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Police Targeted Suspected Prostitutes, Johns
Fulton County Police Cleaning Up Fulton Industrial Boulevard
By Tony McNary

CBS Atlanta went undercover with the Fulton County Police Department’s Special Operations Unit Friday night.

They were on a mission to clean up Fulton Industrial Boulevard’s reputation for being a haven for prostitution.

“After several years of being tired of this we’ve gotten a new approach. It’s going to be a sustained effort to continue doing this day in and day out,” said Captain Wade Yates.

An undercover officer posed as a “John” and picked up three women who police said offered him sex for money.

Another undercover officer posed as a prostitute. She was on the street less than five minutes before someone tried to solicit her.

Read the whole article in The Times-Colonist…

Editorial: Time to reduce sex-trade risks

How long do we have to follow a failed and destructive policy before we smarten up? The Brothel Project, a well-crafted debut documentary by Victoria director April Butler-Parry and producer/writer Gillian Hrankowski, premiered at the Victoria Film Festival this week.

It raises — once again — our peculiar attitudes and laws about prostitution and their damaging effects as it follows the efforts of Jody Paterson, a Times Colonist contributor, and Lauren Casey, a researcher and outreach worker, to open a legal brothel here.

Prostitution is legal in Canada. One person can pay another for sex.

But virtually every activity associated with the transaction is not. Public communication to arrange the exchange is illegal. Owning or running or having anything to do with a brothel is illegal. “Living off the avails” is illegal.

Remarkably, the situation was much the same 130 years ago in Victoria.

The fascinating website victoriasvictoria.ca, a project of the University of Victoria history department, looks at all aspects of our history, including the thriving sex trade.

It notes that in 1881, “legally, prostitution itself was not regarded as an offence, instead it was dealt with by means of a charge for street solicitation or the operation of a ‘bawdy house.’ In effect, the test of it as an offence was the extent to which it became a ‘fact of public annoyance.’ “

The effect today, as it was then, is that the work is more dangerous than it needs to be and the participants — mostly women — are excluded from the basic rights and protections enjoyed by everyone else in society.

The risk of arrest for soliciting forces sex workers and their clients into dark and dangerous neighbourhoods at night. Instead of discussing the transaction with a client, like any other business exchange, hurried judgments must be made before climbing into a stranger’s car.

The bawdy house laws make it legally impossible for sex workers to operate a brothel like any other business. They exist, of course, surreptitiously or as massage parlours or escort agencies. They pay taxes and licence fees and advertise. But they operate in a legal shadow that penalizes workers. The laws serve mainly to make the sex trade dangerous.

And they perpetuate a view of those in the trade that makes them less than human — even disposable.

The slow and ineffectual investigation of missing women in Vancouver and the Pickton murders showed the results.

Society’s concerns about the sex trade are understandable. Human trafficking and forced prostitution do exist, with the biggest coercive factors being poverty and addiction. Those concerns must be addressed.

That would be simpler if the trade was regulated and conducted like other businesses, with access to the same workplace and legal protections.

Many people object to the trade based on personal views on the role of sex in life and relationships.

While those views should be respected, so should the right of adults to make their own choices and to be either customers or suppliers in the trade.

We have pretended to support that principle by making prostitution legal.

But we have left in place laws that serve mainly to make it dangerous and difficult and turn participants into second-class citizens.

The idea that a sports event draws 50,000 to 100,000 escorts to the host city is absurd.  It’s just the type of info that ‘nonprofit groups’ like to peddle.  While big events mean more people, which means more money, and pro escorts will follow, those numbers are just fantasy.  Read more at NBCDFW.com…

Prostitutes Look to Score at All-Star Game: Cops
Dallas police say areas hosting big sports events see influx of prostitutes
By ELLEN GOLDBERG

North Texas is expecting thousands of visitors for the NBA All-Star Weekend, but Dallas police are also making plans to deal with some unwelcome visitors — prostitutes.

“We have been told from other cities that there is going to be an increase in prostitutes,” Lt. Christina Smith said.

A nonprofit group in Phoenix estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 prostitutes flooded its city during Super Bowl XLII last year. Dallas police said they don’t know what to expect from the All-Star Game.

“I think it’s safe to say we will see some girls that are the traditional street prostitute, and fair to say, we can expect more of the escort-service type of girls,” Smith said.

