ARS on Twitter
RSS
You made your bed San Francisco…
Posted by Duncan on July 20th, 2008
sleep in it beeyatches!
SAN FRANCISCO — A measure that aims to keep prostitutes from facing criminal charges has qualified for the November ballot in San Francisco.
The measure, which qualified Friday, would bar authorities from spending money to investigate or prosecute prostitutes for engaging in prostitution.
A San Francisco first-time offender program that allows men to avoid charges for soliciting a prostitute if they attend a class and pay a fine would also end under the measure.
The Erotic Service Providers Union recently announced it had gathered the 12,000 signatures necessary to put the measure on the ballot after failing to get a similar initiative before voters in 2006.
Mayor Gavin Newsom says the measure would hurt the city’s ability to investigate and prosecute sex-trafficking crimes.
Hey you guys are “The Progressive Ones™”. All enlightened and such, not making any moral judgements, unless ofcourse you believe that our military members aren’t a bunch of warmongering baby-killers and the 2nd Amendment is an individual right to OWN AND BEAR firearms. Then ofcourse you are an unnuanced neanderthal.
So now a union (the Erotic Service Providers Union? I wonder if the drug dealers & kiddie pron guys have union in SF?) is trying to decriminalize their activities. And Gavin Newsome has the gall to wonder why, in his city of all cities, such a measure is on the ballot?
July 20th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Only in Progressive societies do criminals have the option of joining unions.
Sex workers work hard and should have rights. We all want that. Pretty soon we’ll see laws that give them overtime pay, health insurance, retirement…
WHAT HAS THIS WORLD TURNED INTO????????
July 20th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I mean, does the Erotic Service Providers Union participate in collective bargaining with their pimps?
I mean, creating a union does not somehow legitimize a group of people. A rose by any other name is still a rose.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:23 am
LOL!!
Should the free markets prevail here? Let’s open up competitive prostitution shops. Oh wait…sex worker shops…oh wait…sex shops…
50.00 here will get you what 45.00 across the street will get you.
Oh wait…the Union will remove competitiveness. Hmm.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Erotic Sensual Massage Parlors?
July 20th, 2008 at 11:00 am
A parlor for every need.
Foot fetish.
Bondage. S & M. You want it…the market will provide for it.
But the unions will drive up costs so be prepared to have those costs passed onto you, the consumer.
July 20th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
As one of the organizers of the campaign to pass this measure in San Francisco, I appreciate the coverage and frank discussion of this issue on your blog. Here are a few details to consider and points that may be relevant to your discussion:
-I believe that SF Mayor Gavin Newsom personally understands prohibition of things like sex and drugs doesn’t work. He has spoken out boldly on the failure of the “War on Drugs.” However, he is also an ambitious politician who is now running for California governor, hence politically I’m sure he sees it as beneficial to oppose our ballot measure so as not to appear too liberal to statewide voters.
-The Erotic Service Providers Union is not a “union” in the conventional sense. None of us have pimps that I’m aware of (pimping, although a real phenomenon, is greatly exaggerated by the media), and we don’t engage in collective bargaining, drive up rates for our clients, pay union dues, or get retirement benefits or any of that sort of thing. At this point calling ourselves a union is simply a way to organize, and to draw attention to the fact that we’re just trying to earn an honest living like everybody else.
-In response to the first comment by Raven expressing dismay at “criminals having the option of joining unions,” let’s not forget that a “criminal” is technically simply a person who breaks the law. It doesn’t mean he or she is a bad person — that depends on the law. We’ve all probably broken lots of laws in our lifetime. See how many you can rack up on this list: Speeding, jaywalking, not filing taxes, lying on tax forms, failing to declare items on customs declarations, perjuring oneself on other official forms, lying to a police officer, failing to withhold taxes from temporary employees like babysitters or dog walkers, failure to check those employees’ immigration status, driving while over the legal alcohol limit although not necessarily drunk, urinating in public, making out in public, drinking alcohol on the street, using or selling cannabis or other drugs, helping arrange a transaction for someone else to buy prohibited drugs, downloading pirated music, using unlicensed software, smoking cigarettes before age 21, drinking alcohol or entering a bar before age 21, having sex before age 18 (in most jurisdictions), writing graffitti (such as scratching your initials in wet cement), buying or lighting off illegal fireworks, skipping high school classes (being truant from compulsory government education), shoplifting, having a garage or sidewalk sale without collecting sales tax, accepting compensation for driving someone somewhere (illegally operating a taxi), hitchhiking, driving with a suspended or expired license, violating the terms of a restraining order, riding a bicycle at night without a light, riding in a car without a seatbelt, leaving your young child alone unsupervised, littering, owning an unregistered firearm, reading up on the facts of a case while serving on a jury, failing to report for jury duty, failing to register for the draft, hiring unlicensed plumbers, electricians, or other workers, working without a proper license in a profession requiring one, using a false name or address when checking into a motel, contributing to the delinquency of a minor (buying them booze, etc.), hiring a prostitute, skateboarding or rollerblading on a sidewalk or other place it’s prohibited, carrying prohibited items like lighters or nail clippers onto an airplane, burning trash in your backyard, improperly disposing of hazardous wastes (e.g. flushing medicine down the toilet), being drunk in public, persistently teasing a co-worker (harrassment), selling foodstuffs at a church bake sale or the like without a health permit, giving food to a homeless person on the street (same issue), being in a government park after hours, sleeping in your car, living in your car, driving with too many people in your car, living with too many people in your house, failing to report a crime you observe (like any on this list!) to the authorities, etc.
Those are just the common crimes I could think of off the top of my head. The only thing on that whole list that should without question be a crime, in my view, is shoplifting. Some of the others may be bad ideas, or wrong under certain circumstances, but most of them shouldn’t even be illegal at all, and simply represent government taking away our freedoms and trying to micromanage our lives. Prostitution falls into that category. It’s simply people peacefully doing what they want with their own bodies (no fetus involved!), with consenting partners.
While the San Francisco city government spends $11.4 million a year arresting and prosecuting people for prostitution, robberies, killings, and serious crimes go unsolved for lack of attention and resources. The city had a record homicide rate last year and is on par to match or exceed that rate again this year. There is a huge backlog of deferred maintenance in city parks, and another huge backlog of streets that need repaving. Many streets are full of cracks and potholes. It’s bad enough that the SF Bicycle Coaltion has taken to sending volunteers out with white paint to paint around the edges of potholes and dangerous cracks so that people aren’t injured riding into them. California’s prisons are overcrowded and facing the prospect of having to release some inmates early, as well as incurring lawsuits for lack of proper inmate conditions, health care, putting them at unnecessary risk of violence from other inmates, etc.
The “World’s Oldest Profession” isn’t called that for nothing. Criminalizing it has obviously never gotten rid of it, and it never will. All it does is throw taxpayer money down a rathole, while ruining peoples’ lives and creating a black market that spawns violence, trafficking, and other serious crimes.
Thank you for reading these comments, and for keeping an open mind. Best wishes…
July 21st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Well, if it were up to me, I’d prefer to see more time, money, and effort spent on catching the kinds of criminals that break into houses, beat up people, steal things, sell drugs to kids, rape kids. My biggest concern about prostitution is how many people are forced into doing it through human trafficking conditions. THAT is what I’d like to see ended!