park users venturing off the paths can get more than they bargained for.
"There's poison ivy out there," Hefty said.
Some of the underbrush has been removed, not necessarily because park workers are trying to keep people out but because they are working on their plans to improve the conservancy.
"Thinning out the bushes is an ongoing part of our plan, no different than what we do in the other conservation parks," Hefty said.
Keeping people out of the woods and on the paths helps in the revitalization of the park, so Hefty said he's happy to see the police presence, trying to make the park a place all visitors can enjoy.
"The police have been really successful, discouraging activity that's inappropriate in a park," he said.
This should not be a crime when discreetly done in the woods.
Someone should bring a digital camera with a good zoom lens, and start posting pictures on the Internet (with strategic portions of the photos blacked out so it doesn’t look like a gay porn site).
Maybe some public embarrassment might put the kibosh on this sort of thing (but then again, maybe not, considering the type of persons we’re talking about here).
In a PUBLIC park it certainly should be.
I don’t go to many parks in L.A. because the gays are very bold trying to get what they want and a park is not fun anymore.
Sex, yes. But you shouldn’t have to piss your pants or face being arrested!
Hmm...if that park is anything like the ones around here, the poison ivy in the woods will be punishment enough, as it begins to give them new definitions of “jock itch”.
It’s just a park in the city; it’s not like you’re so far from a toilet that you can’t make it to the john in time, except THAT’S probably filled with boinking gay men, too!
But again, this is just NORMAL, main-stream behavior. We need to EMBRACE their “lifestyle choices” and not be so MEAN! *BARF*
Now now Diana, New Jersey's got to get their Governors somewhere.
Every park has restrooms of some kind. Even though those are meeting spots for gays you can find a private one.
The thought of walking around a park where people are pissing all over kind of spoils the nature aspect.
The Gay & Lesbian Task Force is trying to get public sex decriminalized because they say it “unfairly” targets homosexuals (seeking anonymous sexual encounters).
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said it is conducting the study of sex laws with help from the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, which describes itself as "a core group of experienced activists" dedicated to "advancing the cause of freedom in the fields of sexuality, civil rights and gender."[ snip ]
"I've seen firsthand how the misuse of these [public lewdness] laws has ruined the lives of gay and bisexual men," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
This only happens because we don’t allow them to marry, you know.
Hey, does anyone know how to encourage the spread of poison ivy?
“The tickets aren’t for sex in public, but rather for violating the preservation of a conservation park by leaving the trail.”....L.O.L. This shows how absurd it’s gotten....You two rumpriders stay off the damn delicate flora and fauna!
I don’t get it. Can’t we all agree that sex should happen behind closed doors???
The gay activists should not have a leg to stand on here because heterosexual sexual intercourse,oral sex whatever with heterosexuals done in public is also criminal. So they really can’t say anything about this because anybody doing public sexual things is committing a crime, not just homosexuals.
I am here in Madison on a three day business trip. This is my first time to Madison. Whenever I travel on business to new places I like to walk for exercise and to get the feel of the localle. I am staying at a hotel near the park and after dinner with a colleague I took a short walk alone up the bike trail that circles Lake Wanona. I passed Olin-Turville park and curious I walked in and read some of the signs about the park’s history. I walked up the hill to see more of the park and there were several cars parked in a parking lot at the top of the small rise. One of the vehicles was a large van. When I walked by a man jumped out of the van completely naked except for a T-shirt. He certainly wasn’t shy because he strolled out into the middle of the parking lot, trying to pick me up I suppose. I mean this was a pretty brazen act. I was quite startled and immediately realized this was a gay pick-up place. I felt real uneasy. I do not necessarily have anything against gay people, but this was very wierd. I left the park as quickly as I could. I found this article about the park on-line when I got back to the hotel. It seems as though the 2007 Police sting was quite ineffective.
I’ve never had this kind of thing happen to me before (and I’m 53) in a public park. I guess there is a first time for everything. This park is not far out of the city center and adjacent to a main thoroughfare. It seems to me that if the police really wanted to stop this kind of activity they could do so easily. It must be that the police do not think this is important enough to put a stop to the activity. I am the father of two grown girls and I know if I had small children I wouldn’t bring them to this park. Gays are going to do what they want to do, but in public is another thing altogether. It is completely inappropriate. Certainly this type of activity would ruin the use of the park for many people.
Welcome to ‘The People’s Republik of Madistan.’ Sorry you had to experience that, but it was nice of you to sign up to share that.
I prefer to stand and fight, and that’s why I live here. :)
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