Amazon and Microsoft Directors Charged in Prostitution Sting (kiro7.com) 311
An anonymous reader writes: A director from Microsoft and a former Amazon director have been charged with promoting prostitution after an investigation into Seattle-area sex trafficking, according to a local news report. Investigators say the director of worldwide health for Microsoft submitted over 70 reviews of prostitutes that he had allegedly hired since April 2012, according to the report, while the director of software development at Amazon, who worked on Fire TV, "allegedly hired prostitutes at least 29 times through The Review Board and TheLeague.Net, according to court documents." Both men have pleaded not guilty and are free on $75,000 bail, part of a group of 19 people now facing criminal charges. "These defendants, we allege, were absolutely devoted to the commercial sexual exploitation of vulnerable, powerless immigrant women," King County Prosecutors said in January, adding that the women, who were forced into prostitution to pay off debts to organized crime bosses in Asia, are not being charged.
Last January a Seattle newspaper reported that one alleged brothel owner "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."
Last January a Seattle newspaper reported that one alleged brothel owner "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."
No surprise there... (Score:5, Funny)
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I started to read the links you sent.
The first one. Not bad. Jeff Bezos is a fucking ass.
Second one looks like it is commentary from a local radio station, and he seems to be more intent on bitching about unions (the very thing that could fix the problem in post one) and claiming that they work they do is just make busy work, and they don't focus on getting traffic to flow freely. His bitches here was a noise barrier wall to protect a neighborhood from freeway noise and animal over/underpasses. Honestly
You missed the point. (Score:3)
Can you find other web sites and articles about people who dislike their city? I'd like to see them.
Consider the U.S. metropolitan area centered on Portland, Oregon:
Portland has become unlivable. There are traffic jams all day. The air is poisonous. Things About Portland That Su [thingsabou...atsuck.com]
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Amazon: An abusive company? (Score:3)
Quoting: "On June 2, a warehouse employee contacted OSHA to report the heat index hit 102 degrees in the warehouse and 15 workers collapsed. The employee also complained that workers who had to go home due to heat symptoms received disciplinary points."
Another quote: "When the heat index ranges from 100 to 114 degrees, Amazon 'typically' gives hourly breaks of at least five minutes and shifts heavier work to cooler times of the day, Forney said."
"On July
They were Johns charged as pimps (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like these guys committed "patronizing a prostitute", which is a misdemeanor:
http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/defa... [wa.gov]
They've been charged with "promoting prostitution"( being a pimp), which a felony:
http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/defa... [wa.gov]
Re:They were Johns charged as pimps (Score:5, Interesting)
Prosecutorial overreach. The prosecutor will probably be running for office soon and is trying to make a name for himself/herself.
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Neither M$ nor Amazon can tolerate that sort of bad advertising, they'll do an internal review, find out whether it extended further and likely hand them over. Simply not worth it unless they are major investors and in that case they have the wealth to defend themselves. Advertising is extraordinarily expensive, in fact it costs billions now, so how expensive would the public relations exercise of being a leading corporate citizen by handing over corrupt executives and protecting the honour of the company
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Advertising expenses are tax deductible, so we pretty much pay for our own disinformation and to be lied to and fooled into buying crap we don't need.
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Tax deductible is a misnomer. It is true that advertising is an expense that is removed from the gross before the tax rate is applied but it does not create a dollar for dollar wash. It is still a losing proposition.
Lets assume a 10% tax rate for simplicity. For every $100 dollars of profit you would owe $10 in taxes. So you spend $90 that would otherwise be pocketed in order to save that $10. This is also why you cannot buy two of something that is half off and end up getting it for free. Of course it g
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70 visits to prostitutes since 2012 is less than twice a month. If you think that that frequency of sex is excessive (TFA didn't state if that guy is in a sexual relationship, so could be the only times he has sex) and equates to being "lead[sic] by their genitals" then you're a hypocritical prude.
