Prostitution story from The Durham News
[url]http://thedurhamnews.com/front/story/72136.html[/url]
Prostitution's corner of town
The women who walk Angier Avenue are generally viewed with tolerance by residents and business owners
Stanley B. Chambers Jr., Staff Writer
Within the grittiness of Angier Avenue, where auto repair shops coexist with homes ranging from well kept to dilapidated, lies a reputation some people say has defined the East Durham street.
The untrained eye wouldn't recognize someone like Sharee as a prostitute. Sporting a blue bandanna, blue jeans and a pink T-shirt with a picture of a $100 bill, the slender 19-year-old doesn't look as if she sells her body. Neither do the majority of women who work Angier Avenue.
At one point, Main Street at Morning Glory Avenue and Main and Elm streets were Durham's known prostitution areas. But development and police enforcement have pushed the activity over to Angier Avenue within the past 10 years.
Police statistics confirm that Angier Avenue is indeed the hot spot. Out of 209 arrests citywide for prostitution and related crimes since 2005, 107 were on Angier Avenue. The most frequent intersections for prostitution along Angier Avenue were at Holman Street and at Hoover Road.
Most residents and business owners don't mind the women because they don't cause much trouble. Police conduct prostitution stings every month or so, but the women usually end up back on the streets for either drugs or money.
Either way, Angier Avenue has become known for its streetwalkers.
The women are already working when Samuel Jenkins, who has worked and lived in the area for 15 years, opens his Angier Avenue barber shop. Jenkins thinks the area has more critical issues than prostitution, which he compares to a fly.
"A fly is bad for germs, and that's how I see prostitution," he said while sitting outside his shop. "Overall, the fly doesn't cause a major problem. It's more a pest."
Women used to walk the streets all day, he said, but now they work a schedule from 6 to 9 a.m., while their johns are on their way to work, and from 5 p.m. to midnight, when they're coming home.
In bigger cities, prostitutes often wear as little as possible to attract customers. Here, their attire blends with that of other residents to avoid detection by police. As long as they don't disrespect local businesses, Jenkins doesn't have a problem with it.
"[Prostitution] is a small bug amongst a lot of insects on Angier Avenue," he said.
As Jenkins made his point, he pointed out Sharee from across the street and motioned her over to his shop. She was already on her way there to have her eyebrows done.
Father doesn't know
Sharee didn't want her last name used because her father doesn't know what she does. "He knows I'm getting the money from somewhere around here, but he doesn't think I'm walking up and down the street doing it," she said.
When she was 16, men offered her money for sex in clubs. Sharee started walking the streets in January for more money and came to Angier Avenue because of its reputation.
"Most of the men, they don't want to have sex with you," she said. "They just need a female to talk to."
One guy likes to watch her crush bread with her feet, she said. Another recently drove from Atlanta to see her. She always carries protection.
"Condoms or a knife, a gun," she said.
Sharee said she isn't a drug user and is only a prostitute for the money. She sees it as a business, one that anyone may end up doing if low on cash.
"It's not like prostitution is the cause of gangs and shootings," she said. "It's just people having sex, they're just paying for it."
Sharee plans to finish her associate degree and become a nurse. She doesn't see herself as a career prostitute, but it's easy money, which can become addictive, she said.
But easy money has its risks, including disease, violent johns and undercover officers. Sharee said she has never been busted but thinks she has gotten into vehicles with undercover officers. If a john who solicits prostitutes doesn't touch her, she suspects that he's a cop and gets out, she said.
Durham Police Capt. Ray Taylor and Lt. Larry Smith run the department's special operations division, which periodically conducts prostitution stings.
Arrests no deterrent
Prostitution complaints mostly come from residents during community meetings, but even with arrests, most women end up back on the street.
"The most charges you get from someone is going to be misdemeanors," Taylor said. "So the deterrent factor isn't going to be as strong because they're obviously not going to face severe penalties."
Most prostitutes are working to support a drug habit, Taylor said. There have been diversion programs in the past where women would receive drug treatment. Another program once run by the District Attorney's Office provided counseling. Still, most women ended up back on the street.
"Most of the time, one or two of the women arrested are arrested in every operation," Smith said.
The answer to prostitution in Durham lies within those two programs, Taylor said.
The drug factor
Cocaine and other illegal drugs make the prostitutes forget who they are, said Connie Steele, 52, who lives in the neighborhood and has befriended some of the women. Most of the ones she knows "call me mother," she said.
"When you look at these little girls at night when they're messed up and tore up, they've been dogged out," Steele said. "You look at them [and think], 'That could've been mine.' That's what makes me look at them and reach out and hold them."
Steele comes across the girls while walking along Angier Avenue and often hugs them. A Washington, D.C., native, Steele has no immediate family in Durham so she considers the girls her extended family. But that doesn't keep her from disapproving of what they do.
"I get mad with them," she said. "Irritated because I don't understand how someone else's mother would let their kid be out on the street so young nowadays."
Staff writer Stanley B. Chambers Jr. can be reached at 956-2426 or [email]stan.chambers@newsobserver.com[/email].
Boot Lips looks like you were lucky
nmates Arrested in Prostitution Sting
Posted: Today at 12:26 p.m.
Updated: Today at 12:41 p.m.
Durham — Three inmates out of jail on work release ended up back in jail after police arrested them and 10 other people last week in a prostitution sting.
Twelve men and one woman were arrested in Durham on Friday in the area of Angier Avenue and Juniper Street.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, all on work release from the Durham Correctional Center on Prison Camp Road, were each arrested at Juniper Street and Hyde Park Avenue and charged with two counts of solicitation for prostitution.
Officers also made the following arrests:
[blue][Names deleted by Admin][/blue]
[size=-2][b][u]EDITOR'S NOTE[/u]:[/b] [blue]This report was edited to [u]remove the names or persons who were arrested[/u] from within in the text. To avoid delays in future reports containing news stories of law enforcement actions, please overwrite or delete the names of persons who were arrested.
Now, I want to say this carefully so no one gets the wrong idea here, but if you think about it, posting the names of people who have been arrested is somewhat heartless and really just helping the police in their efforts to embarrass these people. Since this website is all about assisting people in obtaining commercial sex services, we don't want to add to the problems of the unfortunate people who have been arrested by publishing their names and/or photographs. [i]Thanks![/i][/blue][/size]
Spot is still hot... be careful
Went cruising around my normal routes (b/w Holloway and Angier) yesterday around 6pm, and LE was crawling all over, even more than usual. The extra activity may or may not be monger-related, but I think I'll lay low and stick to CL girls for at least a week or so.
Holloway, Angier high traffic
1 am drive through had more than a dozen BSW's or more, some waving arms, being very active, and some just walking and giving the look. Way too MUCH activity, and LE seeming to ignore most of it (except for the idiot in the blue olds who made the stupid U-Turn right in front of a cruiser!).
Didn't see anything, though, that was worth stopping. But I was surprised how many were out and about.
Are you guys cops or trying to get these girls busted?
Some of you guys should think before you post. When you post some shit like "I saw 20 girls out the other night on so-and-so-street" or when you post identifiable pictures of these girls on identifiable streets, do you realize that you are giving the impetus to go and find them and bust them? Do you enjoy the sport or not? Do you want girls to be available or no? I know LE doesn't need to read this forum to figure shit out, but do you really want to give them a heads up? Flame me if you want. I think giving discreet information is fine but when you put it out there so obviously and blatantly, you might be inviting an LE crackdown. Just think about it.
