In my post NYPD Will Stop Confiscating Condoms, Now About That Human Trafficking I described yet another example of people in power not understanding the difference between sex work and human trafficking:
Right now, the Manhattan DA is trying to charge two pimps with trafficking, which may put them in prison for up to 25 years. But two of their “slaves” are actually testifying in their pimps’ defense, saying they willingly participated. One of them described their relationship as “family.” One defendant, Vincent George, apparently supported her and the daughter they have together for years after she gave birth and took a break from sex work.
That this DA is using laws meant to protect people from being enslaved to strip women of their agency to make economic choices and to impose draconian sentences on their families and business associates is completely inappropriate.
Well get excited cats and kittens, because a judge agreed with me! It’s now a little less hard out there for these two pimps:
A novel attempt to use New York State’s sex trafficking law against a father and son from Pennsylvania ended with mixed results on Wednesday, as the men were convicted in Manhattan of promoting prostitution and of money laundering, but were acquitted of the more serious charges of sex trafficking.
I’m not into sports, but maybe this is what it’s like to see your nemesis team lose. I mean, the prosecution “presented an expert to testify that women working as prostitutes are often not aware that they are victims.” How about we not insult women in order to justify putting two men in prison for decades over a victimless crime?
“I make my own choices,” one of the women who defended the pimps, Heather Keith, 26, said in testimony during the trial. “I am not a dumb person. I know what I’m doing.” Prosecutor just got schooled by a ho.
However, is this spiking the football?:
A lawyer for the son, David B. Epstein, called the verdict “a vindication of the love between the Georges and the women.” He said prosecutors “tried to downplay it, they tried to make fun of it, they tried to contradict it, but the reality is there is real love there.”
But who am I to question true love?
This is a win for common sense and women’s agency. Now about those pimping charges…
You know what would be interesting? A post about why we (general public we) automatically assume that pimps are bad. Prosecutors go after pimps because it is a good career move as many or most voters approve.
Why don’t they prosecute my barber? Why not my doctor? Both attend to my bodily comfort and one of them regularly sees me naked. That one often even sticks stuff into several of my orifices. Ewwww…
So why is the one doing the unpleasant sticking and poking considered to be be a member of a noble profession while the dude making sure I get laid correctly is a criminal?
June 21 roundup - Overlawyered
[…] Supreme Court: feds can’t require beneficiaries of overseas grant programs to sign pledge to oppose legalizing prostitution [Ilya Shapiro] “How Calling Sex Work ‘Human Trafficking’ Hurts Women” [Cathy Reisenwitz, Sex and the State, more] […]