Re: They were Johns charged as pimps (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, they *are* vulnerable, because they operate outside the law and can be exploited by criminals You don't think that a prostitute you've paid $300 gets to keep that money? Almost all of that goes to the pimp.
Freelancing women are targets for beatings by pimps because they threaten the pimp's income. And what are they supposed to do, go to the cops and say "This guy is trying to steal my prostitution business?"
Once a prostitute is in the clutches of a pimp, she's not free to leave to business either. Even if she wants to move to a different city, if the pimp keeps her in place by threats to her friends and family.
And not every prostitute is a prostitute by choice. There are runaways who fall into a pimp's control; rural foreigners who are tricked into thinking they're immigrating to the US for a high-paying (by their standards) domestic service job.
Understand I have no issues with prostitution per se, but I have a big problem with slavery, and in any system where prostitutes operate outside the protection of the law it's a given that most of them are de facto slaves.
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Well, they *are* vulnerable, because they operate outside the law and can be exploited by criminals You don't think that a prostitute you've paid $300 gets to keep that money? Almost all of that goes to the pimp.
Freelancing women are targets for beatings by pimps because they threaten the pimp's income. And what are they supposed to do, go to the cops and say "This guy is trying to steal my prostitution business?"
Once a prostitute is in the clutches of a pimp, she's not free to leave to business either. Even if she wants to move to a different city, if the pimp keeps her in place by threats to her friends and family.
And not every prostitute is a prostitute by choice. There are runaways who fall into a pimp's control; rural foreigners who are tricked into thinking they're immigrating to the US for a high-paying (by their standards) domestic service job.
Understand I have no issues with prostitution per se, but I have a big problem with slavery, and in any system where prostitutes operate outside the protection of the law it's a given that most of them are de facto slaves.
Bullshit.
Prostitutes with management (pimps, madames, whatever) get more money and are safer to boot.
Further, the idea that sex slavery is some sort of pandemic is a myth. The vast, vast, majority of prostitutes are willing participants. Foreigners brought to the country specifically to be prostitutes typically do so with the backing and support of their families in the home country, whom they are sending money to.
You've bought in to the narrative whole hog. Go look up the actual stats.
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One guy is already ex-Amazon, the MS guy could be: 1) using 79 different service providers for himself, 2) just making BS up as a favor to the people running the business, or, most likely in my opinion, 3) providing perks to visiting business partners.
Only in case 1) would I see him being considered a John, case 2 and especially 3 puts him in the pimp role.
And, in case 3, MS would be seeking business partners who are led by their genitals- which would put MS in a more advantageous position than a "clean" bu
Re:They were Johns charged as pimps (Score:4, Informative)
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And if they voluntarily put themselves into the pimp's debt in order to emigrate to the US, that makes them what exactly?
Personally I've begun to wonder if the war on sex workers is just as lost as the war on Drugs & whether legalising and regulating is not a better approach.
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As for your second point, I feel legalized prostitution is all well and good... as long as it's properly regulated.
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That would make them indentured servants, which is still illegal.
Also, I disagree with your sig. Democracy is a hundred sheep and a wolf deciding who gets eaten by the wolf.
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Which turns out to be not necessarily such a great idea, as evinced by the propensity of prosecutors and judges in such jurisdictions to use their positions for political gain.
Re:They were Johns charged as pimps (Score:5, Informative)
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That's kind of idiotic. That's like saying that 'My dealer sells some great weed' is the same as dealing.
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Nah. People vote for Trump out of 2 reasons:
1. Because the Presidency by itself is a useless powerless post that doesn't do shit, and it's the same thing with or without Trump.
2. Because if Trump gets there, nobody will take him seriously and he will do absolutely nothing because the powers behind don't support him.
However if Hilary gets there, she has the backing from corporates and the warmongers (as can be seen via her cancerous foreign politics and shit like Monsanto backing), which will enable her spre
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"posted reviews of some of the prostitutes online which is technically promoting."
