Many of the “hawks” are white, middle‐class men who drive in from the suburbs.
“I got a lot of friends on my block who come to me and say, ‘Let's go downtown and make some money,’ but I just come to play the machines,” said the 15‐ year‐old.Īccording to the police, prostitution involving young boys is growing in and around Times Square. All insisted they never allowed themselves to be picked up by men buying sex, and said they merely hung around Times Square for fun. He was joined by two pals, v no said they were 13 and 15. The boy said he was 13, but he looked younger. ‘The men come up to me and they say, ‘How much you want?’ and I say, ‘I don't want nothing.” I don't want to get. His face was a mixture of innocence and street‐wise savvy. “Me?” said the boy, when asked if he had solicited the men outside. They were checking on a thriving form of prostitution in the Times Square area -involving “hawks,” men who pick up young boys, and “chickens,” some of them only 10 years old.Īs the officers watched, the boy outside Playland moved on, stopped another man, talked briefly and moved on again, this time Into a subway arcade at 42d Street and Eighth Avenue, where several teen‐aged male prostitutes lingered in the oily yellow light, awaiting customers.
Nearby, two plainclothes policemen watched the tableau.
