Have anybody seen google maps lately?
I was googling around some maps, and lo and behold they now have pictures of the street as if you were driving the street. Most of philadelphia is there. And you also see the PEARLY WHITE GATES of heaven(hint). Just a FYI. It's so cool.
Police raid brothel in Chinatown
(from the Philadelphia Inquirer Friday June 13 2008)
Police raid brothel in Chinatown
By Suzette Parmley
Inquirer Staff Writer
In what police said was a sign of what is to come, officers raided a purported house of prostitution in Chinatown yesterday and arrested four women.
"We've gotten several complaints at this location before," Chief Inspector William Colarulo said last night. "The mayor and the commissioner have vowed to crack down on quality-of-life issues in the city.
"We will have zero tolerance for this type of activity," he said, "and in light of Welcome America approaching, you will see frequent raids of these houses of prostitution that are thinly disguised as massage parlors."
The target of the 1:40 p.m. raid was a nondescript, gray, three-story rowhouse at 1235A Vine St. that houses Rainbow, a business that advertised "body shampoo and total relaxation" this week in the Philadelphia City Paper and Philadelphia Weekly. The front window had been covered up except for a sign that read "1235A 1st flr."
According to Sgt. Joseph Lanciano of the Citywide Vice Squad, the house had been raided before: on Sept. 1, 2005, when police arrested six people on prostitution-related charges.
"We received some recent information that they were back open," he said. "Today, we sent an undercover officer in there, and he was solicited."
Lanciano said it was not uncommon for houses of prostitution that police shut down to be relicensed or renamed and reopen. The four women, whose names were not released, will be charged with prostitution-related offenses.
"Some refer to prostitution as a victimless crime," Colarulo said. "There is no such thing. There are a myriad of issues, whether it's drug addiction or [gang] ties, in which they are being forced to do this.
"We have to make sure to get some rehabilitation for these women who are involved in this type of activity," he said. "We are going to be relentless on these massage parlors despite the fact there are so many of them."