Sheriff Sues Craiglist For Prostitution Ads 695
Amerika writes "Craigslist is 'the single largest source of prostitution in the nation,' according to Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Thomas Dart. He has announced that he's filing a lawsuit against the popular classifieds site. Craigslist says it's determined to prevent criminal activity." NewYorkCountryLawyer adds a link to the 28-page complaint (PDF), which "alleges that Craigslist maintains 21 classifications of sex-for-hire, coded as 'w4m,' 'm4m,' 'm4w,' etc." and that it has facilitated child prostitution and kidnapping and human trafficking.
w4w, h4m, p2p, y2k, ... (Score:5, Funny)
I like this game
Re:w4w, h4m, p2p, y2k, ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:w4w, h4m, p2p, y2k, ... (Score:5, Funny)
I know a couple of girls who can lick that up for you...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think it's hermaphrodites for Menage-a-trois
Re:w4w, h4m, p2p, y2k, ... (Score:5, Funny)
That would be '2in143'.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
This is NOT Sparta.
* Disregard if you are reading this from a location named 'Sparta'.
Prostitution? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Prostitution? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, so Craiglist's hopped on the Web 2.0 bandwagon finally?
Re:Prostitution? (Score:5, Funny)
Only on /. could you find people who think Craigslist looks BETTER than the Web 2.0 look. ;)
Re:Prostitution? (Score:5, Funny)
If you think that interface is ugly, you should see the hookers.
Re:Prostitution? (Score:5, Interesting)
I found my stolen car on there, and had the local Fox affiliate cover it, so I shouldn't complaining.
No BS, check the link from my homepage if you don't want to believe it.
Go CraigsList!
former state governor seeking stupid sheriff - g4s (Score:5, Insightful)
This is Illinois again I see we are talking about, after all. Maybe the sheriff in question is just upset because he can't get a cut of the local "action" if it's all happens online...
Ok, he's a hero (sometimes) (Score:5, Interesting)
Sheriff Dart has taken a stance against mortgage companies that are evicting renter's from homes that property owners are allowing to go into eviction. Sheriff Dart says, "Too many renters are being evicted for landlords' problems".
He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:5, Informative)
He didn't sue the mortgage banks, he instead refused to execute eviction notices for renters that were paying rent on time.
SirWired
Re:He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:4, Insightful)
Remind me what the branches of government are again?
Since when does he have the right to pick and choose which laws he enforces? Nice lie by omission, but just because the tenant is paying rent on time doesn't mean the owner/landlord is paying the mortgage.
Those are two entirely separate legal contracts.
Not that I'm unsympathetic to the tenants, they should get some form of protection (even if it's just a delay until they find somewhere else) or maybe just garnish the rent direct to the bank.
Re:He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the checks and balances lies in the fact that "executives" (this effectively includes sheriffs) can decline to execute. This is unusual, as there will often be political consequences, in the form of lost elections, recall efforts, or in some circumstances, impeachment, but civil or criminal consequences are exceedingly rare and apply only in certain extraordinary cases.
And even if there are non-political consequences in a given case, you're still relying on executives to enforce those consequences.
In the end, governments (and for that matter, business, military, or any other large organization) function because most of the time, in most of the cases, the people involved will carry out "lawful orders" even if they disagree with them. Sometimes you reach a breaking point where someone isn't willing to do that. What happens then depends on many factors, but public opinion is a often a big one.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Again, you're relying on the target of the writ to comply, or on the ability and (again), willingness of someone else to enforce his compliance. And again, usually this works. Sometimes it doesn't. The law is not magical, it relies on the general assent and cooperation of people, and sometimes, people don't assent and cooperate.
If the sheriff refuses to evict a tenant, and mass public opinion is behind him, who exactly do you expect to *make* him evict the tenant?
Re:He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:5, Informative)
In extreme cases, the national guard. That's how the federal government forced communities in the south to integrate their schools over the popular opposition of the locals.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, extreme cases. Refusing to evict a rent-paying tenant because a bank wants to let a house sit empty and unsold in a rapidly-shrinking economy is not such a case.
