Some folks have some pretty squirrely ideas about “safety” and who deserves it:
Cincinnati police arrested eight people in an undercover prostitution sting at the Millennium Hotel Cincinnati on Fifth Street downtown Thursday after the hotel sought help in light of two disturbing armed robberies.
The hotel said the classified advertising Web site Craigslist connected two women offering massages with men who ultimately robbed them in their rooms at gunpoint May 3 and on May 20. …
In the May 20 incident, the robber accidentally dropped a handgun and it discharged, sending a bullet into the mattress, said Jordan Cooper, the hotel’s general manager. No one was injured, but the incident prompted management to contact police to safeguard legitimate guests and the reputation of Ohio’s largest hotel. [my emphasis]
So illegitimate guests are fair game? Would it have been hunky-dory with the management if a hooker or two had been shot on the premises? (Um, probably not, because that just might sully the hotel’s reputation.) And what is an illegitimate guest, anyway? There’s nothing in the article to indicate the women didn’t pay their bills. They may have been breaking the law as sex workers, but not specifically in their capacity as hotel guests.
And what is wrong with our priorities when a violent crime (robbery) is viewed as a handy aid to help catch prostitutes who aren’t hurting anyone? Nothing can possibly justify viewing them as a mere means to an end. Our judicial system has no right to objectify them in this way. We don’t know anything about the women arrested. They might have been forced or coerced into their jobs. They might love their work. Maybe they see it like many Americans view their jobs: as a boring but necessary activity for putting food on the table. Maybe they have children. Maybe they love cats as much as I do. Maybe they love to garden. I’m guessing there are lots of points of potential empathy – lots of ways that the press could choose to humanize the women caught in this sting.
Instead, the media coverage and the criminal justice system do a seamless job of obliterating these women’s humanity. And yet, the women did nothing to deserve becoming the targets of armed robbery. Their jobs made them more vulnerable, but mostly because they’re forced to operate underground and the robbers know that they’re more likely to be persecuted (see above) than protected by the police. Imagine how scared those women must have felt while the gun was pointed at them. Imagine how terrified the second woman was when the gun went off.
And the robber? The article doesn’t mention his fate. It seems reasonable to assume he got away. But hey, at least he wasn’t selling sex.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
This again comes down to proportionality and the warped nature of society. By criminalizing certain activities you inevitably expose people to violence and abuse. The state is hardly guiltless in all of this and attempts to dictate how people live their lives. This should not be what our society is about.
This is not so different from the anti-hemp hysteria we were discussing yesterday. The state is *absolutely* culpable in the violence and deaths that result from criminalizing otherwise victimless crimes. (I’m thinking partly about the murder of Julissa Brissmann, who was working under circumstances similar to these women in Cincinnati.) Problem is, we share in the culpability because the state is ultimately reporting to us.
Yes, our industrial hemp then marijuana discussions from yesterday were in my head when I did the reply. Yes, we are collectively culpable in that we don’t hold our elected representatives to be accountable for the insanity of the so-called drug war or the unconstitutional Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, to name but 2 egregious subjects. My activism has been restricted to writing to our Congressman/Senators on these issues, only to usually not even receive replies. I toy with the idea of petitioning in order to get our elected representatives to take up issues that need to be dealt with, at both the Federal and State levels.
I’m with you on the PATRIOT Act too. But just imagine the fuss if someone tried to repeal it. He or she would be tarred as hopelessly unPATRIOTic.
Per the PATRIOT Act comment, don’t we live in a wonderful country where you can be vilified as “unpatriotic” for seeking to protect the Bill of Rights by those that are subverting it?
From the source article:
“With 872 rooms, two towers and breathtaking views of downtown Cincinnati, the Millennium is known for hosting conventions and weddings, and certainly not for welcoming hookers and gun-toting robbers.”
Gag!…sounds like the newspaper works for the hotel (perhaps hosting spendy fully-page ads?). Whatever kind of business the 8 sex-workers were doing, the Cincinnati Enquirer shows us the true meaning of prostitution.
Yeah, I intentionally broke the quote to cut out this PR crap for the Millennium. Funny thing, how this sort of prostitution is considered perfectly ethical. Well, actually, it’s not – my husband teaches courses on media ethics, and he pillories the tendency to take press releases and reproduce them as news, which increasing occurs in video form. But far too many journalists either never study ethics or don’t take it to heart.