The department is taking a page from the playbooks of other cities that have hosted high-profile sporting events, such as the NBA All-Star Game.

To prepare, the vice unit is adjusting officers’ schedules and hours so that all hands are on deck next week. Dallas police said they will focus on prostitution hotspots, such as Harry Hines Boulevard, as well as high-end hotels.

A look at how the economy is impacting Japan’s hostess industry. Read more at Japan Today…

Ginza’s hostesses feel the economic pinch

“I’ve been in business in Ginza for 40 years and never have I seen things this bad,” says a club “mama” describing life these days in Tokyo’s most fashionable nightlife district. “Three days and not a single customer! The first two days we all drank away our blues, but now we’re ready to burst. What if nobody comes, ever?”

The 1990s collapse of the economic bubble hit Ginza hard; the “Lehman shock” of 2008, Shukan Shincho finds, hit it even harder. Some 20,000 of the world’s most elegant hostesses work in the district’s 4,000-odd bars, clubs and restaurants. What happens to them when times turn sour and elegance becomes dispensable?

There is no one answer, of course. Most tough it out, swallowing pay cuts for lack of a viable alternative. Others go home to their parents in the country. A growing number, says Shukan Shincho, are drifting downmarket to the trade known as “fuzoku”—ero-entertainment where the line between entertainment and prostitution is thinly drawn. No recession, it seems, can kill this industry. It thrives, and the pay is robust—so much so that even the debts (10 million yen on average, estimates one soapland owner) incurred in pursuit of the lifestyle Ginza once represented can be paid off in about a year.

“My base pay used to be 70,000-80,000 yen a night,” says “Shiori,” a Ginza hostess. “Now it’s 30,000 yen less, and there’s no use complaining. I’m not bringing in as many customers these days, and if I come on too strong, they’ll just say, ‘If you don’t like it, quit.’ Quit and go where? So I put up with it.”

Read more at The Union Leader…

Police make arrest in alleged prostitution ring
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI

They called themselves “Sweet Asian girls” and promised “body relaxation sessions.”

But police allege they were really part of a prostitution ring being run out of a Seabrook apartment complex.

So far, police have arrested one former New York City woman of Chinese descent, a police prosecutor said yesterday, and they are looking for other women who had been set up in the apartment and the person who leased the unit.

“We would like to find out who leased the apartment, who brought the women there and the other women involved prior to this woman,” Detective Scott T. Mendes said.

Police also are investigating whether another woman, who was arrested with an alleged client Wednesday, may have been the victim of human trafficking and have contacted the FBI, said Mendes, who also is the police prosecutor.

The matter came to police attention Jan. 6 when they received complaints from neighbors about a stream of men coming and going from the apartment in the Tudor Crest complex. The men would stay a short time, then leave, police said.

Read more at The BBC…

Romania ‘tops EU sex worker list’

Romania has overtaken Russia as the top country of origin of migrant sex workers in the EU, a survey of prostitution across the EU has found.

In 2006 the top countries of origin were Russia, Ukraine and Romania – in that order, the Tampep network reports.

But in 2008 the top three were Romania, Russia and Bulgaria. Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.

EU-funded Tampep collects data from welfare groups and public health bodies that monitor and help prostitutes.

Tampep’s data collection is part of an effort to curb the spread of HIV/Aids and other sexually-transmitted diseases.

According to the survey, Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltic and Balkan countries, account for around 70% of migrant sex workers in the 27-nation EU.

The next largest groups come from Africa (12%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (11%).

Some guys using Craigslist to try and secure some TLC got arrested for their trouble. Read more at KRISTV.com…

Online Prostitution Sting Leads to Five Arrests

The Corpus Christi Police Department went undercover on craigslist this weekend and arrested five men who they say were trying to solicit a prostitute.

Police say they posted ads on Craigslist trying to attract people looking to hire a prostitute. They say it was just part of routine checks they do on networking websites but this is the first time they have actually posted an ad online; and they were able to make five arrests.

…

Police say the men all met up with an undercover female police officer Saturday afternoon and verbally agreed to pay for a sex act.

The vice division says the internet isn’t as big of a problem as prostitution on the streets but it’s still a good tool for their ongoing crack down.

“It doesn’t seem to be the biggest source, I mean most of it is street level prostitution but randomly going through craigslist and other websites that do these kind of networking sites and stuff you can see that its there,” Captain John Houston with the Narcotics/Vice Investigation Division.