We move for acquittal on the grounds that everyone knows Amazon reviews are fake.
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Pleading guilty to 79 counts of misdemeanor activity with no remorse.
The morality or reality of the situation is irrelevant in court they decide legality.
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What more do you want of me?
We the jury would prefer you stop supporting slave labor.
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We the jury would prefer you stop supporting slave labor.
So, wait, paying someone to do a job is slave labor, while not paying someone to do the same job is ... OK?
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It's a crackdown on the publication of reviews of misdemeanor activity - you know: free speech. Sure, you're free to speak, but if you speak about doing illegal things, that's a problem.
Re:Submitter is also marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of prostitutes are exploited - by their employers. It's an underground industry, so they can't go to the police for help - if their pimp threatens them with violence, or withholds pay, or assaults them, there's nothing much they can do - certainly can't go to the police. Legalisation would make it a lot easier to maintain safe working conditions.
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Actually, at least in the area the article is about, they can go to the police for help, they just don't realize it.
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"King County Prosecutors said in January, adding that the women, who were forced into prostitution to pay off debts to organized crime bosses in Asia, are not being charged."
That means they *could* be charged. If prosecutors wanted. They aren't going to do so because it's really bad PR to charge someone for a crime they were forced to commit, but for an ordinary non-trafficked prostitute there is no guarantee the decision will be the same. The prostitute can report her violent customer, the police arrest hi
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"Looks like the submitter is trying to market the prosecution too with words like "vulnerable...exploited...". If they have sex and receive money, how is that worse than having sex and getting gifts? It's not worse, and if she needs the money you're doing her a favor by giving her money.
[...]
As for "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."... again marketing a baddie who is bad to the core. It has nothing to do with the claim again
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Margins are better on illegal activity - capitalist through and through. Higher risk = higher reward.
Today I learned the term "grows" is a noun (Score:2, Funny)
Today I learned the term "grows" is a plural nown.
The only exploitation likely going on... (Score:4, Insightful)
Is by the prosecutor and the police. In countries where prostitution is legal, women selecting this as their choice of work of their own free will are the norm and exceptions are so rare that they make the papers. Also, "pimps" basically do not exist. Hence what is going on here is a deranged war on women that find selling sex for money gives them a sound economic basis and on men that are willing to buy that service. All the "trafficking" nonsense and "helpless" bullshit is just the same vile lies used to justify locking up as many people as possible (and most certainly those "rescued" face the same fate and will have the money they earned stolen in addition) over what in any sane country is a matter of a service rendered between consenting adults. The very kind of language used by the "authorities" already shows what this really is.
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The other countries also have legal pot
Re:The only exploitation likely going on... (Score:5, Insightful)
The human trafficking is quite real and large scale. While it's enabled by anti-prostitution laws which make it easier to hide sex slavery, that doesn't make the exploitation any less reprehensible, nor does it mean that the Johns have no moral responsibility for it. The law should be changed to fight trafficking, but until then these guys are despicable because they quite likely realize what's going on.
Trafficking/slavery vs. sex work (Score:5, Insightful)
With legalized prostitution, it is much easier to help actual trafficking victims escape. This is the real harm of conflating trafficking/slavery with sex work.
As this article titles: The War on Sex Trafficking Is the New War on Drugs. And the results will be just as disastrous, for "perpetrators" and "victims" alike.
http://reason.com/archives/201... [reason.com]
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Re:The only exploitation likely going on... (Score:5, Interesting)
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> Human trafficking is just "immigration" against the receiving countries wishes.
And against the immigrant's wishes. The key to "sex trafficking" is the forced prostitution. Many of the victims, typically women and often children, are deceived, or abused into immigration and then trapped with no access to passports and risks to their families or especially children back home.
