How it is I can give sex away and nobody cares, but as soon as I capitalize on it, it’s a problem? – Betty Lynd
This is only being investigated because unsolved cases make cops look bad:
With the arrest of a 58-year-old man from Rotterdam the police believe they made their first breakthrough in a cold case investigation into the murders of 85 prostitutes in the 80’s and 90’s…the suspect can definitely be linked to two murders, and possibly to three others as well…The judiciary has evidence against the man for the murders of Berendina Stijger in 1990 and Maria Hofland in 1991. There are also similarities between these two murders and the murders of Beppie Michels, Mientje Balkom and Jeanet Sip in 1989 and 1999 – four of the five victims’ throats were slit and there were “similar sexual acts”…
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs
When political activists like Daw Sander Min were imprisoned for their campaigns…they were locked up alongside sex workers criminalised by Myanmar’s harsh laws against prostitution. Now Sandar Min is an MP and Thuzar Win addresses parliament on behalf of the Sex Workers in Myanmar network, and they’ve joined forces to improve the lives of Burmese people…the women…are adamant that Myanmar’s future wellbeing…depends upon the decriminalisation of prostitution…journalist Thin Lei Win is…finding out how Sandar Min and Thuzar Win are getting on in their bid to amend legislation which dates back 70 years…One young woman, mistaken for a sex worker and imprisoned for six months, says whoever changes the law will get her vote.
Legal Is as Legal Does (#139)
Turkey continues its campaign to close brothels despite their legality:
The registered brothel in Antep [may] be closed due to the reason that it “does not suit Antep”…[politicians] told [the owners of] the brothel that if they “don’t transfer their properties without making any trouble, they would [steal]…the brothel’s land in other ways”…Leyla works and stays at the registered brothel. She has two children studying in another city. “How are we going to pay our debts if this place is closed?…They don’t care about us…We are not captives nor slaves here. We pay our taxes…What are they protecting us from? If they want to protect, they can buy us a home, grant us early retirement”…some 60 women work at the registered brothel, which…has employees other than sex workers; cafeteria workers, hair cutters, cleaning workers. So, there are as many as 100 workers in addition to the sex workers…
Torture Chamber
“Having sexual conduct” is an especially clumsy euphemism for “rape”:
A Chatham County Sheriff’s Deputy was arrested…for reportedly having sexual conduct with an inmate…Deputy Jermaine Minor…was terminated, arrested and charged with four counts…
Whither Canada?
Two years into Canada’s vile experiment with the horrible Swedish model, I’m going back to using this subtitle because “A Year Later” no longer makes sense:
As police in Edmonton, Alberta, clamp down on the demand for paid sex with mass “john stings” in the name of protecting women, sex workers and experts say such efforts are ineffective and have already made conditions more dangerous…So far this year, the Edmonton police have carried out one sting a week on average, resulting in 63 arrests…The force [brags] it’s on track to arrest more than 200 johns in 2017, nearly twice the 104 arrests made last year…[Edmonton pigs] recently changed [the] name [of its] vice unit to the human trafficking and exploitation unit, and conducts most of its john stings online by posting fake ads…the vast majority of men caught in the sting are first-time offenders who typically get diverted into so-called “john schools”…Chris Atchison, a sociologist at the University of Victoria…says…john stings typically don’t end up curbing the demand at all, but send it further underground…he’s seen no evidence that “john school” is effective in changing the desires of clients, and they are primarily run by groups that seek to abolish the sex trade — not make women safer. “These programs are based on a very particular…moral agenda based on misinformation and fear mongering,” he said…
Edmonton has a long history of abusing & dehumanizing sex workers, literally treating them like wild animals.