Even if Federal interests were implicated, the Posse Comitatus and Insurrection Acts place severe restrictions on the ability of the President to use military forces (including federalized national guard units) for law enforcement. There essentially has to be an insurrection or disturbance of sufficient severity that the state cannot enforce or
Re:He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:5, Informative)
they should get some form of protection
They do. State law gives them 120 days advance notice, which brings us to
Since when does he have the right to pick and choose which laws he enforces?
That was the law he was enforcing, since the banks weren't giving the advance notice. When the banks agreed to do it right, he agreed to resume evictions.
Re:He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:4, Insightful)
Since when does he have the right to pick and choose which laws he enforces?
Are you kidding me? He is just following the example set by the rest of the law enforcement agencies in the US.
The US (especially over the last 8 years) loves to make things illegal that a huge % of the population does and then they use selective enforcement to exercise their prejudiced, corrupt agendas.
Need some examples:
Picking on LGBTs [amnestyusa.org]
Selective enforcement of marijuana laws (over other drugs) [medscape.com]
Selective enforcement of drug laws in black/latino communities [contexts.org]
The DMCA [eff.org]
Re:He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:5, Insightful)
source [cnn.com]. Not that the con talking heads bothered to mention any of these trifling little legal issues back when they proclaimed that this was some kind of activism and socialism and satanism and whatever else they could throw at it.
The bank must follow the law, and the law states the residents of a non-owner occupied property must be notified in advance, which the poor, poor banks just couldn't be bothered to do.
They were apparently too busy licking the boots of the fed chairman for cash to think "Hmm... renter in good standing making monthly payments, owner in bad standing not making monthly payments. Maybe we should offer them the house in exchange for them continuing to pay. The worst that could happen is they say no and move out." But that would require working for their money and if there's anything we've learned in this crash, its that the leadership of our institutions are deathly afraid of work and deserve money to fall upon them from the federal government.
Re:He didn't sue the mortgage banks (Score:5, Interesting)
But if those low rates were offered to the old occupants, I bet they would not have had to move out...
Even from a greed standpoint, that kind of crap didn't seem to make sense to me. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to cut the original owners the deal, instead of repossessing and reselling at the lower monthly rates? And paying for advertising about the low rates?
Prostitution is not illegal... (Score:3, Informative)
... where I live. So the Cook County Sheriff can lump it if he doesn't like it.
Re:Prostitution is not illegal... (Score:5, Insightful)
... where I live. So the Cook County Sheriff can lump it if he doesn't like it.
And this has exactly what to do with him going after crime in his jurisdiction?
Re:Prostitution is not illegal... (Score:5, Funny)
He's just grouchy since the Blues Brothers slipped through his fingers.
Them, and those damned Illinois Nazis. I hate Illinois Nazis.
Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
Yep, the rest of us here have only two... STDIN, STDOUT...
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
And for when we're feeling adventurous and little dirty, we have STDERR. :-)
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
What's the point of erotic services without sex? That's like going to a restaurant just to smell the food.
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Informative)
The stereotype annoys me too. I go to the clubs, and I'm personal friends with a quite a few dancers, and I've dated dancers. These girls aren't whores, and I've seen idiot customers make that mistake on many occasions. If you want to mistreat and mishandle the girls, it's not the bouncers you need to worry about. They're only going to toss you out on your ass; it's that dancer looking at you with the "fuck me" eyes, sexy smile, and the steel posted stilettos -- cause she's the one who's going to show you what she learned in kickboxing.
Sex doesn't happen in the champagne/VIP room. And the expenses for getting back into the room *is* for house fee + champagne + whatever the girl charges for her time. It's a risky proposition for the club owners and workers to have sex on the premise. Not only that, it ruins the girls' legitimate hustle, and so it's not tolerated. A good customer can spend nearly a grand or more on a favorite girl. A $200 sex act by another girl risks that. Now, there are some clubs there sex happens on-premise. In my experience they have always been "one-on-one clubs" which aren't strip clubs in the traditional sense; or real dives -- the kinds of places where the two drink minimum comes with a free STD and you might get stabbed and robbed by one of the hookers working the crowd. Are there exceptions? Of course, but I've gone through more clubs than the typical slashdotter has linux distributions.
