The vice police complained that they were handicapped in trapping these women because they would ask the officer to disrobe or at least pull out his penis and masturbate. Both are violations of policy and constitutional protection from entrapment. The prostitute would know that the sting was a cop and would leave, avoiding arrest, which is a misdemeanor with a small fine and maybe jail time.
Now one of the problems with this law is the Escort business. Now I know that many of the escorts do prostitute, but some only do sexy dances and slither their bodies over the typically male persons clothed body, some of them actually escort a businessman to events or sight seeing to provide companionship during their stay in a strange town. So if an escort was not prostituting but acted sexy, they could be arrested for solicitation.
There was a nearly identical bill passed in 1988 that was over turned by the court as being too broad and violated other constitutional guarantees. But since most of the courts have become much more religiously conservative, who knows how they will rule in this case. Generally the court does not like to alter previous rulings on the same subject. But the conservative courts have been very active in over turning precedence established by a prior court ruling. Now the conservatives are always calling judges or courts with a center or left of center attitude as activist judges or courts. But the truth is actually the opposite with all the over turning of prior ruling by these conservative judges.
Let's face it, you can never stop the sale of sex, it has been tried and failed on so many levels. During WWII the US military actually established their own brothels for the troops to keep the STD infection rate lower and eliminate physical assault that could occur by the pimps of the street vendors.
When I was in Korea in the military, the post had an officer from the medical unit that would work with the local Korean authorities to oversee the prostitution operation in the village. If the "working girls" of a particular club were infecting too many GIs the club would be closed until either new girls came or they were treated and released to go back to work. The Korean government with financial aid from the military had a special clinic for the working girls to be tested and treated. It was a very smart system. Each girl had a booklet that was about the size of a passport. It had their photo and in both Korean and English their name, club they are associated with or Mama-sun who essentially owns them. It also contains the date of their last STD tests and what was the result with these special symbols and color of symbol. It can tell you how safe they might be and what their STD history was over the past six months or so. Any RED symbols was stay away, do not use, do not go past go.
Today a similar system could be instituted in a more high tech fashion that could easily be accessed by the purchaser of such service. Also allow brothels in appropriate zones which are licensed and inspected regular. The sales tax alone would greatly help both state and local budgets. After all they tax other SINS, why not sex. Oh they do, strippers are taxed and I think escort agencies are as well starting last year.
Lets get over this insane attitude that government must protect the unsuspecting spouse or significant other. It is not governments job to interfere in the daily lives of it citizens on such matters. It is between the parties to determine if and what action might be appropriate within their relationship.
Yes, obviously infectious disease is a public health issue. But the underground sale of sex is not a model to maintain control of the spread of these diseases. If it were decriminalized or legalized and regulated appropriately, then the health department could have better control and knowledge of what is happen in the community. Today they can only react after the fact when the numbers rise to a point of interest, which is then too late to effectively do something about it as the prostitutes are spread all across the county and are very transient. So the current model is a failure from the beginning.
Plus why are we spending so much money on sting operations to catch escorts or prostitutes that advertise on the internet. We don't have the money and need to spend it on higher priority problems, like education, infrastructure, etc. Most are not the prostitutes you see working the streets. Many on the net are college girls trying to earn some money for the ever increasing tuition fees. Others are single mothers that can't make enough with the low ages of their day time jobs, so they meet gentlemen at night for pay. And some others just like what they do, period. So why not allow them?
Of course those who work the street are the highest risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and other STDS and should not be allowed to sell their trade in such a place. So if we really wanted to deal with STD management, we would find a legal way to pick up those working the street for STD screening and treatment. If they are infected with a non-treatable disease, then they need to be in a public data base, like the sex offenders list, indicating they are infected and dangerous. If they HIV/AIDS, then they would be prosecuted for willfully infecting another person who may die as a result, attempted murder to murder.
We also must deal with drug addition among this group of people. Again putting them in jail for a few days does nothing to deal with their addiction. It must be treated as a medical issue and appropriate intervention would be more desirable using the same money spend to prosecute and jail them with a better potential outcome. Morality, which is typically religious based, should not be a factor in determining what is best pragmatically for the health and welfare of the populace. Even Brigham Young stated it was a necessary evil. He allowed prostitution to thrive on Regent Street with cribs above the saloons where the working girls would hang out the window to entice the gentlemen strolling the alley below.
When other retail commerce was expanding into Commercial Street, now Regent Street between 1st and 2nd south, the city had a structure built where Gateway Mall is now located called the stockade. It had a wall and gate at each end that was controlled by a constable on duty to ensure minors, boys under 16 at the time, did not enter and to deal with an rowdy or rough customers.
Starting in 1903, calls to purge Commercial Street, of its sordid establishments began, citing that it soiled the main business district and decreased property value. Salt Lake City mayor John Bransford along with the city council adopted a "stockade" policy in 1908, planning to build a sort of compound where the denizens could practice their inevitable trade freely, but discretely. Bransford said, "I propose to take these women from the business section of the city and put them in a district which will be one of the best, if not the very best, regulated districts in the country."So even Utah and Salt Lake allowed sex for hire and was actually before their time by building the Stockade to control the activity. But what killed it was the temperance movement, so a young 15 year old boy was planted in the stockade, the police rushed in and arrested the madame for servicing an underage boy, thus forcing the closure of the stockade, which was later converted into a warehouse for many years.
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