ODDMENTS

There will hardly be a wet eye anywhere in the District of Columbia for the three Morals Division vice cops who were arrested in Lafayette Park by a uniformed officer one joyous night last May-and run in on a suspicion of homosexuality. There they were-quietly minding other people's business when Park Police Pvt. James E. Thomas asked one of them, Det. Morda what he was doing. Not satisfied with the response, Thomas took Morda into custody. When Morda called his two cronies, Dets. Arscott and Fochet for help, Thomas promptly and efficiently flipped one -Fochet-into the park shrubbery while he bounced the other two onto their backs and into the bushes. Pvt. Thomas began serving a 15-day suspension November 13th as a result of the fracas. Editorialized the POST "Two questions spring to mind. In a town where crime is rampant and on the increase, why should 3 detectives of the Police be stationed in Lafayette Park? And why should they be out of uniform? The answer is obvious. The Morals Division clutters up the Park with coveys of detectives whose ugly

errand is to entice some unfortunate into making an advance that can be taken as a basis for arresting him. The whole process borders on provocation and entrapment. Why should the simple job of policing Lafayette Park not be done by ordinary policemen-in uniform?

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"Instead of commending Pvt. Thomas for meritorious service to duty, Police Chief Stewart suspended the officer saying that he showed an inability to work harmoniously with other policemen.' In our view, he showed simply a considerable skill at judo and a highly developed sense of decency."

This is not the first monkeyshines involving the contemptable police

practices of Morda, Arscott, and Fochet. Fochet has been severely reprimanded by D. C. judges for improper conduct of cases where he'd seemed too eager to encourage acts for which he made arrests. And Arscott's activities have been amply described before. As reported in an earlier column, D. C. cops have been accused of encouraging gangs of hoodlums to prey on homosexuals in Lafayette Park.

OSTRICH EGGS

As we all know, the French, when they put their minds to it, do things. very well. One of the things they have recently done well is the motion picture "The Ostrich Has Two Eggs." This novelty from Paris playing currently around the country, is a well made, dryly amusing little comedy about homosexuality which is normal fare for Paris. Although the subject has been staple in private and night club entertainment for decades, this seems to be its debut for our public screen which has traditionally treated the subject only as somber drama. One has only to think of "Tea and Sympathy," "Oscar Wilde," and "Suddenly Last Summer." Maybe its appearance is a symptomatic development in cinematic sex mores. Certainly its passing U. S. Customs could not be more sociologically significant.

The story is of a Paris businessman who is shocked to discover that his 17-year-old son is the afterschool gigolo of a widowed young Comtesse. He is even more jolted to find out that his older son, a peroxided and bejewelled cheri, is not only a rising young couturier but a confirmed homosexual. Deftly enough both he and his "ami" are kept off camera; but in a few years, we hope they will not be. This ostrich. egg should be hatching indeed.