And of course, there are some dancers who do "extras" but they take that business outside the club for the reasons I gave before. Strip clubs sell fantasy, and for most sensible people, fantasy is enough. Incidentally, I know more business school and law school grads who have done "extras" to make it at their workplace than dancers who have. And my former dancer girlfriend is an amazing woman with a better moral compass than most people I've met.
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
So the Cook County Sheriff is upset that people are getting f**ked by lawyers?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not in any erotic services section of any US city that I've visited. Universally, the majority of the ads are for illegal services.
Which city is this?
Re:Prostitutes? (Score:5, Funny)
You should tip more, it gets better.
I honestly did not know this. (Score:5, Funny)
"Thank you sheriff for helping improve my business. Keeping all the young ladies on staff as busy as they can physically manage is great for business, especially in these tough economic times.
All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:4, Insightful)
All consentual sexual relationships are a form of prostitution when you get to the basics of it...be it money, food, protection...
What about the wife that won't have sex with her husband until he does some chore?
Isn't that prostitution?
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:5, Funny)
I agree. Imagine if you just dropped 150 bucks on a hooker and she says, "Na, I've got a headache.".
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:5, Insightful)
Expecting your date to put out because you bought her a nice dinner is OK, but paying her cash for sex isn't. Go figure.
Well I don't think either is reasonable, but maybe that's just me.
It's who asked out whom (Score:5, Insightful)
The person that does the asking out to dinner pays.
After all, the other party was gracious enough to accept.
Re:It's who asked out whom (Score:5, Insightful)
It's totally fair.
But you're right, there is an expectation. And it's not wrong. If you sit around and wait to be asked you're going to be asked by people with their own goals in mind. If someone tries to woo you and you want that behavior to continue (expensive meals, etc) then you need to consider what they're looking for.
It's pretty much like joining the host in whatever activity they have planned. You aren't required to play cards, or join their orgy, but they probably aren't going to invite you back if you didn't fit in.
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:4, Insightful)
What you get is a pleasant evening out with a lady. If "reasonable" to you means that you will receive sexual recompense for your outlay of dinner expense, then maybe you should just skip the dinner and buy a prostitute. They are imminently reasonable in that sense.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So I have to pay the lady to have her be pleasant? Is that the point? No. If she expects me to pay, I expect something more than just conversation in return. I can have pleasant conversation with friends who don't ask me to pick up the tab.
The point is that equality requires a change in social customs. Right now, the social customs are designed for a woman being unable to get income for herself. But since that's not the case anymore, they are outdated.
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:5, Insightful)
You act like girls don't want to have sex. Do you know how badly most of them would love to skip the phony dinner and go straight to bed... but guys like you make them feel ashamed so they need stupid rituals to validate the affair.
Then you deprive them of any excitement by paying for dinner without strings attached, still on the thesis that she doesn't want cock, and shouldn't.
Then you wonder why she went home with "that guy"... really she was only too happy to make some "gentleman" pay for her meal, and then ditch him for what was truly on her mind.
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:4, Insightful)
You act like girls don't want to have sex.
No, I'm acting like expecting that you are trading dinner for sex is chauvinistic.
If she's into it, go for it. If she's not, acting like you got jipped means you're an asshole and should go hire a prostitute if you want an explicit barter.
If there are "strings attached" then you think you're hiring a hooker. The absence of strings does not mean the absence of sex. What the fuck is wrong with people around here?
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:4, Insightful)
Good lord, no. You "expect" as in anticipate, not require, your date to "put out" because that is frequently the end result of a romantic evening with someone you've been romantically involved with for some time, and the date in question qualifies and the mood is right. Anything else and you're just a pig. Which is, in a way, a social standard or stereotype, but a negative one, not OK.
Though I guess before I sound too high and mighty, I did laugh my ass off at the Family Guy spoof of the DeBeers silhouette ads with the implied bj and the tag line "Diamonds: She'll pretty much have to." Yes, we men buy things for women with the hope that it'll get us laid. But to "expect" in the sense you meant where it's equivalent to prostitution? No.
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:4, Funny)
I've been chasing that mythical chore for years. It doesn't exist, it's just a trap to get you to do all the yardwork.