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So you read the part about these being trafficked women, right? They'll have to provide the evidence about that in court to hold-up these charges as they are. Whether or not you like it, a LOT of "chose this career" women are actually forced into it. A TON of the women in the US that do this for a career are started involuntarily, very young, and find themselves with no options later (no education, training, or normal socialization). It's no secret that Asia has, however, immense problems like this: go to a
Re:The only exploitation likely going on... (Score:5, Interesting)
Where I live, prostitution is legal. And, until, a few years ago, it was legal at 16. You know what brothel-owners _and_ customers though about 16 year olds working as prostitutes? To young, too inexperienced, too self-centered, and generally unfit for the job. They did not want them. Hence there were only very rare instances of 16 year olds trying it in the first place. The whole thing about "most starting at a very young age" is a blatant lie, as there is no demand. The actual average age of starting is around 21 in the US and ones starting below 18 are very, very rare. Same with "women being forced into it". This works so badly that even the Italian Mafia has stopped doing it ages ago. The ones forced into it are not doing a good job (obviously) and hence fetch prices so low the whole thing is more hassle than it is worth. In addition, the person reporting a prostitute forced into it to the police is usually her first or second customer, because men are not total scum and notice when something is amiss.
The things you apparently believe are the outgrow of perverted and deranged fantasies, not any accurate description of actual reality.
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In the U.S., where it's illegal in most states, women (including the young ones) often don't do it just for the money. Because it's illegal.
Instead, many of them get into the (illegal) business in order to support drug habits, or other such things.
In any case, personally I think it should be legalized. Making it a crime just makes everything surrounding it worse.
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You seem to be functionally illiterate. Because your conclusion has no connection at all to what I wrote, quite the opposite. But you clearly are suffering from perverted and deranged fantasies. Maybe you are the danger to others here?
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New Zealand, most of Australia and large segments of Europe all have legal sex work. Even in places like Belgium where it is technically illegal, it's tolerated with famous red light districts like the one in Antwerp.
The only thing sad about this situation, is that it's still illegal in America (except for parts of Nevada)
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Fucking Bullshit! (Score:2)
Having spent some time living in Thailand, I can tell you that things are much more complicated than your assumption. Girls are sold to brothels by parents, and the girls feel some weird family commitment to send money back home! Societally, the whole system is so fsckd up that you actually see more anti sex trafficking ads in the us than Bangkok!
I'm no Puritan, but things are getting pretty messed up, and something needs to be done to stop it.
I blame Prime (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, the Amazon employee was a Prime Now customer and had gotten so used to getting what he wanted in two hours that pumping drinks in to a girl all night in a bar (let alone the traditional three-dates before sex route) was just too damn slow.
Mars Needs Women (Score:2)
The companies are most likely encouraging their employees to use prostitutes, due to the lack of single women in the Seattle area. Given that Vancouver is ~3 hours' drive from Seattle, it might make more sense to encourage them to take a day off to go somewhere that prostitution is legal.
If it weren't for the bad PR, they'd probably just directly lobby for prostitution to be regulated and legalized in WA. Given the souring economy (and the momentum of the marijuana legalization effort), this is likely to oc
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Good point.
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"The companies are most likely encouraging their employees to use prostitutes"
For a reference I'd suggest reading Vargas Llosa's "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service".
Eeh (Score:3, Funny)
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You don't pay for the vagina, you pay for them to go away after.
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As stated by several famous ladies in the business. Quite right.
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The people that ask to be paid at the end generally call it alimony.
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What's the use of having all the money in the world if you can't use it to purchase some world class vagina every once in a while?
They can. It's legal in Nevada, parts of Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, ...
Those guys almost certainly could afford the plane tickets.
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It's not legal in France any more, exactly. They criminalised paying for sex just this year. The prostitution itsself doesn't isn't illegal for the prostitute, just the customer, but there are also a lot of prostitution-related prohibited acts that effectively keep prostitutes underground anyway - it's illegal for them to ask for money, to advertise as a prostitute or to operate any premises for the purpose of prostitution. It's also illegal for to receive payment from a prostitute in relation to their serv
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"brothel owners quickly realised that they can skirt around all the expenses of labor law and employee rights like health-and-safety law, health insurance and pension contributions if they don't actually hire any prostitutes - instead the prostitutes are freelancers and pay brothels a fixed daily fee in return for being permitted to ply their trade on the premises."
