TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Classifieds Crime

  • craigslist denies child prostitution facilitation

    craigslist denies child prostitution facilitation

    Responding to concerns:

    It wasn’t that long ago that the Mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, chided craigslist for facilitating child prostitution. Of course, craigslist brushed it off. One of Ms. Frankin’s advisors even mentioned that Facebook and MySpace have been very forthcoming with the mayor’s office, even when not legally obligated to do so.

    However, our favorite craigslist mouthpiece, Susan MacTavish Best, had this to say…

    “Craigslist has an erotic services section on the site because our users asked us to create it in order to keep the personals section clear of erotic service ads. (Some folks when looking for a date do not want to have to look at ads for erotic services). Certainly, we … don’t want the site to be used for illegal activity. But we do believe that there should be a place for people to advertise legal escort services. We have over 30 million users a month. As we responded to the Mayor of Atlanta, we are always interested in hearing how we can make Craigslist better. Craigslist makes no money from erotic services because like most of the site, it is free to post there … “

    Legal escort services? No such thing, my dear. They may pose as legal, but we all know what they’re fronts for. And again you say that you don’t want craigslist used for illegal activities, but you’re not doing anything to discourage it. So basically by moving the erotic services section out of the personals, you just swept it under the rug hoping nobody would notice.

    What’s it going to take craigslist before you do something about this? Are you waiting for a toddler to get pimped out or worse?

  • Busting the safety myth

    Busting the safety myth

    As hookers move from streets to Net, cops follow:

    For those of you who think that prostitutes are safer on craigslist than they are on the streets, I present you this quote…

    Some prostitutes believe they’re safer advertising on Web sites, but they’re not, said Julie, a former prostitute who asked that her last name not be used. When Julie began using the Internet for prostitution about two years ago, she tried to screen her customers, but responding to one led to her being raped and robbed, she said.

    “People can tell you anything on the Internet and they do,” said Julie, who is 23 and became a prostitute at 17. “What better place to get a woman if you want to do something to her? I would meet these guys and no one else would see them. At least if I was on the street, other people would be around and see me get into a car or something.”

    Not that craigslist cares. I think their mouthpiece has a macro button that just spits out the following…

    “Craigslist is a user-moderated site, and our users flag off ads that they feel are inappropriate for the craigslist community,” Susan MacTavish Best said in a statement. “Users are really speedy about flagging off problematic ads, and we’ve found that to be the most efficient and fastest way to get such ads off the site.”

    And again, I say that your normal craigslist users who use it as a citywide garage sale aren’t going into the erotic services section. And the people who are sure as hell aren’t going to flag any ads.

  • Sobering stats

    Sobering stats

    Crackdown on S.J. prostitution turns to the Web:

    This article from a Northern California newspaper has some pretty sobering statistics about craigslist prostitution.

    Determining just how many prostitutes are operating on the Web is tricky. The erotic services section of Craigslist’s Stockton-area section has had nearly 5,115 posts since Aug. 13, many of them duplicates. Some have been posted by those who offer services for free.

    For reference, there were 998 posts for furniture for sale by owner in that period.

    The trend locally mirrors what’s happening in the nation’s largest cities. Craigslist erotic services postings totaled 97,243 in New York, 27,174 for Los Angeles and 7,435 for Chicago in a similar timeframe.

    craigslist’s resident mouthpiece had the usual to say.

    Craigslist relies on its users to report posts that are deemed inappropriate, wrote Susan MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for the Web site, in an e-mail response to questions.

    The Web site’s staff is not legally obligated to monitor the millions of posts it receives each month, but it does remove prohibited content – anything unlawful or pornographic, according to MacTavish Best.

    Police occasionally come knocking about posts.

    “We are contacted by law enforcement from time to time,” MacTavish Best wrote, “and Craigslist cooperates fully with the police and other authorities.”

    Yet, they keep their erotic services section up and running and continue to facilitate in all forms of prostitution and possibly human trafficking.

  • Suspect in Donna Jou’s disappearance, arrested again

    Suspect in Donna Jou’s disappearance, arrested again

    Suspect in disappearance arrested:

    Convicted sex offender and the last man seen with Donna Jou alive, John Steven Burgess, has been arrested yet again. For those of you who don’t know, Donna Jou met Burgess on craigslist and went on a date with him and that was the last time she was seen. He was last arrested for failing to report as a sex offender.