The Course of a Disease (#634)
One day I hope to see myself described in print as a “rebellious prostitute”:
…sex workers took to the streets of Paris protesting a lack of clientele and poor working conditions…[due to imposition of the Swedish model on] April 13, 2016…the incomes of [many] prostitutes fell sharply, as they had to significantly lower their prices in an attempt to attract more customers…In some extreme cases, girls committed suicide; some were infected with AIDS because for the sake of earning they were forced to agree to any demands made by men. Also, there have been cases of women being beaten by aggressive and drunken customers…Since the law [was] implemented more than 800 people have been fined…
To Molest and Rape 
A Washington, D.C., [cop] has been charged with soliciting sex from a 15-year-old…and then robbing her at gunpoint…Chukwuemeka Ekwonna…[hired the] girl…[but after he raped her] Ekwonna pulled out a handgun…[and] demanded his money back…the girl complied and left…Ekwonna faces a number of charges, including armed robbery, assault, prostitution and two counts of third-degree sex offense…Judge Eileen A. Reilly said…that he could pose a “danger to the community”…Ekwonna…[was previously] accused in a civil lawsuit with beating an inmate…at a Washington, D.C., jail [but] the plaintiff settled the lawsuit…
“A danger to the community” is what you inevitably get when you let armed thugs run around doing whatever they like to people without consequences.
Too Close To Home (#701)
Another of the men who claim they want to “protect” Seattle from consensual sex:
A 46-year-old Kent man sued Seattle Mayor Ed Murray…[saying] Murray “raped and molested him” over several years, beginning in 1986 when the man was a 15-year-old high-school dropout…“D.H.” [reported that] Murray sexually abused the crack-cocaine addicted teen on numerous occasions for payments of $10 to $20…the man, now sober for a year, said…he was coming forward as part of a “healing process”…Murray, who is running for re-election this year, [naturally] denied the [accusations]…D.H. is not the first to accuse Murray…of sexual abuse that occurred decades ago…Jeff Simpson and Lloyd Anderson, said they knew Murray when they were growing up in a Portland center for troubled children, and later as teenagers. They accuse Murray of abusing them in the 1980s when he was in his 20s. Simpson made the [accusation] as a teen in 1984…[yet Murray’s mouthpiece pretends that] “The…accusations were promoted by extreme right-wing anti-gay activists in the midst of the marriage equality campaign, and were thoroughly investigated and dismissed by both law enforcement [who worked for Murray] authorities and the [lapdog] media”…
Business As Usual (#717)
Isn’t it weird how defining a non-crime as a “crime” creates all kinds of problems?
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said recently that he is shifting the department’s sex [work persecution] tactics, in an effort to [improve PR]…”Like all crime, we can’t just arrest our way out of this problem,” he said. O’Neill’s new plan, he explained, is to focus on arresting [his way out of the problem while pretending that sex workers are “victims”]…prostitution arrests continue, and this week, O’Neill [pretended to have]… an “open mind” about moving prostitution from the criminal code to the civil code [while simultaneously representing sex workers as dumb animals that need to be forced to accept “help” at gunpoint]. Mayor de Blasio agreed. “I think that the concern at the jump is that if you only have those civil penalties, that it is harder to [pretend sex work is a]…crime”…”I don’t know what movie the mayor is watching,” said Kate Mogulescu, who heads up the Legal Aid Society’s human trafficking advocacy program. “Please don’t justify arrests by saying we’re helping people”…Her team has argued that not all prostitution is exploitative, and that focusing the narrative on trafficking—suggesting that police sweep in as saviors—has bolstered criminalization all around…
The Notorious Badge (#726)
Never mind; this tells me all I need to know:
Harlots is a lavish 18th-century period drama about dueling houses of ill repute and the ruthless women who run them. With all the power, lust, and flashes of humanity that we usually associate with male antiheroes, Margaret Wells (Oscar nominee Samantha Morton) and Lydia Quigley (stage and screen legend Lesley Manville) pit their considerable intelligence and stable of girls against each other for control of Georgian-era Soho. But unlike the fictional liars and feuders currently flooding the Peak TV market, these sex workers aren’t manipulated by men—onscreen or off. Harlots is the rare show entirely written and directed by women…[the reporter asked] Were you surprised to learn how much power these prostitutes and madams actually had in the 18th century? [And Morton replied]…You know, the sex industry, the sex trade with children, with trafficking—it is a very contemporary, present day issue. The only difference with this—and this is what made me incredibly sad—is that women seemed to be more in control of the industry back then. Certainly in Margaret Wells’s house, these women have a choice. It’s a business…I think that back then women did hold a lot more power in that regard…
Gee, if only there were a way for actresses playing sex workers to talk to real sex workers and find out our reality so they don’t need to make ignorant guesses. You know, maybe a computer-based way for activist sex workers to make themselves publicly available to interact with, like a form of media designed for social interaction…