Still, when it is Uber the one doing it, it somehow becomes "new economy" and fair play.
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I thought I had read of that as being called "the Swedish model" because Sweden adopted it first. It tries for the most part to make the prostitute not a criminal, but the men buying sex criminals without actually making prostitution legal.
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You're correct. France just adopted the swedish model recently.
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The UK runs the same approach. It's supposed to be a shift in thinking to stop regarding prostitutes as criminals and start regarding them as victims. Well intentioned, but in practice it's still 'criminal enough' to keep the industry underground and prostitutes on the fringes. Yes, they can go to the police if they are abused... but they won't. It's bad for business if the police start investigating an incident and arresting their customers, and there's not much the police can do anyway when customers are
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Odd statement considering that having money brings vagina to you.
Seized domains (Score:3)
Something not mentioned in the post. Here's a much better article: http://www.seattletimes.com/se... [seattletimes.com]
So they arrested the clients and let the webmaster unmolested?
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It just proves that this is all about headlines and has nothing to do with actual justice.
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charged with promoting prostitution after being infiltrated by undercover detectives
Law enforcement: It's a tough job. But somebody has got to do it.
An obvious solution.... (Score:2)
"[he] previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized." I wonder what the government could do to make him and people like him stop (or move out of) prostitution.
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"[he] previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized." I wonder what the government could do to make him and people like him stop (or move out of) prostitution.
It only takes one bullet, or if you're cheap, one baseball bat. Or if you're really cheap, one father of a girl who was forced into it.
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I wouldn't say *no* women are, but I believe the trafficking situation is greatly exaggerated. It's basic economics - an operation like that has to be expensive. You've got to find suitable women, trap them with a suitable scam, arrange travel, arrange accommodation, and keep them under constant guard - and you have to do that for a long enough time that they can be properly broken, otherwise they are going to be whispering to every customer to call the police. It's going to be expensive and it's going to b
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Prostitution is legal and regulated in Australia, but you still get human trafficking cases. Interestingly, it's usually legal, licensed brothels that are involved in human trafficking/sex slavery. The illegal unlicensed businesses are usually just students or people on tourist visas (who shouldn't be working) trying to make some money on the side.
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You still get those cases, but how commonplace are they as a percentage of prostitutes? Is it a common enough crime to be seriously concerned with, or just a handful of cases that have been plastered all over the media and created the false impression that it happens all the time?
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Oh it doesn't happen all the time, it's relatively rare in the scale of things. Most prostitutes in Australia are single mothers fucking for their kids, students trying to make a few bucks on the side, or people who have fallen through the gaps in society. Legalisation/regulation of prostitution is far better than the alternative - it makes it safer for everyone involved, allows government to tax it, lets police focus on actual crimes rather than prosecuting vulnerable women, etc.
I just think it's interes
Comment removed (Score:3)
70 is a lot! (Score:2)
He wouldn't have to re-start so often if he were using a Mac.
So if you want get get rid of crime, legalize (Score:3)
one alleged brothel owner "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."
So following simple logic, if you wanted get get him out of exploiting prostitution...
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legalize prostitution and get him into politics?
Why is prostitution illegal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is prostitution illegal at all?
One of the most common lines is "prostitution exploits women" -- if that's the case, then why are prostitutes arrested? Wouldn't they then be the victims? At least in the EU that seems to be emerging model, with Sweden and now France making accepting money for sex not illegal, but paying money for sex illegal. But that's very recent, and not generally reflective of long standing practices and criminal law.
