Internet classified ads site Craigslist is facing double trouble over claims that it aids illegal prostitution. The company has come under fire from former trafficking victims just days after losing a bid to be declared exempt from prosecution over the issue.
via Craigslist Under Attack Over Prostitution Concerns / Infopackets.com.
For years, politicians have gone after Craigslist for ads promoting sex trafficking and prostitution. At best their efforts are misguided, and may even exacerbate the problem.
You’d be hard-pressed to find any media-aware person who has never used or heard of Craigslist, the online classifieds that enjoy a uniquely ubiquitous Internet presence all over America and increasingly around the globe.
Craigslist serves 700 cities in 70 countries. It’s the 11th most visited website in the U.S. and it’s used by 50 million unique users a month, who make 423 million monthly visits and generate billions of page views. Chances are, you or someone you know has bought a used couch, looked for a job, found true love, or tried to get laid using Craigslist.
via Scapegoating Craigslist Is Not Going to Solve the Problem of Underage Prostitution.
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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Amsterdam‘s deputy mayor proposed new measures Tuesday to help tackle forced prostitution, including restricting opening hours for brothels and raising the minimum age for prostitutes to 23 from 18.
Lodewijk Asscher, who faces re-election in March, said prostitution should be banned between 4 and 8 a.m. to complement existing efforts to fight crime, exploitation and human trafficking in Amsterdam’s 800-year-old red light district.
“Only the biggest creeps and boozers are walking around at those hours,” he said on Dutch radio. “Women really dread working then and sometimes the most vulnerable are used.”
via Stricter brothel rules? – Yahoo! News.
Dallas police are treating sex workers as victims. Will it work?
By Tracy Clark-Flory
A woman is arrested for prostitution and given a choice: Jail or rehab — take your pick. It sounds like a far-fetched scenario — especially in the United States, where decriminalization attempts have been resisted — but it’s one that is playing out right now in Dallas. Call it a sex worker‘s get out of jail drug-free card.
Once a month, police round up prostitutes at local truck stops and take them to nearby “mobile command units” in the form of 18-wheeler trucks, the Associated Press reports. They are pressed for vital intel (for example, whether any local pimps are trafficking underage girls) before undergoing a social services screening and being offered various medical tests and treatment. Then it’s off to a courtroom-on-wheels.
“If the women have no felony warrants and seem sincere, the judge gives them the opportunity to avoid jail and enter rehab,” according to the AP. “After 45 days of inpatient counseling, they receive help with education, child care and housing.” There is no doubt these women are desperately in need of the help: The truck stops are the “bottom rung of prostitution,” according to Dallas police Sgt. Louis Felini. “They are trading sex for survival needs: food, a place to sleep,” he says. Not to mention, the vast majority are users, crack being the drug of choice.
Question from a commenter: Is there was a connection between Scott Rothstein and Tiger Woods.
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Michelle Braun
Answer from the Pulp: Of course there is. It comes in the form of Michelle Braun, a notorious “madam” who once supplied Hollywood (the one in California) and South Florida with a bevy of beautiful, high-priced prostitutes from her base in Boca Raton.
Braun recently boasted to the New York Daily News that Woods was a regular client and even identified his favorite call girl (a Playboy bunny). While facing federal criminal charges in California recently, she was represented by none other than the law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler. Her criminal attorney was Marc Nurik, the same lawyer now representing Rothstein on his federal racketeering, money laundering, and fraud charges.
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Braun also used Rothstein’s firm to help her open several Florida corporations, with names like The Girls of Ocean Drive LLC, Dirty Vodka LLC, and the BlueJean Mafia Management. Braun’s lawyer in those endeavors was RRA attorney Kari Rosenfeld, whose representation of Braun predated that of Nurik’s (and whose tiny photograph is at left).The companies’ corporate addresses were listed under the same address Rothstein used for many of his corporations in Tallahassee.
via Boca Madam Tied to Tiger and Rothstein – Broward Palm Beach News – The Daily Pulp: Bob Norman’s Blog.
Sex workers in Denmark are protesting a campaign against prostitution during the UN Climate Change Conference. The city of Copenhagen wants to discourage delegates from buying sex, despite the fact that it is perfectly legal there and has nothing to do with climate change. The sex workers’ interest group, SIO (Sexarbejdernes Interesseorganisation), was not consulted and so, annoyed, they are offering free sex to any conference delegate who turns in his ridiculous postcard (see below), which also went to 160 hotels.
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Although prostitution itself is technically legal in Canada, the criminal code makes it virtually impossible for sex workers to conduct business without breaking the law. Having sex for money is fine, in theory — as long as you don’t solicit it in public, live off the proceeds, or “keep a bawdy house” (which effectively means you can’t do it indoors). Last month, three members of Sex Professionals of Canada — Amy Lebovich, Terri-Jean Bedford and Valerie Scott — brought a complaint challenging those sections of the code before the Superior Court of Ontario, arguing that the restrictions on prostitution “violate their constitutionally protected right to liberty and security,” according to Women’s eNews. (A decision is expected in 2010.) The fear of losing their assets and homes for illegally living on money earned by providing a legal service is one part of it, but the more important part is that changing the laws could save lives. Unable to work openly, in groups or to hire security, sex workers believe they are more at risk of robbery, assault, rape and murder under the current criminal code than they would be if prostitution were fully decriminalized. “I don’t believe that sex work is inherently dangerous,” Lebovitch told WeNews. “It is the laws, the stigma (that are harmful).”
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Fears grow that World Cup could create bigger market for prostitution in South Africa. CNN’s Robyn Curnow reports.
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By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writerFirst published in print: Saturday, October 3, 2009ALBANY — Drop your trousers on Central Avenue and you might see your name in lights — but probably not the way your mother always hoped. In an effort to battle quality-of-life crimes on the once-grand commercial thoroughfare — specifically johns cruising the avenue for prostitutes — the police department has parked a mobile electronic sign just east of Quail Street and vowed to very publicly out those arrested.The goal, police say, is to not have to post any names — or, in other words, victory by threat of public humiliation.
via Police sign of shame set for its first john — Page 1 — Times Union – Albany NY:2938:.
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LONDON (Reuters) – A British government minister asked California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to shut down a U.S. website that allows men to rate prostitutes, including many working in London.
Harriet Harman, minister for women and equality, told the ruling Labor Party‘s annual conference that “Punternet” fuels the demand for prostitution — a vice she said degrades women and puts them at risk.
She said the web site was a “very sinister development” in the trade and exploitation of women and allows guests to compare and rate services in the same way as they would a restaurant, a hotel or a holiday.
via Schwarzenegger asked to close prostitute Website – Yahoo! News.
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