Re:All consentual sexual relationships are... (Score:4, Interesting)
Not Craiglist's fault (Score:5, Funny)
Just because he found his wife in the w4mmmm section doesn't mean he can get all sue-happy:)
Re:Not Craiglist's fault (Score:5, Funny)
Streets Department (Score:5, Insightful)
I think they should probably go after the Streets Department first. Prostitutes have been using the streets to solicit prostitution for centuries. And I'm almost certain that there are more prostitutes using streets than using Craigslist.
Not a source (Score:5, Insightful)
Prostitutes exist with or without Craigslist; it is not a "source" and it does not create prostitutes. They'd be out walking the street if Craigslist didn't give them somewhere safe to advertise. I'd much rather keep them on the web than on my sidewalk.
Standing? (Score:4, Interesting)
As this is a civil case, doesn't one need standing [wikipedia.org] to file a suit? As I understand it, that means that the individual bringing the suit has to ask for a remedy the court can provide, which would be redress of damage. Party A can't sue B for what B did to C because A was not harmed, and therefore has no standing. In what way has craigslist damaged the sherrif, and what damages is he asking the court to redress, exactly?
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Read the Complaint (Score:4, Insightful)
I wish more of the authors of these smug, dismissive comments would read the complaint.
It makes a compelling case that the primary use of the "erotic services" section of Craigslist is prostitution, both the "consenting adults" variety and the quite non-consenting child sex slavery variety. It also cites specific cases where Craigslist was used to facilitate the abuse of child sex slaves. Is anyone here concerned with that, and that Craigslist is profiting from that traffic?
Note that the sheriff isn't trying to shut down Craigslist; his office sent 5 letters to Craigslist asking them to better police the "erotic services" section or shut it down. According to the complaint, Craigslist refused. It would seem that the owners of Craigslist value their profits more than the lives of the children whose exploitation they benefit from.
How often has the phrase "Think of the children" been bandied about on Slashdot with a wink and a sneer? Well, here's a case where there are actual, real, hurting children to think about. How many of you are brave enough to challenge the groupthink around here and do that? Where is the outrage that Craigslist is profiting from human traffic? Some of you need to turn in your liberal credentials at the door.
Re:Read the Complaint (Score:4, Insightful)
I have an issue with your line that Craigslist is profiting by this. Last I checked, not only was Craigslist free, but there are no ads.
Why not sue magazines that have classified ads geared towards erotic services? I'd bet there are "erotic services" advertised in most major newspapers or local rags.
I'd think that the police looking at Craigslist ads has done more for locating abused kids forced into prostitution than their "normal" investigations.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I have an issue with your line that Craigslist is profiting by this. Last I checked, not only was Craigslist free, but there are no ads.
Erotic Services is not free -- you need a credit card to post and it costs a little bit of $$. This was enacted at the request of state AG's, not to make money.
AFAICT CL doesn't WANT this kind of stuff, but if they remove the section, the hooker ads move to another section and ruin that other section.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, I read the complaint and the allegations of increased revenue from the erotic services section are unsubstantiated. There is no evidence that directly links the visits to that particular section of craigslist to any other.
Reading the complaint, you could be forgiven that craigslist is popular because of the erotic services. Isn't it just possible that girls choose to use that venue because craigslist itself is popular?
By way of interest, in cities where prostitution is legal, those particular boards on
Re:Read the Complaint (Score:5, Insightful)
cite one example. I peruse my local craigslist on occasion, and have even used the erotic services section quite a few times. I've never seen any child prostitution ads in there.
If they're so prevalent, there must be some posted today? something in cache somewhere? an actual ad someone could link to and say "look, a child prostitution ad! take it off!"
Unless I see some evidence, I'm inclined to think that the children are not as prevalent on craigslist as some would like us to think, and it's just a moral panic excuse to shut down a business run by adults, and only adults.
Re:Read the Complaint (Score:5, Insightful)
So you have some kind of evidence of child abuse (be it sexual or otherwise), then you have a prosecution. Congratulations, where does shutting down a section of craigslist come into this? Oh, you have no evidence of this actually happening, no actually damaged or hurt children? Then you're just another scare monger trying to stop the bleeding by covering it with a curtain.
If you really want to think of the children, maybe you ought to take all this evidence you have of child abuse to a DA's office and see if you can get the ball rolling there.
