TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: Sacramento

  • The victimless crime in Sacramento

    Underage prostitutes marketed on Internet:

    This is a great article from the Sacramento Bee about child prostitution on craigslist. Again it’s not worth quoting the article much because doing to so would insult the journalists who worked on it but I will give you two quotes that will get you to read the entire article.

    The first is just the opening sentence of the article…

    If she tried hard, 14-year-old Jasmine could have sex with nine men a day. She’d start posting ads online at 2 or 3 p.m., in time to set up appointments with early commuters.

    And as usual the craigslist big wigs had their usual non-response…

    Jim Buckmaster, craigslist’s CEO, wrote in an e-mail to The Bee that “there is nothing more gut-wrenching to our staff … than to hear that our site has been abused to exploit a child.”

    He said craigslist bans illegal activity and urges users to watch for exploited minors. Staff recently implemented new measures, including verifying phone numbers. The changes have reduced the volume of erotic services ads by 80 percent, he said.

    I guess we have to go through this again.

    First off if it was so gut-wrenching to craigslist they would do away with the erotic services section. Secondly again ‘users’ policing the site obviously doesn’t work. Like I’ve said many times before the users of the erotic services section aren’t going to flag any of the ads and users who use craigslist for normal stuff aren’t going in to the erotic services section to flag illegal ads. Lastly craigslist’s new measures may have eliminated 80 percent of the erotic ads but it hasn’t eliminated the problem of child prostitution on its site.

    Stop patting yourself on the back Jim, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.

  • The victimless crime in Sacramentio

    Local Woman Charged With Pimping Juveniles:

    22-year-old Felisha Mock of Sacramento, California has been arrested for pimping out girls as young as 16 over craigslist.

    Investigators tell CBS13 that Mock set up the ring using Craigslist. The way it worked is the teenagers would allegedly solicit sex to customers, and investigators say Mock’s customers would then broker a deal over the phone getting a percentage of the sale.

    Some neighbors aren’t surprised because they say drug addiction is a big problem in this neighborhood.

    “And they need their drugs so they need to make money. They’re not going to work because they can’t pee in a cup,” says Carol.

    But they all must have entered prostitution voluntarily because people keep telling me it’s a victimless crime.

  • More underage prostitution on craigslist

    More underage prostitution on craigslist

    FBI investigates allegations of underage prostitution on Craigslist:

    More allegations of underage prostitution on everyone’s favorite website of scum and villainy, craigslist. Two girls out of Sacramento, California, ages 14 and 17, were found to have had ads on craigslist’s “erotic services” section.

    The affidavit describes the “erotic” ads as facilitating communication between prostitutes and clients, complete with code words calling the prostitutes “providers” and the clients “hobbyists.”

    The Sacramento site’s erotic offerings include many women posting images of their genitals and listing prices for half-hour and hour-long sessions. One ad depicts a pregnant woman, posts a phone number and offers to show callers that “pregnant women do it better.”

    The affidavit indicates that the underage girls allegedly photographed by Moore show the 14-year-old girl nude and touching herself suggestively. The 17-year-old’s ad offers various styles of sex and promises: “I will guarantee to fulfill all your naughty fantasies.”

    As usual, craigslist had a non-answer.

    The Sacramento case is the latest to focus legal scrutiny on Craigslist and prostitution ads on the highly popular Internet site. Craigslist has been linked in news accounts to prostitution stings from New York City suburbs to Chicago to Seattle. The company did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

    I wonder why? 🙄

  • Child prostitution booming on craigslist

    Child prostitution booming on craigslist

    Online Child Prostitution, An Alarming Trend:

    This is an article from a Sacramento, CA news station about how child prostitution is proliferating due to the internet…

    (CBS 13) SACRAMENTO FBI agents say child prostitution is moving off the streets and onto the information superhighway. Sacramento Special Agent James Harris said sex peddlers have gotten tech savvy.

    “They figure if pedophiles can entice online, that’s their business, that’s what they do, said Harris.

    Harris says they set up profiles on MySpace or Yahoo to recruit and entice underage girls. Then they advertise them on the internet–through addresses like redbook.com, a bay area erotic services site, or legitimate places like Craigslist, where you can find a car, rent an apartment or an “erotic service.”

    “They’re advertised as of age when you look closer they’re not, said Harris.

    The face is usually cut out or covered in a way so the age is hard to tell and so that law enforcement can’t track them down. Agent Harris says most turn out to be reported missing and runaways.

    The only way to make money is to prostitute. A lot are beginning to see this is a safe way to do it than on the streets, said Harris.

    Hundreds pop up on Craigslist every day in Sacramento. Why the capital city? Harris says it’s a crossroads between Seattle, L.A., San Francisco and Reno, where I-5 and I-80 meets.

    Agent Harris admits these cases are tough to prosecute. Those who post the listings are hard to track down, in some cases out of the country. But the FBI says as their crime scenes shift, they’re investigating child sex for sale with more mouse than muscle.