Activists question Memorial Park arrests

About a month ago, HPD arrested about 30 men for lewd activity during a sting in Memorial Park — and now some activists are wondering if the sting was homophobic. The arrests targeted activity around park restrooms, but several of the men arrested say the doors were locked and they were forced to go into the bushes to relieve themselves. That's when they say police arrested them for indecent exposure.

Local civil rights activist Ray Hill said he knows a maintenance man at Memorial Park and questioned him as to why they were locking restroom doors.

“He told me, ‘We’re not locking them. The cops are bringing the locks, locking the doors and carrying the locks away when they get through,’” Hill said.

A Parks Department spokeswoman told the Houston Voice that the restrooms at Memorial Park are open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The arrests happened between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., but Capt. Steve Jett of HPD's Vice Division said they had nothing to do with the restrooms being locked: "That is not true at all," Jett said through an HPD spokesman. “If that’s what they’re saying, they don’t have a leg to stand on.”

It's not the first time HPD has done a sting at Memorial (another one earlier this year netted several arrests, for example), and activists worry the police actions may be unfairly targeting gay men because the people arrested were mostly men and the police reports on the arrests contained similar language. “I intend to go down and assert to the police chief that certainly his staff seems to be acting out some prejudice-motivated law enforcment," Hill said.