If we are going to call attacks on reproductive and sexual rights a “war on women,” then let’s talk about a war on women that has actual prisoners and a body count. – Melissa Gira Grant
Minnesota’s Supreme Court last week barred attorney Thomas P. Lowe from practicing law for at least the next 15 months after it was revealed that he was billing a client for sex. Lowe…was approached in August 2011 by an acquaintance who asked him to represent her in a divorce. Their…relationship soon evolved into a sexual one, but…Lowe…[billed] the woman for [all] the time they spent [together, including] having sex…[after] Lowe…[dumped her] the woman… attempted to commit suicide and was hospitalized…Lowe was previously on probation for purchasing cocaine from a client…
The second lawyer isn’t nearly as bad, though still terribly unprofessional:
A public defender…is facing charges after allegedly exchanging texts with an undercover cop who he thought was a prostitute, and then trying to exchange sex for legal representation. Christopher Hollander…allegedly sent a text message to a phone formerly used by a prostitute [but now in possession of a cop who] Hollander met…in a hotel room…The two discussed the phony prostitute’s alleged legal trouble. When the officer asked “How much is it going to cost me” for the legal services, Hollander started to caress her hand…then allegedly began trying to kiss and hug the officer, and told her he had two condoms…
Lawyers, if you want to propose exchange of services just say so; real hookers appreciate honesty, not some clumsy attempt at seduction.
Ed Bagley has accepted a bargain in which he pleaded guilty to having sex with his supposed “victim” while she was underage, in return for prosecutors dropping all other charges (despite their insistence that he “swear” that the other accusations are true). The one is bad enough; it can carry a 20-year sentence, and several of the other “conspirators” (as the state labels them) will also get very hefty sentences.
Something Rotten in Sweden (December Updates)
Remember, prostitution has never been illegal in Canada; these men were arrested for the “crime” of talking about it in public, which demonstrates the importance of taking this kind of power totally out of cops’ hands: “Ottawa police swept the city’s downtown core…in an effort to find, charge and re-educate men looking for prostitutes…They arrested 15 men, 13 of whom escaped charges and will attend ‘john school’…a partnership with the Salvation Army…” Please note the Orwellian term “re-educate”.
Looks like the Philippines is moving toward British-type legalization (erroneously called “decriminalization”): “The Department of Social Welfare and Development…has endorsed a bill…which would decriminalize prostitution but punish those who control and profit from…[it, repealing] clauses…which punish ‘women who, for money, engage in sexual intercourse, or lascivious conduct’…”
Another bit of feel-good legislation which capitalizes on hype but will actually help virtually nobody, due to its basis in fantasy: “A bill filed in the Oklahoma Legislature…would erase the prostitution records of human trafficking victims…[who] average…12 to 14 years old…”
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic
This article has so much to recommend it: Dr. Brooke Magnanti debunks “porn addiction”, describing the “studies” which claim to support it as “poorly conducted surveys on a level of market research, not science.” In the process, she also quotes Dr. Marty Klein and lampoons both Cosmopolitan and Naomi “Stopped Clock” Wolf, all in less than a thousand well-chosen words.
Of all the media one would expect to be least likely to side with puritans against a business persecuted for supposedly “corrupting public morals”, a rock music radio station has got to be pretty high on the list. Though the article itself is dry enough, the wording and scare quotes in the headline and lede amply demonstrate the editor’s attitude: “Lawsuit Claims Dancing in a Topless Bar ‘Improves the Self Esteem’ of the Stripper – seeks to have San Antonio’s strict new strip club law thrown out, also claims stripping is a ‘socially fulfilling experience’.” It gets much worse; the station appears to have some close association with Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue…author of the titular song celebrating strippers.
