This particular grilling took place solely in the hope that some irregularity would be uncovered giving the police grounds for arrest. It was vital to these officers that the victims remain unaware of their right not to answer a single question put to them. Those men did not have to answer a single question.

Wherefore Art Thou Shepard?

On 21 Nov. 53, the Miami Beach Chief of Police, Romeo J. Shepard, became "angered by complaints that the beach on 22nd Street was becoming a hangout for males with a feminine bent." Visiting the place, he found that normal quarterbacks and professional wrestlers simply weren't safe down there among the limp wrist set with "feminine bents." He whistled for the wagon which was waiting just around the corner. The Herald continues in these words: "As a result 21 persons were taken to Beach Police Headquarters and questioned before being released." They were doing no wrong, breaking no law and had to be released. The grilling was intended to warn or, using a more accurate term, to intimidate. These 21 were picked up and detained illegally: they may have looked "feminine" and even confessed to being homosexuals but NO ONE CAN BE LEGALLY CHARGED WITH MERELY STATE OF BEING. You cannot be charged with homosexuality or criminality; it must be with a homosexual act or a criminal act. As a result, these 21 "femmics" have excellent grounds for suit against Shepard, the Force and the city of Miami for this violation of their rights. And they'd win it, too. Shaperd testified on the front page, "We had no charges..."

A

The Details of 22nd St. Sin

But in place of charges, the Chief listed several complaints of a ghastly nature. Some of these persons sported a "girlish looking hair-do." This is very specific but would unfortunately jail 99% of the roughest males in our high schools who at present sport very odd hair-dos. They also wore a "flimsy Bikini-type tight." This brings up a real controversy regarding decency in beach wear, whether one sex can be nuder than another in the same clothes and why those calendars you see in garages are more acceptable than Greek statuary in museums. The Chief's last charge has a glimmering of justice: They "prance around the 22nd Street Public Beaches in droves." The gay ones tend to. The gay ones do prance and do act up especially in groups. The gay ones love nothing better than congregating to whoop it up. And in doing all these actually indiscreet things, they are as normal as blueberry pie: What racial, religious or age group DOESN'T congregate to have fun?

The above sums up the complaints and gives the total reasons for the raid. The Chief had nothing else to go on. It is astonishing that not one perceptive Miami attorney interested in Democracy or a huge fee hasn't approached these 21 goldmines with the suggestion that they could sue the city for thousands and win.

—

A Politician Named Sullivan

On the same day, the little Florida furor was fanned into more public notice by a brilliant gentleman and scholar with a vast scientific background. Daniel P. Sullivan, Operating Director of the Crime

"A man intelligent enough to be a policeman has too much intelligence

to be one."

William H. Parker

Los Angeles Chief of Police

L.A. Examiner, 9 December 1953

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