TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: prostitution

  • The victimless crime strikes again

    Man Faces Federal Charges in a Sex Ring in Minnesota:

    41-year-old Liqing Liu, a Chinese national living in Minnesota, is facing federal charges of transporting women across state lines to engage in prostitution. He ran several massage parlors, some of which that advertised on craigslist, with women that were basically slaves to him…

    Sgt. Grant Snyder of the Minneapolis Police Department, a lead investigator, said the women, all Chinese or Korean, were prohibited from leaving the place of business, kept under video surveillance, and had their passports and other forms of identification confiscated.

    The women’s poverty, language barriers and immigration status were used against them, Sergeant Snyder said, and the authorities said they were treating the women as crime victims and not criminals.

    The authorities described the patrons as mostly white upper-middle class men between 35 and 55, including doctors and business owners. They usually paid $80 a session, which the prostitutes were obligated to hand over to Mr. Liu, the police said.

    The women could negotiate with customers for more money, the police said, but their earnings were marginal at best; one illegal South Korean immigrant mentioned in the criminal complaint had to pay Mr. Liu $40 a day for room and board. He booked her airfare, later deducting it from her prostitution wages, the police said.

    Even if prostitution was legal there would still be scumbags like Liu forcing women like these into sex slavery.

  • More Tarheel shenanigans in the Big Apple

    Craigslist pimp from Queens busted:

    Carlton “Privilege” Simons, 25, of Queens, and Shernett “Divine” Reevey, 24, of Charlotte, N.C., were convicted late Friday of luring the teenage student from her home with promises of money and introductions to rap celebrities.

    Once in New York, however, the 18-year-old woman was physically and verbally abused, forced to pose for provocative photographs later posted to Craigslist and to prostitute herself at hotels and at a “track,” or a location frequented by sex workers and their customers from Lexington to Park Avenue on 48th Street.

    Still think prostitution is a victimless crime?

  • 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 city-wide 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.

  • MySpace pimp facing federal charges

    Feds hit MySpace pimp suspect with child sex trafficking charge:

    I’ve posted about Malvin Parker Jr. before. He’s the guy from California who was arrested for allegedly pimping out an underage girl he groomed on MySpace. Well, he just found himself in a whole new world of trouble. He’s now looking at 10 to life on federal charges of sex trafficking children.

    The federal government has an interest in the case because Parker allegedly enticed the victim, a 16-year-old runaway from Washington state, across state lines through MySpace, a social networking site. Federal law prohibits using “force, fraud or coercion” to get a minor across state or national boundaries to engage in a “commercial sex act.”

    As the kids say these days…Oh snap!!!

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Alleged pimp pleads not guilty

    MySpace pimp suspect pleads not guilty:

    I originally posted about Melvin Parker Jr. here. He’s the 32-year-old California “man” who is accused of luring a 16-year-old girl over MySpace into prostituting for him. he has pleaded not guilty to pimping the girl out.

    The case began last month when San Rafael police saw the girl trolling for sexual customers in the Canal Area. The girl, a runaway from Washington state, told police she arrived in the Bay Area on Aug. 3 to see a man she had met on MySpace.com, the social networking site. After she arrived, the man threatened to harm her family if she did not work for him as a prostitute.

    Working with police, the girl arranged to meet the man at Burger King in the Canal area. Police arrested Parker when he showed up.

    Yet he pleaded not guilty. Criminals never fail to crack me up.

    Parker is due back in court on October 9th.

  • 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 are 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.

  • Pimped his handicapped sister for sex on craigslist

    Pimped his handicapped sister for sex on craigslist

    Man accused of advertising mentally challenged sister on craigslist for sex:

    I wish I was making this one up.

    A Las Vegas man is under arrest accused of sexually assaulting his mentally challenged sister and attempting to offer her for sex out on the internet. 34-year-old Rodney Nickerson is being held on $800,000 bail.

    According to a police report, Nickerson admitted to putting a photo of his 36-year-old sister on craigslist website. The ad featuring his sister apparently asked men if they wanted to have sex with her.

    The report states Nickerson also fondled his sister and had another man touch her as well.

    Whatever jail time this scumbag receives will never be enough.

  • What Craig said today

    What Craig said today

    Prostitutes Using Craigslist To Solicit For Sex:

    This is just another local news article about prostitution being advertised on craigslist. Once again, Craig himself deflects the blame.

    CBS13 went straight to the source in San Francisco to find out why you can find sex for sale, right next to an easy bake oven in Sacramento.

    Pallas: Clearly prostitution is illegal, you know prostitutes are selling sex on your website.
    Craig: There are prostitution ads on our site and people who care flag them and they do get removed but the message from our community overwhelmingly is live and let live message, people’s priorities are elsewhere.

    Craig Newmark makes it clear the user driven, open forum, free speech philosophy behind/foundation of Craigslist puts what the customer wants first and he argues very few are complaining.

    “People tell us to prioritize scammers and we’ve had very few complaints about prostitution…it’s something like one out of every one hundred thousand users or one out of a million,” says Newmark, “I want ’em off our site.”

    So why not shut it down? He sites two major reasons.

    “We wanted to draw away suspect ads from more on conventional sections like women seeking men, another is we wanted to offer legitimate erotic services to people who want them to give people a break,” says Newmark.

    Again, users flag what they suspect is illegal.

    “Right now we have overwhelming feedback from our community. They don’t want us to monitor the site, not in that way. People are happy with the flagging mechanism,” says Newmark.

    Newmark says his company won’t police the site because he might be held legally liable for what people post and he doesn’t want to get sued.

    That’s the bottom line right there. He doesn’t want to get sued. So, rather than worrying about his user base getting robbed, assaulted, or killed, he’s more worried about lining his own pocket.

    So since Craig makes money off of craigslist which provides traffickers with a place to advertise, doesn’t that make him the world’s largest pimp?