The Busts Were a Good Thing Because..

[Dadeo]

I personally enjoy the hobby and would like to see things continue. However, nobody should be exploited to provide these services against their will. It seems LE has no problem with MP's and the services that are performed as long as they are consentual. As for minors, I think only 5 being discovered in last night's raids was far fewer than anticipated. And they were 16 or 17, hardly minors in my books. When you consider what occurs in the Third World, we have nothing to be ashamed of. You can get married at 16, have kids, drive a car, etc. I'm not saying SP's should be legal at 16 (I believe 18 is an acceptable age), however, I don't think we have a problem in this city with underage sex workers. If the girls were 14, yes, that is a huge problem and continuing enforcement and raids are necessary.

 

[Capricorn One]

 

[koala4poly]

I agree with Nitehwk- if I wasn't clear about it in my post, I want all the pimps thrown in jail. Nobody should be in this business against their will.

 

[griersetrorry]

I am all for liberating underage workers, or people forced to work against their will.

What makes me sick is the lack of balanced media coverage.

350 MP's ??????

The media focused coverage on the one ore two places that are bad apples - it painted a picture that all these places are run by crime syndicates forcing illegal aliens and minors to have sex. NOTHING could be further from the truth.

A balanced news story might say something like:

"The reporter at spa after spa found happy ladies over the age of 18 doing the work by choice. The were not having sex with clients, they spa's were clean, sanitary and well kept and abided by all the by-laws of the region etc."

It makes you wonder how much bull-crap there is in the main-stream media.

I wish a REAL reporter would go and do the real story.

This time it seems they had a specific agenda, but I wouldn't count on it next. Its been obvious for a long time that LE and politicians would really like MP's to go away. However there is no real gutsy politician or reporter that wants to point out what the alternatives would be if MP's didn't exist.

My two cents....

~ Hex

 

[mIsTy bEeBeE]

Hexter, I agree with you but the media will only focus on the bad apples as that is where the dirt will come from. (Sex Sells)

 

[Poet G]

Not much and in my experience, The Sun is the most fabricated ( distorted ) in attempting to appeal to peoples most predictable form of empathetic emotions according to societies general standard, with The Star somewhere in middle ground, but not too far behind, and The Globe, being most objective and factual. It seems in this case their reporting styles are very similar to that scenario.

You couldn't be more right, but as we all know, facts [alone] are not what sells news. People, in general, are drawn to tragedy out of a need to empathise, an outlet for the morally indignant, a need to feel normal or superior, a curiosity of the unknown "seedier" side of life and/or other various reasons, depending on the subject. The success of reality shows indicates this. Sensationalism sells.

 

[J&JLove]

Pool,

Quite an insightful analysis - working on our PhD thesis are we?

 

[RatLuver]

Actually - if you read The Star - their front page story talked about the raid as well. However, they were one of the only news outlets not invited on the raid - funny, since they did that piece on racial profiling by Toronto's finest earlier this year. But they did quote Josephine's Spa in Etobicoke, saying that they went in there, found nothing wrong, illegal, etc...

But you're right - newspapers especially have to focus on the negative - they need a controversy to sell the newspapers b/c by the time everyone's reading it, its old news to many.

 

[Ken]

I agree that there should be an occasional sweep by LE to weed out the problems. Frankly, I'm convinced that most of our police force are not particularly concerned about what goes on behind closed doors between consenting adults. Until such time as prostitution is legalized, this unwritten understanding between the cops and the industry is as much as we can hope for but I'm okay with that.

However, when it comes to underage workers or those working against their will in slave-like conditions, I believe that's something that should concern us all, police and customers alike. Personally, I've always been a bit leery about seeing any lady younger than 25, let alone some young girl whose claim to be of legal age is dubious. My reservations are based not just on matters of legality alone, but also because I would rather not have relations with any girl that I suspect is not mature enough to have made a clear, educated choice to be in this business. I would far rather be with a lady who is totally comfortable with her choice, having an understanding of both the pros and cons of such a lifestyle decision.

Personally, I feel very strongly that we, as customers, should be more vigilant about our hobby. I think the onus is on us to help stamp out exploitation of minors and sex-slavery conditions by not creating a demand for it in the first place. Because of the dubious reputation of a handful of the agencies and their rumoured ties to organized crime, I'd be unlikely to use them myself. I prefer to limit myself to SP agencies and MPs that employ ladies who strike me as having entered into such a career of their own free will. Likewise with independants. I believe that if we all adopt more responsible habits within the parameters of the grey area that is inherent in this "hobby", then we are less likely to upset LE and therefore, not be disturbed by them in the future. Ironic as it may seem, I think we need to view LE as a necessary friend and partner in us all working towards making this a better and safer place to play.

 

[Tate]

It bothers me that so much of the media is so easily manipulated by the police on this subject. The story could be a good thing for us if the media would do some thinking and analyzing, or if people reading the stories had enough information to read between the lines.

When police speak out against liberalizing our laws, they always try to say how most of the business involves evil pimps exploiting underaged teens coerced into the trade against their will. Even their own results here show that the vast majority of the business is not like that.

Remember that the existing laws in Canada supposedly prohibit running a prostitution business, period. They don't say it's okay to run a prostitution business as long as you don't employ anyone under 18. Police are pretty much acknowledging that they've given up enforcing these laws. How could they now argue in favour of keeping these laws when even they don't think they're worth enforcing?

Not one of the more than 300 places they visited was closed down. Every one of them was open for business the next day. Apparently cities are not interested in actually closing down these places, even though everyone knows they're all breaking the existing criminal laws. It appears as though the cities just want to get as much money from them as they can through licences and fines.

If this was any other free country except Canada, people would be at least starting to become suspicious that we are developing a corrupt system.

The media still treats the idea of liberalizing our prostitution laws as being some bizarre impractical notion that no sane person would ever consider. Could some of them (besides Eye) ever actually point out the truth, that many countries have already reformed their similar laws, including New Zealand and most of Australia, places that have much in common with Canada? Obviously it is possible and practical to have laws that prohibit coercion and underaged sexworkers, while allowing all of the rest of the business to continue.