Calif. Police Chief Quits After Gay Sex Sting

The chief of police in Palm Springs has stepped down after a heavily criticized crackdown on gay sex in what boosters call "the gayest city in America." Some 19 men were arrested for indecent exposure after a sting operation in an area that's home to 11 clothing-optional gay resorts. Police Chief David Dominguez never recovered from the backlash, the Los Angeles Times reports. One officer involved in the sting was taped uttering a gay slur and the chief himself admitted making "inappropriate comments."

Dominguez was accused of deliberately targeting the gays and lesbians who make up almost half the California's city's population. "The sting was an egregious case of entrapment, a technique that has been used by law enforcement against gay people for decades," said a neighborhood association spokesman. "Gays move to Palm Springs to get away from that." Palm Springs' mayor is openly gay, and gays are a majority on the city council, but the local gay community says their leaders didn't do enough to rein in Dominguez.
(More Palm Springs stories.)