The most interesting part of this article about sex workers in Malawi wearing hijab to attract Muslim customers is not the mere fact of it (which would simply be an example of the clipboard effect), but rather the fallacious notion (expressed both in text and comments) that a whore cannot be Muslim (or “truly” Christian either). Also worthy of note is the author’s reversal of the usual feminist complaint that not covering up leads to “objectification”; this only goes to show that the real issue such women have is not some imaginary harm to women, but rather heterosexuality itself.
[Las Vegas] police officer John Norman is going to prison for two years…after pleading guilty to…coercing women to expose their breasts after stopping them on the road…Once Norman is released from prison, he will have to register as a sex offender…
Once again, Canadian government prohibitionists are trying to convince the courts that dangerous, repressive laws which deny sex workers’ agency are actually intended to “protect” them:
Hundreds of shadowy body rub parlours operated by exploitative pimps…are operating on the outskirts of Toronto, the Ontario Crown warns in a court document…[urging] the Supreme Court of Canada to let police keep the powers they have to protect female sex workers, who are often cowed into submissive silence…However, a group of prostitutes who have successfully challenged the ban through two levels of court accuse…Crown lawyers of scaremongering. In the decision under appeal, the Ontario Court of Appeal invalidated the…prohibition on keeping a brothel…[and] granted prostitutes the right to…hire staff to protect them…the…court is scheduled to hear the…challenge in June…
Melissa Gira Grant’s “The War on Sex Workers” appears in this month’s print edition of Reason; though regular readers will already be familiar with much of the ground she covers, it never hurts to revisit it. More importantly, for an unrepentant sex worker to have the opportunity to discuss the neofeminist war on whores in a national magazine (albeit a libertarian one) is a sign that this issue is beginning to move into the mainstream.
This article entitled “Sex, Lies and Audiotapes” is 12 years old, but is an excellent look at how “fantastic tales of sexual abuse” are instilled into the minds of the vulnerable, and why radical feminists were largely to blame for “sex abuse” hysteria and the Satanic Panic; it is thus still topical as background for the new guise of those moral panics, “sex trafficking”.
Though it may be difficult to recognize for sex workers in the US, British Isles and any place else strongly affected by “trafficking” hysteria, 2012 actually saw net gains for sex workers; Cheryl Overs reviews the high points (without neglecting to mention the low ones) in “A Good Year for Red Umbrellas”.
Texans aren’t the only ones who can tell tall tales about new technology being used by “human traffickers” to “entrap innocent girls”:
…Mobile phone recharge shops have been reportedly taking advantage of innocent girls who approach them for recharge coupons and give their numbers. The employees/owners of the shop or their friends call the girls…develop friendships and later misuse them…ruining the girls’ lives…human [traffickers in]…Kundapur…are said to be running a mobile recharge outlet…the accused lure the girls with jobs and then use them for their own ends. Later, the girls are allegedly blackmailed and trapped, and their escape route is closed…apart from flesh trade, a drugs network is also interwoven in the racket…
As expected, a UK judge has ruled that the case of Mark Kennedy, the cop who was allowed to trick women into sex in order to spy on them, will be heard in a Star Chamber proceeding. What was unexpected was that he would say what Kennedy did was OK because James Bond does it:
James Bond is the most famous fictional example of a member of the intelligence services who used relationships with women to obtain information…[such] fictional accounts…lend credence to the view that the intelligence and police services have for many years deployed both men and women officers to form personal relationships of an intimate sexual nature…in order to obtain information or access.
As Heresy Corner points out, “James Bond isn’t just ‘fiction’, it’s escapist fantasy…[which] doesn’t ‘lend credence’ to anything…and Mark Kennedy’s ‘targets’ weren’t exotic Russian agents with a handbag full of nuclear secrets and the sexual etiquette of a praying mantis…nor were they dangerous international terrorists intent on blowing up airports or shopping malls. They were…largely peaceful activists engaged primarily in democratic dissent, however misguided or naive…”
Remember Lisa Biron, the anti-gay lawyer who “transported a teen girl…to Ontario …and coerced her into engaging in sexual acts with another person”? It turns out the girl was 14, there were two men, and Biron also had sex with her. Oh, and one more thing: the girl was her own daughter. She was convicted of child porn charges on the 11th.
