Petrelis Files

Newark, NJ, Cop
Kills Man at Gay Cruising Spot

(Image from a memorial posting about DeFarra Gaymon's killing on July 16.)

Being from Essex County, New Jersey, I am familiar with the cruising area in Newark's Branch Brook Park where the local cops recently fatally shot a man and I cannot comprehend why the police are devoting precious and dwindling public resources, and sending armed officers into spots where consensual sex may be occurring. The most one should have to worry about when having sex in a public park is mosquitoes, poison ivy and not spreading or contracting an STD.

The death of DeFarra Gaymon, who was married to a woman and had four children, was raised in Montclair and was back in the area to attend his 30th high school reunion, is receiving much mainstream press attention, but no attention that I can find from gay bloggers or Gay Inc.

It is to our detriment that we don't insist on addressing sexual liberation issues, and instead accept the Gay Inc rationale that there is only room on the gay agenda for acceptable demands like military service and marriage rights. Look at what is happening over the past few months in gay-friendly Palm Springs, where gays have been arrested in sex stings, for one example of police targeting us.

The killing of a cruiser at a gay gathering spot in Newark, New Jersey, by a police officer must become a concern for more of us.

Some details from the Wall Street Journal:

An unarmed Georgia man, who was shot and killed by a undercover officer in Newark last week, allegedly assaulted and threatened to kill the detective after he was found engaging in a sex act in a public, authorities said Tuesday.

The allegation was made as acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino detailed the statement given by the detective who shot DeFarra Gaymon, who was a credit-union chief executive officer visiting Newark for a high-school reunion.

The Essex County sheriff's detective, who spoke with investigators for the first time Monday evening, had just made an arrest at Branch Brook Park in Newark at about 6 p.m. on July 16 in response to complaints of public sex there. He went back to a wooded area to search for a pair of lost handcuffs when, he says, Mr. Gaymon approached him while masturbating, according to prosecutors. [...]

Additional details from the New York Times:

Mr. Gaymon’s family released a statement that said, in part, “We know that the police killed an innocent man, with no history of or disposition towards violence.” [...]

The officer, whose name was not released because of his undercover work, had been on what is not usually a particularly dangerous assignment, scouring the park, in northern Newark, for men seeking sex. [...]

The shooting took place near where Bloomfield Avenue crosses Branch Brook Park, an area known for years as a place for sexual encounters among men, some of them prostitutes. Mr. Laurino said the sexual activity had prompted many complaints and many arrests, though he declined to say how many.

Willie Velez, 66, a volunteer at a visitor center in the park, said that he often saw men going into the bushes or into cars in pairs, and that on Saturday and Sunday mornings he often found several used condoms in the parking lot. [...]

We really don't need armed law enforcement agents going undercover in cruising areas, as this tragic case sadly shows. Let's insist civic and government bodies work to create safe cruising spots in parks, recognizing gay men and men such as DeFarra Gaymon, who don't identify as homosexual, are going to congregate in open areas and engage in consensual sexual activity.

Given the last name of the victim, and the other details, I wonder why this case has yet to register on the community's radar.