Hey City Zen!

This whole thing about Larry Craig's sexcrime (see e.g. Men’s Room Chronicles - New York Times) makes me feel very alien in the US. It is true that I never understood why walls in US restrooms do not go all the way to the ground and doors have gaps---that lack of privacy has always annoyed me, as well as other Europeans from non-puritan countries living in the US. But this whole Larry Craig thing, besides being a learning experience into what goes on in restrooms, makes me see now how this annoying lack of privacy in public restrooms actually leads to the sordid behavior that it was probably designed to prevent in the first place. The semiotics of foot and hand signals is fascinating... And I used to think that it was just some fat guy sticking his foot in my stall for lack of space in their quarters, now I know better---dude get your foot out of my space!

But what really makes me feel very alien in the US is that I do not hear anyone question why in the hell are police officers hanging out in restrooms to catch this sort of activity? Aren't there better ways to spend tax payers money? Aren't there more important crime-prevention needs to attend to? I mean, sure, I'd prefer this stuff not to happen in public restrooms, but it seems to occur, after all, between consenting adults. I don't know, the whole thing is very sordid, both for the actions themselves, but also because of what is effectively a sexpolice force that could be used for doing more useful things. Ultimately, are they also going to police public workplaces where sex occurs---where it is illicit by the public nature of those places? TV is full of examples of people having sex in hospitals (i.e. Scrubs), law offices (i.e. Ally Mcbeal), universities, etc. Is the sexpolice only in public restrooms because they are same-sex public spaces?

Where have all the American Libertarians gone? In the meantime, here is some sexcrime:

Labels: police, puritanism, sexcrime