Read more in the pages of The New York Post…

Naughty hottie beats lap rap
By LAURA ITALIANO

One lap dancer over the fence!

A Manhattan judge has dismissed the charges against one of two strippers embroiled in a salacious and wacky Manhattan prostitution trial, saying the DA failed to prove she sold anything more than a couple of jiggles and a dream.

That left her co-defendant and lesbian floor-show partner — buxom porn star Alexia Moore — alone to insist from the witness stand yesterday that the pair never, ever, offered a “threesome” to an undercover cop for $5,000.

All she did was flirt, the blonde testified.

“That’s what an entertainer does,” Moore said, her black tights and crocheted sweater straining to contain her professional assets. “To keep getting dances.”

As for her dance partner, Falynn Rodriguez, all charges were dismissed yesterday after her lawyer argued that when the undercover allegedly invited her to join the threesome, all she did was make an eyebrow-raising reference to a sex act.

Though this study doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, it’s welcomed nonetheless. Read more at The Times-Colonist…

Good news: Johns are just normal guys
By Jody Paterson

A new study out of Simon Fraser University concludes that people who buy sex are no more prone to violence than anyone else.

Fewer than two per cent of the 1,000 respondents who took part in SFU sociologist Chris Atchison’s study reported ever having hit, hurt, raped or robbed the person they bought sex from.

Granted, that’s just them saying so. But Atchison noted in a Vancouver Sun story this week about his research that there was little reason for the respondents to lie, given that the survey was anonymous.

That his findings are provocative is an understatement.

“It’s an outrageous study and it really works towards normalizing sexual assault,” said Aurea Flynn of the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, which is the go-to organization in B.C. when media are looking for a quote from someone vehemently opposed to prostitution.

“I’m really angry about the emphasis on the compassion for johns that the study provides,” added Flynn, “and I’m very concerned about its impact on the continued normalization of prostitution in Canada because I believe prostitution is violence against women.”

Read more at The New York Post…

Dancers lapped it up at strip club: cop
By LAURA ITALIANO

It was just your typical nightclub.

OK, so there was a bed in the middle of the dance floor. And porno movies playing on a big screen — right above the buffet table.

Big Daddy Lou’s Lap Dance Club on W. 38th street was brought to life in vivid police jargon this afternoon, as an undercover vice cop took the stand in a wacky Manhattan prostitution trial where a pair of lesbian sex-act dancers are insisting they’re not that kind of stripper.

“There were also several females dressed in lingerie attire,” Undercover No. 0148 told the judge, describing the June night in 2008 when the two shapely defendants allegedly offered him a $5,000 threesome.

Porn star Alexia Moore and topless dancing partner Falynn Rodriguez say that while they do shake it — in a Thursday night sex show once highly touted on the club Web site — they don’t sell it. They’ve turned down a no-jail prostitution plea and are risking a 90-day jail sentence to clear their names.

Read more at 2News.tv…

Four arrested for prostitution at massage parlors

Four women have been charged with prostitution at several Treasure Valley massage parlors.

Boise Police say the four women were arrested at various different Boise massage parlors on Wednesday.

Charges against the suspects include prostitution, giving a massage without a city license, and violating city sanitary requirements by living or allowing employees to live and sleep inside the massage parlor.

“We have gotten a couple of complaints, anonymous complaints, from people who have been inside and they say suspected inside prostitution was happening,” said Sgt. Mike Harrington with the Boise Police.

Boise Police began getting citizen complaints several weeks ago alleging criminal activity including prostitution occurring inside several local massage parlors. Those tips led to a undercover investigation where Harrington says four undercover officers: “Go in there pay for a massage and then they eventually wait to get solicited for additional money for additional acts and those acts would include acts of prostitution.”

Read more at The San Francisco Chronicle…

San Francisco prostitution crackdown leads to 51 arrests
by Jaxon Van Derbeken

In response to neighborhood complaints about a rise in prostitution and accompanying street crime, San Francisco police said Tuesday that stepped-up enforcement in the downtown area has led to 51 arrests since Jan. 1.

Police arrested three dozen suspected prostitutes and 15 would-be johns in the first two weeks of 2010, authorities said.

Those arrested for prostitution all came from out of town, some from as far away as San Diego, police said.

Police targeted Polk Street from Sutter to Washington streets, as well as portions of Van Ness Avenue and Leavenworth Street.