An intelligent person would want this stuff on craigslist, where it is all made into a nice easy searchable electronic database that can be easily monitored, logged, and used in court with a minimum of fuss. It looks to me like this sherrif simply doesn't understand the technology and his lawyers told him he might be able to make a quick buck suing craigslist.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
In some fantasy universe where people also want crack houses left alone in order to provide a supply of dealers to bust, and bars to serve up alcohol in drive through windows in order to create more drunks on the road. In this fantasy universe 'intelligent' people don't care about the victims, they just want criminals to bust.
Hey, wait a second... that's not a fantasy universe, that's Wyoming.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually there have been numerous cases of underage prostitutes, willing and otherwise, on Craigslist.
Do you have any data to back this claim?
Re:Read the Complaint (Score:4, Informative)
It would seem that the owners of Craigslist value their profits more than the lives of the children whose exploitation they benefit from.
Craigslist is pretty non-commercial. They do charge 5 bucks on the erotic services site for all of craigslist to keep down the amount of illegal content, but all of that is donated to charity. There's only a total of 24 people who work for craigslist, with all of the money that keeps it up coming from broker ads in a couple of metro areas (Bay Area, NYC, Chicago)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
So this and the responses are not entirely correct. Craigslist has taken a number of measure over the past few months to crack down on this. They ban more sexual keywords now so that if you use these your ad will not post. They then required a phone number to confirm ads placed in this section. Now they actually require a credit card and charge you $5 to post.
So in an effort to crack down or at the very least be able to track these individuals they implemented a method that does give them some profit, thoug
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly - I'd wager that a decent percentage of the slashdot audience has probably at least browsed these ads before - nerds that wouldn't pick up chicks on the street are a huge target for this kind of business model - but be warned - you'd have to be crazy to respond to these ads. A large percentage of them are probably honeypots posted by authorities, and the government has full backdoor access to everything that goes through craigslist (thank you patriot act) including email addresses. I'd love to kno
I read that as... (Score:5, Funny)
If craigslist supplies prostitutes (Score:4, Funny)
Stupid intelligence (Score:4, Insightful)
He's stupid.
Most people in an investigative field would BEG for lists like this.
The posting gives probable cause. They can wire tap the numbers, and get the phone history. The secondary numbers that call common numbers give even more escorts, or escort services/pimps. Third level cross reference would then likely give him a good number of the working girls in the area, and regular clients. All of this would be legal.
Many law enforcement agencies are using these ads to DO the busts. They'll set up a wired hotel room, and have the girls meet them there. They'll also have officers pose as the escorts, and do the same to the Johns.
They're being spoon fed fairly reliable information. The exception would be postings by angry ex-boyfriends/husbands, who post their ex-SO picture and phone numbers. Those would be easily filtered once the phone records were given a good look over.
I don't know what idiot thought about filing a complaint against Craigslist. They should be THANKING them. Spend a couple months gathering intelligence, and then spend a weekend on widespread busts. They'd get a significant number in the process, and the rest would be scared out of business. Any remaining ones that decided to continue marketing this way would be continued easy fish to catch.
Do your job, and you've solved the problem. Cutting out an advertising source just pushes that element that you want to arrest into other fringe areas that you probably don't know about yet. Doing it right would get the vice squad brownie points from all over the place, and an increased budget. Just bitching about the advertising medium gets you nothing but a budget wasted on court costs.
Stupid people.
Re:Stupid intelligence (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, I've known some too, on a friendly, not professional basis. It's an interesting business to learn about, but not the safest out there.
I believe the terminology varies by area, as do some of the terms. In the end it's all the same. Guy is lonely, and wants to spend time with a pretty girl. Guy leaves some money in a conspicuous place. Adult things happen. Guy leaves happy. Girl leaves happy and a little richer.
My apologies, as I'm used to referencing proper professionals (versus street walkers) as escorts. No offense is intended.
Myself, I see no problem with it. I don't believe it should be against the law.
When I was in Toronto, I was in for a bit of a culture shock when I talked to some people there. Massage parlors, incall, outcall, and even "full service" strip clubs are perfectly acceptable. Toronto does not allow "street walkers". The general idea is, it's going to happen, like it or not. Be courteous. Anything that happens in the privacy of your [home|hotel|etc] between two consenting adults is exactly that.
