"Come along with me."

By autumn the benches were virtually empty every evening. But long before that season arrived the West Side Y.M.C.A. had decided to "clean house."

In order to be a resident in the Y.M.C.A. one must have a social membership. This costs less than the regular athletic membership but enables residents to use the athletic facilities and other advantages, the same as outside members can. It was against these residents — their own members that the executive staff of the Y.M.C.A. sent plain-clothesmen who rented rooms and then hung around the showers enticing fellows to come to their rooms where they would then be arrested.

Mr. Maurice Taylor, Executive Secretary of the West Side Y.M.C.A., admitted to me personally that the police were in the Y. As Mr. Taylor put it, he wanted the West Side V "to be the kind of place where my son can come." I dare say that after 1960 after hundreds of young fellows had been terrorized by the police the West Side Y could be declared safe for Mr. Taylor's son. But even while this police campaign was still going on within its walls the West Side Y sent out an appeal for contributions

a copy of which went to each resident which began: "Isn't the "Y' a wonderful organization? . . ." In protest I did not renew my membership and I wrote a letter of complaint to Mr. James Tobey, Chairman of the Board. I was not given the courtesy of a reply.

In 1961 I left New York and came to Miami. I found here the same police terrorism that I had left behind. I should say it is even worse here, for the Miami police are more conscientious while the people are more narrow-minded. I was shocked to find that anyone seen walking on the streets at night was likely to be stopped by the police and asked to

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produce identification. This, I was told, is a "precautionary measure" to stop thievery which is very high in this area. It is also, I am certain, directed toward suspected homosexuals. Some public rest rooms have twoway mirrors. We read about these contrivances about fifteen years ago in Orwell's 1984. No one at that time thought that such things would soon be used in America.

Even at the height of the antihomosexual campaign in New York City I had not seen nor experienced the complete and universal disregard for human rights with the brutality and stupidity with which this program is carried on in Miami. It is revolting that an American citizen cannot take an evening's stroll without being stopped and questioned by the police. I was told by one Miami policeman that they do these things because "we are more modern here."

I have read in the pages of ONE Magazine that the same kind of police surveillance goes on in Los Angeles. And upon a visit to my old college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, I found, again, the police engaged in the same kind of pestering activities. This would have been unheard of in Ann Arbor when I attended school there in 1956. More and more cities and towns in recent years seem to have been adopting these methods of a police state. This is "modern," and this is frightening.

Along with the increase in number of police-state communities has also come an increase in various "investigating committees" whose purpose it is to stamp out "Communism, homosexuality and other undesirable activities." We in Florida were subjected not long ago to one of these committees which had been created by the State Legislature in Tallahassee. The Johns Committee swept through the State of Florida like an evil wind, stirring up all the dust of fear and suspicion in practically every major in-

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