A more enduring answer seems to be that it's merely reflective of anti-sex morality, the same mindset that used to criminalize pornography, birth control and made sodomy and adultery actual crimes. Although most all of those things have mostly stopped being illegal, as society on balance has become accepting of sex as recreation -- sodomy and adultery laws have mostly been overturned or aren't enforced anymore, singles bars, Craigslist/Tinder/Grindr, etc. And also, in not the not so distant past, society was more tolerant of prostitution -- brothels operated more openly -- despite a generally stronger social prohibition on sex outside of marriage.
I think prostitution remains illegal -- with the public justification shifting in spite of general acceptance of sex outside of wedlock -- because women don't like prostitution. Despite the general changes in attitude about sex outside of marriage, women still see sexuality as a significant bargaining chip in social relations with men. Legalized prostitution thus represents a threat to women's bargaining status in relationships.
If men can buy sex whenever they want it for only money, women lose a significant bargaining advantage in relationships with men. Their sexuality no longer represents a scarce good or service and they can no longer structure their relationship demands around controlling access to sex. Which seems really ironic, since women often loudly decry being seen as "sex objects" and want to be valued for their intelligence or other personality traits, yet it seems as in spite of that, women continue to see their sexuality as primary tool in attracting and maintaining mail interest in relationships.
You would think that *women* would want prostitution legal, though, because it would in theory act as a kind of filter for men they wish to engage in more substantive relationships with. It would, in theory, make the pool of men they encounter to more likely be interested in non-sexual aspects of a relationship, reducing the effort needed to filter men who falsify their intentions in order to gain sex.
Re:Why is prostitution illegal? (Score:4, Insightful)
I always though the same things as you, that the reason why prostitution is illegal is mostly because women do not want it to be legal (as it weakens their position withing a relationship if they control access to sex). And this seems a mostly Western phenomenon, a lot of countries around the world EXPECT men to frequent brothels to take care of their needs and not waste a young woman's time if their intentions are less than honorable.
Also I never understood how when it comes to prostitution, it's seen as exploitation.
Person needs money, person is willing to do some activity that somebody else values to generate income, otherwise they starve, lose their home, etc.....
This is called working in all other industries. You think the people collecting money for picking up trash or mopping floors, or making your bead do it out of love for their job? Helllll nooooo.....you think they have other options but choose those jobs? Helll no.......and yet people are "trafficked" into richer nations to do those jobs as well....But nobody is calling them victims...in fact a lot of people see it as a positive, as them trying to better their outcome in life.
And on a final note, a lot of the issues of criminal gangs in prostitution would disappear if it where legalized and taxed and regulated instead of trying to impose a prohibitionist policy, that has been proven time and time again to not work when there is a demand and simply just ruins lives.
A pimp's love (Score:2)
Officer Collins: [addressing military brass] You see, a pimp's love is very different from that of a square...
Charging the Buyers (Score:2)
Re:Crime? (Score:5, Insightful)
The prostitutes may be victims of sex trafficking but, the people being charged had nothing to do with that if it did take place. They should be going after the traffickers who brought them to this country if they were brought here either illegally or against their will or if they extorted them. Going after these guys is just the prosecutor trying to get his name in the paper, not trying to actually go after criminals.
Re:Crime? (Score:4, Insightful)
> The prostitutes may be victims of sex trafficking but, the people being charged had nothing to do with that if it did take place
The traffickers should be charged, of course. But the condition of these victims of sex trafficking as frightened, often brutalized, under-age, underpaid, slaves of their traffickers is not normally any surprise to the clients.
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I wouldn't take anything a prosecutor said on this point at face value without substantiating evidence:
The War on Sex Trafficking Is the New War on Drugs [reason.com]
The tactics employed to "get tough" on drugs ended up entangling millions in the criminal justice system, sanctioning increasingly intrusive and violent policing practices, worsening tensions between law enforcement and marginalized communities, and degrading the constitutional rights of all Americans. Yet even as the drug war's failures and costs become more apparent, the Land of the Free is enthusiastically repeating the same mistakes when it comes to sex trafficking. This new "epidemic" inspires the same panicked rhetoric and punitive policies the war on drugs didâ"often for activity that's every bit as victimless.