I was addressing it from the law enforcement side. The majority of areas in the US have laws against it, and those are enforced. If they want to enforce it, there are much easier ways to enforce it, than to shut down one of the easiest places to make a visible statement. So you've picked up all the obvious street walkers, so they don't walk the streets. The next most visible is Craigslist, or any of many numerous print advertisements that list providers of these services. There will always be some web site that carries advertisements. Hell, searching Google is the most obvious.
**WARNING** Links NSFW! I'm writing most of this for those who are completely naive. Hey, lots of people don't know the business. I just happen to talk to a lot of people, and escorts have been some of them.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=chicago+escort [google.com]
or even searching for the full deal
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=chicago+escort+gfe [google.com]
Sorry, there are only over 300,000 pages for the "GirlFriend Experience" in Chicago.
Ok, so there are about 350 postings today on http://chicago.craigslist.org/ers [craigslist.org], and anyone who has a clue knows a decent percentage of these are duplicates, fake pictures (wrong girl shows up) or trouble (thug comes, takes your money, and laughs on the way out the door). Some are legit.
If they legalized it, a lot of the problems would go away. Right now, if a thug instead of the shown pretty girl shows up and robs you, you can't do much about it. Try calling the police and say "I was trying to pay for an escort, but some guy came and robbed me instead!". That's a spontaneous confession, and enough to land you in jail at least for the night. Talk about adding insult to injury. If it's perfectly legal, the same phone call would get the cops to your door, and hopefully get your money back and land the thug in jail. There is a whole list of other reasons that it should be legalized, that's only one minor example.
As I've been told many times before, it doesn't matter if it's an escort, a girlfriend, or a wife, you're always paying for sex. At least with an escort, you know the terms of what you're paying for. You will pay $x for $y hours. When the night is done, she'll leave (or you'll leave, depending on who's place it is), and you won't ever have to talk to her again unless you want to. With a girlfriend, you'll buy dinner, flowers, pay for movies, whatever, and then sex in the end isn't guaranteed. And once you're married, the guarantee is that you'll pay for the rest of your life, and sex may happen occasionally if you're lucky. :)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The Cook County Sheriff's Department is asking a federal judge to close the Erotic Services section of Craigslist, as well as reimburse the department $100,000 it has cost to pursue Craigslist-related prostitution investigations over the past year,
Someone needs some bail-out money reaal fast. Too bad the hookers and pimps didn't pay their protection money and now you've got to sue the interwebz for ruining your business.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone needs some bail-out money reaal fast. Too bad the hookers and pimps didn't pay their protection money and now you've got to sue the interwebz for ruining your business.
Sounds about right. It's as if chat forums, bulletin boards, and even the regular classifieds in the newspaper hadn't been used for this purpose for *years*.
Re:Here we go again (Score:5, Insightful)
Little aftertought, after reading the ars technica update I believe this is about money.
The Cook County Sheriff's Department is asking a federal judge to close the Erotic Services section of Craigslist, as well as reimburse the department $100,000 it has cost to pursue Craigslist-related prostitution investigations over the past year,
Umm...Shouldn't the police force be paying craigslist? Craigslist didn't create the prostitution. They stuck it all in one spot. The only way they could have helped the cops more is if they placed a big red arrow that says "hooker" over the prostitute's heads.
Re:Here we go again (Score:5, Insightful)
Mod parent up.
Old school: Go undercover/hit the streets to round up prostitutes.
New school: Login in to www.craiglisst.com from the comfort of the squad room, set up a date, make arrest. Rinse, repeat.
That douchebag Sheriff should be thanking them for making it much easier for him.
Re:Here we go again (Score:5, Funny)
"Craigslist is 'the single largest source of prostitution in the nation,
'Old school: Go undercover/hit the streets to round up prostitutes.
Yeah, you'd think they wouldn't bother going after Craigslist after the failure of their earlier lawsuit against street corners.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That feature will be in the next rev of Google Streetview.
Re:Here we go again (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Here we go again (Score:5, Funny)
Its as if Ebay had a specific areas for weed, cocaine, and heroin.
Ahh, I found my new Happy Thought ;)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Launching tomorrow: weedBay!