The creation of “sex trafficking rings” from people who used to be called “illegal aliens” continues, complete with childish “code names”, bombastic rhetoric, exaggerated numbers and infantilization of sex workers:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the results of a lengthy investigation called Operation Dark Night. It looked into a sex trafficking ring stretching from Florida to Georgia to North and South Carolina…women…were forced into prostitution and traded like slaves in various cities for about a week at a time…11 victims were rescued and 40 customers called Johns were also taken into custody. Investigators say the women were forced to perform up to 30 sex acts per day…
Like most “trafficking” articles, this one contains the Profession of Faith: “…‘its a bigger issue than many people thought,’ said Joan Garcia-Melendez…‘Human trafficking is a very hidden crime’…Authorities say this is a wakeup call as to how widespread sex trafficking has become…” But what will happen to those poor “victims” who were “rescued”? The BBC says what the American story won’t: “Those who were illegal in the country would be deported.”
I mentioned that “the only time [verification services] fail is…when some idiot fails to stick to the plan, gets caught in a sting and then ransoms his worthless hide by giving the busybodies his login info so they can pop several girls before the service gets wise.” One of my readers supplied more details: there were several instances, all in the Appleton/Oshkosh area of Wisconsin, and P411 removed those entire cities from the site as a precaution and directly warned all the ladies who might be targeted. Apparently cops in Little Rock, Arkansas have also attempted the same thing, though less successfully.
Susie Bright on how perverse prosecutorial incentives spawn abominations:
Twice in my career I’ve been asked to serve as an expert witness on the defense team of an obscenity trial…the defendants were low-hanging fruit…targeted because of their…vulnerability…The Justice Department [bags] obscenity law trophies by going after the poor, the suicidal, the insane, the cognitively impaired— because that’s the way they rack up numbers and status. That’s the way they fuel their careers…not by taking on constitutional issues, or injustice, or fat cats who believe they’re above the law…They find someone who’s drooling, or depressed, or friendless— and then throw the book at them. It doesn’t take long because the “defendant-target” is overmatched…
Well, they won’t go after ARMED Black Panthers at voting precincts, or an Attorney General who’s been found in criminal contempt of Congress, or if you’re a drug cartel kingpin (in which case the Justice Department arms you with advanced sniper and assault rifles) …
Oh and now it appears that RAY NAGIN in the days immediately after Katrina worked OVERTIME – not for the people who elected him – but to ENRICH HIMSELF through kickbacks and abuse of office. Up to twenty federal indictments on the “Chocolate Mayor” may be coming down the pipe and I’ll lay it out here and say that Justice won’t do a damn thing to him because he is one of the “protected class”. Oh sure, they’ll make a big deal of it but you can bet they won’t go for him hardcore. Why else would Nagan turn down a plea deal that exempted his own sons from prosecution in these crimes? Hell, he knows that Eric Holder has his back – THAT’S WHY!!
http://www.wwltv.com/news/eyewitness/davidhammer/Nagin-refusing-plea-deal-186865222.html
Those Blacks who prey on other Blacks are always protected, Krulac. Why use whites with firehouses when using Blacks is soooo much more effective.
The Justice Department needs look no farther than Wall Street to find the biggest collection of criminal scum and villainy east of the Mos Eisley space port bars.
Yeah, but fellow members of the ruling class are largely exempt, except for the occasional sacrifice chosen to convince the peons that they aren’t.
You’d better watch it Maggie, your cynicism is showing almost as much as mine is.
The biggest problem with most of the anti-Power Elite books–like Jim Marrs’s Rule by Secrecy (?), is no one double checks their facts for them, so there are some huge historical inaccuracies and misrepresentations, making it impossible for any serious researcher or journalist to get behind their work.
I’ve written about our 2-tier justice system, a problem that goes back as far as this nation’s founding and Chief Justice John Marshall.