Forcing others into sex or any sort of labor is abhorrent, and it deserves to be treated like the serious violation it is. But the activity now targeted under anti-trafficking efforts includes everything from offering or soliciting paid sex, to living with a sex worker, to running a classified advertising website.
What's more, these new laws aren't organic responses by legislators in the face of an uptick in human trafficking activity or inadequate current statutes. They are in large part the result of a decades-long anti-prostitution crusade from Christian "abolitionists" and anti-sex feminists, pushed along by officials who know a good political opportunity when they see it and by media that never met a moral panic they didn't like.
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Never underestimated a person's ability to not see truths that they don't want to see.
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> High-paid executives pay for quality.
I really don't know how you conclude this. Many highly paid executives are thieves and scoundrels, and many are quite cheap in their personal habits. There are old British "class" distinctions of dress, of hobbies, and of personal habits. It's especially true in the tech world, where the hobbies they learned in technological schools and focusing on their technology left little time for expensive pursuits.
Highly paid executives often have expensive hobbies on which t
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There was a moment when liberals briefly supported the right of prostitutes to operate legally as a business, but now they call it "trafficking" so they can make it evil again.
Except the illegality of prostitution is the whole reason for the trafficking. If prostitution was legal and out-in-the-open, then there would be no need for trafficking.
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Except the illegality of prostitution is the whole reason for the trafficking. If prostitution was legal and out-in-the-open, then there would be no need for trafficking.
Logically yes, but this is about politics, not logic.
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That's not really true. Here in Vancouver we have a problem with illegal trafficking in restaurant workers, a perfectly legal business. Due to having the lowest minimum wage and highest cost of living in the country, restaurants (and other minimum wage businesses) lobby to get labour under the foreign worker program (similar to H1Bs) rather then paying enough to attract local labour.
Often the workers are coerced into illegally paying for their temporary visa, perhaps $10,000, and then basically enslaved as
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That's defacto the way it is in the area the article is about. It doesn't reduce the underground trade because the women don't generally realize they can go to the police for help, or if they do realize it, they don't get the opportunity.
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Re: Crime? (Score:2)
Re:Did you know? (Score:5, Funny)
"Can anyone provide any real evidence to disprove these facts?"
I can't disprove that your head is a giant cabbage either, but in this case that would be a pretty good guess.
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Without more than your unsupported assertion, why would any sensible person accept these charges as facts?
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Re:Hillary = Feminazi (Score:4, Informative)
Do you have evidence outside that that would be her political stance (not personal) on the topic.
Hillary is too much of a political sell out fe be a Feminazi.
Beside in the United States prostitution laws are controlled by each individual state. For the most part doesn't have much political action asking such rules to be pushed on a national level.
Besides her stance on women's rights has been towards less regulation on what a woman can do because they are a woman not more.
Re:The victims (Score:5, Informative)
How much were the Amazon and Microsoft directors aware of this exploitation? Don't know, but apparently the prosecutors think they knew these women didn't have many other options.
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Women found breaking the law said it so it must be true...What would you do if an "organized crime boss" demanded something from you? This isn't Juarez, America has the rule of law
Despite having the "rule of law", organized crime still exists in the US and manages to blackmail, bully, and coerce people into doing all kinds of things. But again if you read the article, you'll find that these are Asian crime bosses and presumably the prostitutes are brought here from Asia. Not hard to imagine that crossing their pimps could lead to severe consequences for the prostitutes themselves or for their family back home.
I'm sure one reason they don't go to the authorities is one you just imp
Re: (Score:2)
They're not from here, they don't realize they can go to the police for help.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
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It is illegal, notice how the johns are getting prosecuted and the prostitutes are getting let go.