    Now he’s been arrested for using a fake ID to steal DVDs from a Jacksonville, Florida Blockbuster.

    Since Donna Jou has not been found, authorities are still unable to file charges against Burgess for Jou’s disappearance.

  • More on craigslist trafficking

    More on craigslist trafficking

    Web driving human trafficking:

    Our favorite website has been mentioned in the same breath as human trafficking once again.

    There was a human trafficking conference in Minnesota and this is what someone in the know had to say.

    Heather Weyker, a 10-year veteran of the St. Paul Police Department, had this to say.

    “We’re on Craig’s List constantly, looking for girls who look young,” Weyker said at the conference, describing the popular online classifieds site. “They always have captors. How many 13-year-old girls think, ‘Hey, I think I’ll put myself on Craig’s List.”‘

    And this is what you’re supporting when you use a craigslist or any other kind of prostitute.

    They don’t have the option to quit their “work” without suffering physical or sexual punishment, conference participants said. They can’t even walk out the door unaccompanied by one of their captors.

    “We’re not just talking about illegal aliens or about people who are disadvantaged,” said U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose. “These are also girls from the suburbs. It can affect anyone.”

    Victimless crime, my ass.

  • Boston juvenile prostitute

    Boston juvenile prostitute

    Link (Second story down)

    A Braintree man is in hot water after allegedly pimping a young girl on the Internet, police say.

    According to the police report, the girl advertised herself as a prostitute on Craigslist. Police set up a sting to apprehend her.

    A plainclothes cop met the girl on West Seventh Street Tuesday morning, and noticed she was accompanied by two males who waited for her in a car.

    The juvenile allegedly offered to provide sex to an undercover officer for $175. After agreeing to the price, the cop placed the girl under arrest for prostitution while nearby cops confronted her companions.

    Joseph Venezia of Braintree was charged with deriving support from prostitution, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and driving with a suspended license.

    Damon Isles of Charlestown, the passenger, was arrested on drug charges, police said.

    But it’s a victimless crime and these girls want to be prostitutes right? Give me a break.

  • Runaway teens pimped out on craigslist

    Runaway teens pimped out on craigslist

    Police: Runaway NW teens forced into selling sex on Craigslist:

    Here are some more of those victims that prostitution supposedly doesn’t have…

    The case of a runaway Beaverton girl led to a string of arrests in an Internet prostitution investigation over the past three months.

    The case netted several arrests and runaway teens from the Northwest between May and the end of August, according to Beaverton Police.

    Detectives following the report in May of a runaway 15-year-old from Beaverton were led to Los Angeles, where they found the missing girl with 25-year-old Deandre Travon Green of Aloha. Investigators said Green had forced the girl into prostitution through the L.A. Craigslist Web site.

    Information developed in the case led officers to the Extended Stay Hotel on Eider Ct. in August. There they found a 21-year-old woman and a 16-year-old reported runaway from Seattle, both were charged with prostitution, police said.

    A week later, detectives found two girls reported as runaways from Portland and Gresham. The 15- and 17- year-old girls were arrested along with 22-year-old Quentin G. Lewis, who was charged with possession of crack and outstanding warrants.

    But I’m sure the 15-17-year-olds wanted to be prostitutes, right?

    Give me a break.

  • Unlocking iPhones? Banned. Prostitution? Still ok

    Unlocking iPhones? Banned. Prostitution? Still ok

    Craigslist Users Crack Down on IPhone Unlockers:

    Now let’s see. It seems that craigslist has no problem with prostitution and drugs being sold on their site. However, advertising your services to unlock Apple’s iPhone seems taboo.

    This morning, we told you about Jef, an iPhone unlocker in New York who was selling his services on Craigslist over the weekend. After Jef saw his posts selling a quick iPhone unlock procedure flagged and removed from the site, he decided to offer the service for a trade rather than cash. See “Brooklynite Offers IPhone Unlocking In Exchange for Free Bagels.”

    Jef’s “trade me” post was then flagged and removed. So, he wrote another post offering the same service for free, only to see that one also flagged and removed by the community.

