Arlington police recently put up a billboard on I-30 near Cooper Street that features the mug shots of men arrested during local prostitution stings. My first thought was: It’s a slight improvement on Puritan-style stocks, but no more effective. And it comes from the same red-blooded American urge to judge your neighbors’ sexual habits.
I’m pretty much a libertarian on this issue – if one consenting adult wants to pay another consenting adult for sex, then I don’t see why the state should get involved. At any time, but especially in this era of severe budget shortfalls, it seems a spectacular waste of police and court resources to bother with this. If the city of Arlington wants to improve the lives of sex workers, how about putting some harsh anti-pimping laws on the books and then aggressively enforcing those laws?
In recent years the horrors of human trafficking have received a lot of attention, and rightly so. But even state attorney general Greg Abbott has acknowledged the difference between sex slavery networks – including those that exploit children — and uncoerced transactions between adults. Many people try to blur those important distinctions in a campaign of moral hysteria. If you want an informed voice that’s critical of Arlington’s actions, read this in-depth essay by a “retired call girl” blogger whose web name is The Honest Courtesan.
Ultimately the I-30 billboard is about publicity for the upcoming Super Bowl – Arlington wants to make a great show of civic morality by appearing to crack down on the oldest profession in the world. The irony, of course, is that a whole lotta football fans will pay top dollar to get screwed by Jerry Jones on February 6, 2011.
Congratulations to Jim Fowler and FW Weekly for busting into the Google rankings with this story. I love your publication, lovingly called the “Freakly” by our cadre of left wing cads. And keep flicking the skulls of the right wing numbnuts who run Fort Worth and the miserably backwards state of Texas.
Jimmy Fowler, you’re an idiot. Research prostitution BEFORE posting this.
Prostitution is typically ONE consenting adult (the john) and one slave. Most women in prostitution (even where it is legal, so legalizing it doesn’t help) are forced through physical violence to give the money to their pimps, not allowed (through violence or threats to their families) to leave the lifestyle, and want to get out.
In Nevada, politicians wanted to put pillows in the rooms in the brothels, to make it feel more “real”; the pimps said no, because the pillow could be used against the prostituted women as weapons. Where prostitution is legal in Australia, the prostituted women are strongly urged to take the same hostage negotiation training that police take. In Amsterdam, every brothel room is required by law to have 3 panic buttons.
Prostitution is not a “choice” for women, and more often than not, is a way for some evil people to kidnap children as young as 12 (in the US they are 12, in other countries, 5 or younger); they drug these children, and they are forced into this lifestyle.
83% of escaped prostitutes deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after they make it out of the hell they are forced into. Only soldiers in war have this high of a rate of that.
Prostitution is not a profession, or a lifestyle, or a choice; it is slavery. Do some research.
it would be really nice if this report was actually reporting instead of a personal oppinion. If I wanted to read a blog I would and not a “report” from a online newspapper site.
Interesting point of view though. But in Texas the solicitation of sex is illegal so they take a risk. I work with a non-profit against Human Trafficking, so you can imagine I take a different point of view then the one shared in this article. I am not for shaming people but I do believe that there needs to be punishment for the crime and not just a ticket.
If there is no demand then there is no trafficking. Very simple. If that were my husband or father on that billboard I would be too embarrased to leave my home though. So my thought are of there families.
Jimmy Fowler thanks for a different oppinion that is not shared though.
Pretty much any you slice it, the practice of prostitution is not good at all, especially for the fabric of a community. However, my concern is with OUR SOCIETY’S BELIEF IN THE PRINCIPLE OF THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE UNTIL GUILT IS SOMEHOW DECIDED IN THE COURTS. Is this how the city of Arlington and its law enforcement agencies, both the police and prosecutors (mostly the Tarrant County D.A.), view our constitutional rights? I bet many will say the police are always ethical and play strictly by the books to defend this contemptible practice (including publicity-seeking “John TV” in some localities). Just pick up a newspaper or monitor the tv newscasts and see if these folks could not have done something improper to arrest these people. How much does it cost to rent a billboard for such an assinine P.R. ploy anyway? Not displaying every person arrested in Arlington for prostitution related charges is discriminatory–both in getting a pool of impartial jury for those who want a fair trial AND for those who seek their 15 seconds of fame, any way they can get it.
Oh my, Mr. Kadlec, methinks I see a pot calling a sink black. Exactly how many times have you prostituted yourself? How many escorts have you known personally and talked to like human beings? How much “research” have you done outside of materials not issued by prohibitionists and derived from the misogynistic notion that women are moral cripples unable to make sexual decisions for ourselves, and catering to the juvenile male fantasy that all female sexuality is controlled by men?
Yes, prostitution IS a choice for most women who do it. It was for me, and it is for many women I know. Mr. Kadlec is a “true believer”; his mind is made up and will never be swayed by anything as trifling as facts. But for anyone else who recognizes that women do have minds of our own and are quite capable of making sexual decisions without male coercion, I suggest you peruse the website of the Sex Worker Outreach Project (http://www.swopusa.org/) and hear what prostitutes think and feel IN OUR OWN WORDS rather than listening to the lies spewed out by those who presume to speak for us.
The issue of sex slavery is a VERY SEPARATE issue from that of independent sex workers, and should never be considered one and the same. If keeping children off the streets, and out of the hands of predators was the main concern of these police departments, then they would have let the CONSENTING, ADULTS off with a ticket at most, and continued the sting to weed out more CHILDREN! Instead, they put much more time and energy into CONSENTING ADULTS than CHILDREN! What a ridiculously hypocritical society we are! We accept “Girls Gone Wild”, if they don’t get paid. If they make $20, it’s a crime. We go on and on about what a free, accepting, and tolerant society we live in, yet we engage in pointless witch hunts every day; and cheer each other on in this foolishness. And, those who are most against this issue tend to either know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it, or are some of these “criminals” biggest customers! Protect children, and leave consenting adults alone!
BTW, Good job on making your city look like absolute garbage, to the rest of the world, Arlington! Keep up the good work!
Lisa Wolf
PV