I truly appreciated Marshall Frank's take on prostitution and the law in his book, Criminal Injustice in America: Essays by a Career Cop, and did comment briefly in my review. Now I'll expand on my thoughts. Legalizing prostitution is the best statement I've heard in quite some time, and that's not because I have ever promoted it. It is because it's most often a commercial transaction between someone that wants to buy and someone that wants to sell. Disregard the reasons for wanting to buy or sell as they are immaterial. Marshall Frank went so far as to make the bold statement that women often sell when they date or marry and men often buy. I am a woman and it's unlikely that I'd continue a relationship with a man that asked me out to dinner and expected me to pay – oh I'd pay, and then walk out the door. Some women may not appreciate that, but I'm being real here, and if one doesn't care for what I have to say it's time to cover the eyes and move on.
First I'll address those that just don't understand how I didn't promote prostitution. To state it succinctly: I never stated to an escort, a client, or an agent that sex was involved in the transaction. I marketed sexy escorts by the hour; not escorts for sex. Big difference.
Sure, sometimes escorts provided sex – the figure the state arrived at in my trial was about 50% of the time, and this came from the actual real escorts that they forced to testify under threat of a lengthy incarceration on conspiracy charges. In each case the escort stated that we had never discussed it, and that was a fact. A few druggies that I said goodbye to after attempting to work with them for a month or two stated something quite different, but then none worked with my business for more than a few months, and most moved on to open their own escort service. The real escorts that testified worked with me for a minimum of a year and maximum of 4 years. I can't tell that someone is a druggie after meeting them; this takes time and it's not instant knowledge. Some people hide it well. The result, years later, for me was the revenge of the druggies. That is it – I'm done defending myself. I'm the one that won and the jury sure wasn't stupid.
Frank stated that escort services should just be licensed and regulated – but mine were. That is the other absurd issue with my arrest and trial. In that I never contradicted myself anywhere, the state and federal government were as prosecutable as I was and as much a part of each and every transaction. I was elated that he didn't bring-up the brothels in Nevada. I don't care what anyone says about these places because I know ladies that worked in many and they're awful, controlling, and greedy dives. We do not need such a model for legal prostitution in the United States; instead we should look to Germany or the Netherlands. In Germany prostitution is an accepted and viable occupation. Prostitutes are tested at specific intervals and licensed. They do have brothels there, and escort services, but escorts also work on their own. You see, an escort that chooses to work with an agency does so because she would rather pay a fee for the business services of advertising, booking, and verifying clients. How hard is that to understand?
So why do our politicians want to turn escorts, prostitutes, and agencies into criminals and organized crime groups? Simple answer here: It always has to do with the religious agenda in one way or another. And of course there's the money – can you imagine how many women arrested for prostitution and agency owners arrested on organized crime or promoting prostitution subsequently are forced to feed the money-grabbing system? I know that I lost everything I ever saved, including my house. Even a person (escort) arrested on a misdemeanor prostitution charge must bond out of jail, pay to retrieve her vehicle from wherever agents had it towed, hire an attorney, and if she pleads guilty, which almost all do, she must pay a fine, pay for medical tests, and pay monthly charges to probation for what is usually a year. My bond was $100,000, which is $10,000 in cash. A normal prostitution bond is $1000. Tons of money coming into the system with this racket! So why bust someone with a gun robbing 7-11s? He has no money and is the last on the list to go, especially in Orlando.
As Marshall Frank states, "Moral is a subjective term." Somewhere cannibalism is moral and somewhere else walking on a beach in a bikini is immoral. Let's stop dictating morals and say it how it really is, because prostitution is not referred to as the world's oldest profession without reason.
Next - More on Marshall Frank's Book
No comments:
Post a Comment