    Most of the posters are being flagged as scalpers or spammers. There’s nothing in Craigslist’s Terms of Use which says you can’t sell unlocking services. There’s also nothing stating that you can’t offer an unlocked phone at a premium price. But look at the FAQ and you’ll see that reselling for a premium is considered scalping, an activity which might get you flagged.

    Want some hookers and blow? No problem, we have all sorts of selections. Want an iPhone unlocked? Nope, sorry, can’t help you. That’s illegal. Craigslist really is the Bizarro World of the internet.

  • The NY Times on craigslist crimes

    The NY Times on craigslist crimes

    Law Enforcement Targets Prostitution on Craigslist:

    It’s nice to see the NY Times write a sizzling expose about craigslist prostitution. Never mind that I’ve been writing about it for the past year. However, this article does have some merit as it has some great quotes.

    First, let’s hear from craigslist president Jim Buckmaster…

    Law enforcement officials have accused Craigslist of enabling prostitution. But the company’s president, Jim Buckmaster, said its 24-member staff cannot patrol the multitude of constantly changing listings — some 20 million per month — and counts on viewers to flag objectionable ads, which are promptly removed.

    “We do not want illegal activity on the site,” he said. Asked whether the company supported the police’s placing decoy ads on Craigslist, Mr. Buckmaster said: “We don’t comment on the specifics” of law enforcement.

    Like I’ve said before, the problem with users policing the ads is that people who use craigslist for normal items aren’t going to venture into the erotic services section and people using the erotic services section sure as hell aren’t going to flag the ads.

    Now, let’s hear from a pro-prostitute advocate…

    Tracy Quan, a member of the advocacy group Prostitutes of New York and author of the autobiographical novel “Diary of a Married Call Girl” (Harper Perennial, 2006), acknowledged that “the Internet became a virtual street for people in the sex industry,” but said that “the police are as inventive and as wily as sex workers are.” She said that the stings amounted to entrapment of consenting adults, and that “it seems like an enormous waste of time resources by authoritarian busybodies.”

    Translation: I think I’m above the law, so I’m going to complain about police doing their job.

    And again from Mr. Buckmaster…

    Law enforcement officials ask why Craigslist even includes Erotic Services among its 191 categories. Mr. Buckmaster, the company president, said the site created that category “at the request of our users” for legitimate massage, escorts and exotic dancers. In an e-mail interview, he said that the police had praised the company’s cooperation, though he did not give examples.

    Letting the inmates run the asylum is never a good idea.

    And for those of you who think that prostitution is no big deal, I leave you with this quote…

    The police say the focus on such misconduct is worthwhile because prostitution is often linked to other crimes involving drugs, weapons, physical abuse and exploitation of minors and immigrants.

    But I guess you’re ok with all of that.

  • A politician finally notices craigslist

    A politician finally notices craigslist

    Mayor rips craigslist over child prostitution:

    Finally, a politician has noticed the wretched hive of scum and villainy that craigslist has become. And if anybody knows anything about scum and villainy, it’s the mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin. (That was a dig against the city, not necessarily the mayor.) Anyway, she has come out against craigslist accusing them of being facilitators of child prostitution.

    “Children are being marketed through craigslist,” Franklin said Tuesday during an update on the mayor’s “Dear John” campaign, a crackdown on the city’s child prostitution industry.

    Craigslist, found on the Web at craigslist.org, may be best known as a bulletin board for people who want to sell a car, buy a home or meet people. But Atlanta vice officer Kelleita Thurman said Tuesday that craigslist and similar sites account for 85 percent of the sexual liaisons men arrange in Atlanta with boys and girls.

    In a letter sent Tuesday to the company, Franklin said the site could do more to prevent itself from being used “as a means of promoting and enabling child prostitution.” She called on the site to revise its warning on pages for erotic services and personal ads and to remove postings that offer sexual services for sale, among other things.

    As usual, craigslist had their same non-answers…

    Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mail that she and Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster are in Europe and “neither of us are aware of such a letter so it would not be possible to comment about this.”

    Company founder Craig Newmark, who also was mailed Franklin’s letter, no longer is involved in the company’s daily affairs and is traveling, Best said.

    Maybe this is the first step in politicians recognizing what a crime-filled scumhole craigslist’s erotic services section is.