Or whenever I get around to it...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
This guy is an arrogant, sanctimonious prick posturing for the religious right
Oh, and you were doing so well, too. Chicago is one of the most leftist cities in the country. Sorry, but the religious right are far outweighed by all the lefties there. Ever notice how often the Mayor of Chicago has been a Democrat?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I am SO sorry, clearly you've not been there (Chicago & its Metro area) in the last 2 decades.
1) Wheaton, a burb, is a college town. An evangelical college town. It is one of the scariest places I've ever seen.
2) Naperville, a burb, is the largest city in Illinois, physically gigantic, but obviously diffuse. It is almost universally conservative.
You are correct about the mayor, but the distribution of conservative vs. liberal is sadly quite strong the wrong way. The election outcomes tend to depend
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The erotic services section in Craigslist is very clearly geared towards prostitution. Almost every ad offers "full service" and sets out rates as "donations." The photos are usually of nude or scantily clad women. The services they offer are usually vernacular for specific sex acts. The vast majority of the ads there are for prostitution or reviews of prostitutes.
Re:when did singles sites become... (Score:4, Interesting)
Indeed. The Sheriff is correct that craigslist is carrying ads that any reasonable person would conclude are for prostitution. For sure.
The question is, what are the Sheriff's real motivations? Law-enforcement crackdowns on prostitution are spotty at best, so why this, why now?
The primary motivation against prostitution comes from females, who loathe it like all businesspeople loathe competition. These days success in business comes easiest to those who seize the law to ban their competition, and women-in-general have done exactly this.
To put it another way: the presence of legal prostitutes will increase what your female partner is willing to do in bed.
Given this, all male attacks on prostitution must be some attempt to curry favor with females. Or they've got a bad case of the Jesus.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know how CraigsList is edited, but if there is any staff dedicating any time whatsoever--even seconds per month--to editing community messages, then they move from being "clear channel"
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I think the term for a telco in this context is a "clear channel" provider or something like that.
The term you're looking for is Common Carrier [wikipedia.org]
Re:In other countries... (Score:5, Insightful)
... adults with imaginary friends are given free psychiatric help.
In the US, we give them political power.
OK, I'll bite.
What are you talking about? This is a story about a lawsuit. A strange lawsuit that seems to be trying to enforce criminal statutes on a tort-like theory of public nuisance. It likely won't go anywhere, since it's hard from the complaint to even make out who the aggrieved party is supposed to be. (Is the Sheriff himself harmed in some way by Craigslist's practices? I think he'll have to show that if he wants an injunction. Otherwise, if he thinks something cognizably criminal is going on he could maybe investigate and prosecute. Which he can't, so this whole thing is largely symbolic.)
Now you come in babbling about political power for imaginary friends. I guess it's OK, though, as there seem to be enough like-minded schizophrenics to get you modded insightful. Perhaps you could move overseas, and avail yourself of some of those marvelous free services...
Re:In other countries... (Score:5, Funny)
Is the Sheriff himself harmed in some way by Craigslist's practices? I think he'll have to show that if he wants an injunction....... Which he can't, so this whole thing is largely symbolic.
I don't know about that.....maybe his wife keeps showing up in the w4m category....
Re:In other countries... (Score:4, Funny)
nah, she keeps showing up in w4mm.
Re:In other countries... (Score:4, Funny)
Or more likely, he has ruined her for men so she shows up in wfw. Er, not that I ever view that section. Uh, I think I will take the fifth now.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
My guess, is the AC is referring to religious people when he says "people with imaginary friends", the imaginary friend indicating god.
The AC probably jumped to the conclusion that the sheriff was on a crusade based on religious temperament.
All in all, it was pretty easy to follow to me, if not necessarily well founded. Jumping to bad conclusions isn't really an indicator of schizophrenia, I'd think more along the lines of mania / bipolar disorder.
Regulate and tax it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Regulate and tax it (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish there was some chance we could get more of a libertarian govt in the US....go back to more strict reading of the constitution, and less govt. intrusions of adult lives.
While I'm at it...I guess I'll also wish for a pony.
Re:Regulate and tax it (Score:5, Funny)
Giving it away for free should not be legal. Sexual relations outside of the covenant of marge should be as illegal as prostitution.
Who is this "marge" and how can I get inside her covenant?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Uh, the Yakuza?
Re:dating (Score:4, Informative)