‘”Doctors were telling me they were seeing this epidemic in young men of delayed ejaculation,” Wolf told HuffPost Live host Ricky Camilleri. “It was related to desensitization by pornography’
So premature ejaculation is now a good thing?
Many of the sex work “tweeters” had a field day with that one.
I had a conversation with a virtual sex worker last night. She was complaining that her latest client was “a minuteman,” which is annoying when you get paid according to time, not by the encounter.
This song is on my mind a lot. Pretty much every time I read the news.
You may be technically correct about that, but given the lengthy misogynistic passages in the Bible that use “whore” as the ultimate insult, it seems like something to be discouraged (the religion, not the whoring).
Biron has two lumps of coal in the Triple Crown of Disgusting. Good job, twat. So, she was convicted of child porn but no separate charges for rape? Really? I guess since she was a lawyer, she had enough money (and other influence) to only have that one count.
Melissa Gira Grant’s Reason article is excellent.
So excellent that it even attracted zombie troll “Stella Marr” in the comments, around 1/23/13.
Apart from the gains mentioned in “A Good Year for Red Umbrellas”, Austria finally got around to overturning the disgraceful 1989 ruling that sex workers had no right to sue over non-payment. Since April 2012, they now have similar legal rights in this area to everyone else.
And people wonder why lawyers have a bad image.
Why exactly are cops, instead of prosecutors or a judge, deciding who does and does not get the “opportunity” to get out of trouble by going to john school?
The Philippines could do worse. Of course, the Philippines could do better.
Assuming Oklahoma can find any human trafficking victims who started at twelve years of age, it only makes sense to erase any criminal charges against them for what they did why under the control of another. Good luck to the Sooner State finding them, but not inventing them.
At least the article abstained from making lots of social commentary, or trying to be “cool” by being snarky and cynical. Ah, Texas. Here I live, and here I often have to just shake my head.
I’d be less worried about what she’s wearing or what her religion is, and more worried about what her rights as a sex worker and a human being are.
John Norman should have stuck to writing interplanetary sex slave novels. j/k
Ah, the wisdom of the Ontario Crown, to understand that the best way to protect a woman from harm is to forbid her to hire a bodyguard. {/sarcasm}
“The War on Sex Workers” was an excellent article, and I can recommend it with a clear conscience to anybody. I also enjoyed the review of Hansel & Gretel, Witch Hunters. “Sex, Lies and Audiotapes” is of course always worth a read, and I wish people would remember it.
Yes, 2012 was a good, even a great (though far from perfect) year on many fronts. So, as is usually the case, the present is better than the past, and the future looks to be brighter still. Here’s hoping that 2013 is an even better year than 2012. [lifts glass of Romulan brandy]
Thus, the entire American defense budget should be diverted to Motown Records.
Convicted of child porn charges? If that’s all she was convicted of, she’s a lucky bitch.
Rescue those poor slaves! Then kick them out of the country with no support! YEE-HAW!!
And this helps whom?
Glad to see there’s no real crime in Wisconsin and Arkansas.
This isn’t any different from Rudi Giuliani’s method of “cleaning up” Time Square: hit some little mom-and-pop business with every charge, true or false, you can possibly think of, and then drag out the legal battle so long that they can’t afford to fight it, even if they would (eventually) win. The beauty here is that your target doesn’t have to actually be guilty of anything, and you don’t need to convict them. Just bankrupt them.
Apparently, I screwed up the tag after ” but not inventing them.”
Also, “obtain peace” was supposed to be in italics. I guess I’m just off today.
Easy Sailor, easy–you’ll burst a blood vessel.
How Texas could spawn Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, T-Bone Walker, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, and Ralph Yarborough and still be so screwed up is beyond my comprehension.
I’ve said before: I don’t really identify as a Texan or even as a Southerner; I just happen to live here.
Although seeing that list has me reconsidering. 😉
Maggie: thanks for fixing.