Franklin PD Luuuvvvvs ESA
Wow, Franklin popo goes nosing around the Bakers Bridge Ave Extended Stay America (wonder why?) and stumbles upon an actual criminal. That's a first.
[URL]https://franklinpdnews.com/2016/08/11/virginia-fugitive-arrested-at-franklin-extended-stay/[/URL]
-Jeepster1.
"Undercover officers conducting surveillance operations at the Extended Stay America, 680 Bakers Bridge Avenue, encountered 24-year-old Deondre Inkton ".
Support Sex Worker Rights!
Right now we have a perfect legal climate to throw uncle LEO off of our backs and decriminalize the hobbyist lifestyle. There is a lawsuit in California right now to do just that;.
[URL]https://www.tilt.com/tilts/support-historic-lawsuit-esplerp-v-gascon[/URL]
Also Amnesty international is saying that sex work (prostitution) should be legal because it keeps people safer.
[URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2545003/Amnesty-calls-legal-prostitution-Charity-says-laws-ban-people-buying-selling-sex-breach-human-rights.html[/URL]
If all of us mongers got onboard with this we could shut this crap down in a day.
Here is some more information.
[URL]www.policeprostitutionandpolitics.com[/URL]
#RightsnotRescue.
Don't look for change anytime soon
[QUOTE=Jeepster1;3035740]Mayor Karl Dean was a former prosecutor. Bad news for civil liberties.
Current mayor is wed to a longtime Nashville Scene writer. For many years the Scene was owned by Village Voice Media, the founders of Backpage.
Conceivably this administration would not share the Karl Dean agenda?
A Metro councilman is proposing to decriminalize possession of a half-ounce or less of marijuana. You could get a ticket, but that's all.
Maybe other leisure pastimes could follow that path?
Complicating the issue is LEO's purposeful conflating of Trafficking and casual commercial sex. Many federal and TBI dollars are being poured into Trafficking units right now, just as billions were spent nationally on questionable local Homeland Security grants in the wake of 9-11.
Let Trafficking units pursue Trafficking. Give those who want to exit prostitution a way out, and supportive detox and job programs.
And leave joyful, independent sex workers alone.
-Jeepster1.[/QUOTE]Absolutely true that the local political climate makes any change toward decriminalizing sex work damn near impossible. The conflation of consensual transactions among willing adults with trafficking has unfortunately been echoed in the media and is now pretty much taken as a given by the majority of the voting public, and it will be a long tough fight to try to turn that around. Like in all politics, if you repeat the same lie often enough, people eventually begin to believe it. I find it very hard to imagine that the current mayor would be inclined to change course, in part because many women in the position to make their voices heard have joined in the trafficking rhetoric and turned it into a "woman's issue," repeating the lie that all or most women in the sex business are somehow enslaved. Total bullshit, of course, but Mayor Barry has been shoulder to shoulder with them at press conferences bragging about the anti-trafficking campaign. I don't see her ever getting to the point where she thinks it would be smart politics to break ranks with what seems to be the majority opinion out there, especially among influential women's groups in the city.
One small point, though. Former mayor Dean was never a prosecutor. He was actually the Metro Public Defender, and had been in the public defender's office for years, before Bill Purcell appointed him as Metro Director of Law. From that position, he helped devise the strategy that shut down all the fun places as public nuisances, and kind of became a hero to the anti-commercial sex zealots out there. IMO, his strong support of closing all the adult spots came from a misguided belief that they hurt "legitimate" business and presented an image that he thought was bad for development (again with the news media on his side). But your point that he was a strong opponent of commercial sex is totally true. I also think Barry is just as opposed as he was, and that we are a long way from seeing any changes.
I do like the optimism of the OP, but am afraid that those of us with careers and families to consider are going to find it hard to speak out publicly on the issue.
Sad to say. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for the Correction
[QUOTE=UpForItNow;3035838]. . . Former mayor Dean was never a prosecutor. . . Bill Purcell appointed him as Metro Director of Law. From that position, he helped devise the strategy that shut down all the fun places as public nuisances, and kind of became a hero to the anti-commercial sex zealots out there. . .[/QUOTE]Seems I did a little conflation myself. Yes, Dean was Director of Law, not a prosecutor.
Jeepster1.
Think Local Start with the Girls.
Given what we know, when minorities (which is what sex workers and us hobbyist are) have gotten organized, then things have gotten done. If we were to start talking to these girls about this, and having a conversation with them about sex worker rights, we could get them on board and bring public attention to the issues (the mistreatment by police, the conflation of sex work with human trafficking the human rights aspect etc, etc.) I have personally talked to several girls about this and getting involved with the issue of sex worker rights. Adding a graphic to their backpage ad would be a good start. If more hobbyist joined in the chorus, they couldn't snowjob us with a bunch of human trafficking mumbo jumbo.
