The incidence of such activity seems to have risen sharply in some of these locales, especially since police came under harsh criticism following their handling of the Versace murder case on both coasts. Now, some believe, they are smarting from criticisms in the high profile raping by New York City's 70^th precinct police officers of a Haitian immigrant with a stick or toilet plunger. There is also to blame an incessant right wing fundamentalist policy making pressure exerted on politicians.

According to Gay People's Chronicle, a Cleveland paper, hundreds of arrests by enticing entrappers have occurred since April--and these under cover Metroparks rangers are literally soliciting gay men, making lewd gestures along with inappropriate jargon, which often gives their untoward predelictions away to the aware.

But to those with little experience and sometimes non-gay males caught by police prejudice and, perhaps, mistaken for being gay-identified unawares, such police behavior is not immediately suspect. Mere proximity to a plainclothesman on such an entrapment mission is often reason enough for him to arrest any man he thinks may be gay.

The stories of such men, some out for a stroll with their lunches, tell of their being followed, if not stalked by undercover rangers in surprising numbers.

One ranger, according to Gay People's Chronicle, is quoted as saying the ranger's activities aim to "eliminate homosexual activity from the parks."

The response of some of Cleveland's gay leaders has been accommodationist. One "gay friendly" lawyer is quoted as suggesting that gay men stay out of all restrooms in any of the public parks that surround Cleveland.

Some gay males in other cities reacted to such news by remembering Bette Midler's "divine" 70s album, Live in Cleveland. "Its so nice to be here in Cleveland," said Midler, her voice signaling bleahhhhhh as she spoke the city's name.

But others refused to turn a blind eye to Cleveland's interconnectedness with the rest of America's communities, believing that what happens in one locale, may, in fact, signal possible trends in others. The rash of arrests by officers who over-solicit, is not confined to Cleveland alone, they say.

Enticement and entrapment by plainclothes police became a major concern of East Coast 1960s activists. The Mattachine Societies of Washington and New York, as part of their usual agendas, worked to successfully end the practice of enticement and entrapment over 30 years ago. With a rise of repressive anti-sexual fervor once again looking for respectability, police and right wing politics have returned to their old status as strange bedfellows.

It was customary prior to that time for police departments in many cities to spend taxpayers moneys by utilizing their lawmen's genitals, waving them at various and sundry persons in public places who they hoped might react with curiosity, thus meriting being arrested.