Boston politics has long been known as a hotbed of corruption and incompetence, but with the ascendancy of the liberal New Class this has been taken to an all new low. Recently, campaign failure Martha Coakley, a drag show judge and a Drug War hack who thinks we should outlaw booze all got together to declare human trafficking illegal.
Boston politics has long been known as a hotbed of corruption and incompetence, but with the ascendancy of the liberal New Class this has been taken to an all new low. Recently, campaign failure Martha Coakley, a drag show judge and a Drug War hack who thinks we should outlaw booze all got together to declare human trafficking illegal. Of course we could point out if laws against illegal immigration were actually enforced, then there would be no need to also outlaw human trafficking. One could mention that laws against kidnapping also cover this. If the sexual dimension of the whole thing isn’t properly represented, why not resurrect lascivious carriage?
While the irony of politicians pretending to do something about prostitution is ripe for so many terrible late night jokes, this case shines a light on the symbiotic relationship between the left liberal culture of victimhood and the ever expanding Nanny State.
In the press conference, Coakley promised that her office would attack the issue on a systemic level, including harsher punishments for “Johns” who solicit underage prostitutes and putting pressure on the peripheral beneficiaries of the sex trade, including motels, car rental companies and massage parlors. The law also calls for the appointment of an 11-person task force to study human trafficking in the Commonwealth.
In other words, the real enemies are horny, pathetic men who have to pay for sex and the private sector. As someone who as worked in the hospitality industry since getting a useless degree in Fine Arts, I can tell you that the hotel management perspective on prostitution is to look the other way as long as nothing gets wrecked, the bill is paid and there are no on property problems. Essentially, the non aggression principle. When a trick tried to stiff a prostitute, she called the operator and claimed a man was trying to break into her room and rape her. Security chased the man to the mezzanine level where he was tackled by three other members of the hotel staff. When the truth of the matter came out, both the prostitute and the john were asked to leave. No police were called, we simply didn’t want any problems. But in the eyes of City bureaucrats, if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. In the world of cliché Boomerisms, whatever happened to live and let live?
While the far left and libertarians have long been in agreement that the real solution to prostitution is to legalize it, liberals and moral conservatives seem to have found common cause as this new law punishes those who seek out prostitutes (i.e. perverts) and at the same time expands state social services while the tax payer foots the bill.
Under the proposal, instead of being prosecuted as offenders, juveniles arrested for prostitution would be considered victims of sexual exploitation and given access to state services such as shelter, food, medical care and counseling. The current law protects victims 14 and under, while the new one would increase the age to 18.
The root of the problem is that the political class has no faith in human agency. Instead of decriminalizing prostitution, which would make Johns customers and prostitutes service providers, prostitutes are seen only as victims of vicious pimps and degenerate Johns — despite the fact that men and women actively seek out sex worker employment in countries where it is legal.
If the government is looking for something to do, try enforcing immigration laws and see how much human trafficking is eliminated. Harassing the private sector over matters in which they have no control (whether a hotel room is rented to a prostitute or whether a rental car is used to transport someone for illicit purposes) solves nothing and just proves that public bureaucrats have little else to do than bully those who actually provide services for the public.
Of course, solving the problem of human trafficking isn’t really what they aim to do. Instead it’s just another excuse for more state intervention, more laws and more taxes — a self-fulfilling prophecy for those seeking to justify their own power.
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Wow. You are beyond uninformed. You really don’t think human trafficking happens within America to regular Americans? You really think all prostitutes are just happy go lucky small business owners waiting to make a buck? You really think the majority of these women want to be prostitutes? Willful fucking ignorance.
Also, if you look into countries where prostitution has been legalized (Australia and the Netherlands for example) you will find greater corruption and greater control of these industries in the hands of organized crime and front companies.
Legalizing prostitution does nothing to stop human trafficking as the victims of human trafficking are children or low IQ/skill workers stuck in the drug trade.
The notion that legalizing prostitution will reduce bureaucracy and wasteful spending is absurd. Once it’s legalized, you now need a Bureau of Prostitution, specialized law enforcement organizations, and maybe even health inspectors (if brothels are allowed.)
Unfortunately from an economic perspective, the moral conservatives are right, and it’s cheaper to just pay cops their existing salary to arrest people now and then.
Why would American citizens be in the business of being trafficked if they could find work for minimum wage, at least? The only reason to risk what goes into human trafficking is because they are here illegally or have been kidnapped (already a law for that one.) And illegal immigration IS human trafficking. What do you think a truckload of Mexicans or a shipping container of Chinese garment workers is?
You have a point about the additional bureaucracy that legalizing prostitution would create, but I would find this necessary and much preferable to the added bureaucracy and increased in welfare recipients that this law would create. All the while it doesn’t even consider that the criminalization of prostitution, like drugs, is the main cause for most of the problems associated with it.
i agree with the person who said that you were being willfully ignorant. if you wanted to learn about the people who were in the sex trade, and why they actually should be considered victims, you would. feel free to go to your local women’s community shelter and ask around. i’m sure the doctors (and the prostitutes and the abused women etc etc) would be able to shed some light on the situation.
it seems that your ideas on government intervention and government spending – which are sensible in some cases – have clouded your judgement here. perhaps the solution would be to realize that your political ideology can be contradictory. it doesn’t have to be a one-size-fits-all sort of thing.
I wouldn’t be worried about a motel going under because they rent rooms to criminals. I would be worried about ACORN and how they are trafficking humans while appearing to be community orgainzers. We need to stop ACORN, and all other community activism, before they turn your daughters into street prostitutes.
Didn’t read, just assumed it is some pro sex traffic counter point. I think it’s brilliant how you guys bait all the anti-establishment types to come on, and spend the day making hate posts. Cha-ching$ Hardcore xx kids with no sense of humor chasing people around the meat section of the supermarket with a bat, was a reality at one point in the punk/hardcore scenes in the states. (FSU anyone?) How about having a group of Straight edges surround you, hold you down, carve an x into your back with a butterfly knife, because they “heard” you smoked pot. Keep in mind this was not even like some inner-city crack in ’89′ stuff. It went all the way out to bumfuck. I just wanted to remind people that this really happened, and why Gavin is a Genius because he fought back against the far left which sucks just as hard as the far right. Bitches were waging massive P.R. wars to have the feminine and masculine removed from the English language. Really! People starving, fuck that! we have a real cause. The only way to do so is through willful ignorance, and using humor that they don’t have. That is what I don’t think a lot of you younger readers understand. Food Not Bombs just created a new layer of chunkier Vegan junky vomit in the park to step in. I prefer the bile vomit from an empty belly, so as not to have to envision what shitty vegan burrito some dude forced down his throat. That can be a fun game sometimes though.
I don’t know what to think.
@ luvedovee
I totally forgot about sXe Puritanism. I even heard about a sector of straight edge punks who became pious Muslims. The New Asceticism as the path to a new righteousness. Scary stuff that zealotry, even if it has secular origins. FSU were a bunch of thug idiots. Like anti fascists beating up a guy for having a Lynard Skynard shirt because there was a Confederate flag on it. I’m pretty sure the Einsatzgruppen had Skynard on their iPods…