Prostitution and "Crime"

Prostitution is an honorable trade.

If a therapist can get $160 an hour to bring a little stress relief to a repressed yuppie, what makes that same degree of stress relief provided by a prostitute less valuable, honorable or useful? Arguably, prostitutes get the same result in 20 minutes that therapists get over a year of therapy.

This is an opinion that is decidedly unpopular among many people who make over $14,000 a year. And also among many people who make decidedly less than that, working as actual prostitutes.

I'm going to make this as simple as possible for everyone, regardless of how many brain cells you have:

Prostitutes are PEOPLE. Humans like you, with bills, kids, ambitions, and crappy relationships with others who take advantage of them. But the difference between you and them is that they can't do what they get paid to do without getting arrested. Check out this article, if you don't believe me. These people are getting put in jail.

For having sex.

As long as prostitution is illegal, we are cultivating a culture of human trafficking. We are aiding and abetting the rape, robbery, and exploitation of minors, young men, young women, women and men brought to America to service the seedy, shadowed, disreputable wealthy elite who have no problem getting jobs making over six figures a year.

It is time to grant sex-workers the same status as chefs, bankers, police officers, and politicians. Ok, maybe they need a better status than politicians, since they actually relieve stress instead of creating more stress.

Another White Guy Has the Answer, Thank GOD

"They need mandatory minimum jail sentences, and they need to let police do their jobs down here, because most of these kids causing trouble are repeat offenders as I can tell you. I know some of them have as many as 200 incidents on their rap sheets and they are out walking the streets right now." - Jay Ettinger, Owner of the "Pourhouse" Bar, as quoted by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS at ktsp.

"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" - Ebenezer Scrooge, 

I'm going to go ahead and call you out on this publicly, Jay Ettinger:

Who, specifically, is walking the streets with as many as 200 incidents on their rap sheet?

G'head. Name someone. Anyone. Prove that you know this for a fact. Show you aren't just fearmongering to get young people put away in prison for being poor, and likely not the right color, or for having the wrong accent.

Prove it. Name one person you "know" has a rap sheet with over 200 incidents who is walking the streets right now. Name them. You "know" it, you say.

Prove it.

Name them.

And then, tell us all, who exactly showed you their "rap sheet?" How do you have access to that information?

You're presenting yourself as an affiliate of the Warehouse District Business Association, and you're presenting yourself as a leader of the community by proxy on the local news making bald-faced lying statements that lead to the erroneous and provably false conclusion that "mandatory minimum sentences" will somehow eliminate gun violence down town.

Over 40 years... think about that, over 40 YEARS of statistics have demonstrated that mandatory minimum sentencing, tougher cops, stop and frisk laws never. fixed. anything.

You want a nice safe place where people can eat without worrying about getting shot?

Fix the real problems:

Spirit of Christmas Present: If it's too hard a lesson for you to learn, then learn this lesson!
[opens his robe, revealing two starving children]
Ebenezer: [shocked] Spirit, are these yours?
Spirit of Christmas Present: They are Man's. This boy is Ignorance, this girl is Want. Beware them both, but most of all, beware this boy!
Ebenezer: But have they no refuge, no resource?
Spirit of Christmas Present:  Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

Want and Ignorance, these are the plague that besets all of society, and we have known it for years. I am sick of old white men telling the world that prisons are a solution. They are the last resort.

What have you, Jay Ettinger, done to make prisons irrelevant and unnecessary? What are you doing now, besides whining about the actual consequence of your personal ignore-ance of the plight of the poor and uneducated in our fair city? You think you get to just sit there with your restaurant and service industry sponge, siphoning off the cash we earn by the sweat of our brows, the strength of our backs, the education and skills we've learned and just take the money and talk smack about our people, our children, our future? You want to open a place to feed people and serve them drinks, but don't want to deal with the problems that come from entitled neglect?

Name one person, you self-righteous prig, with 200 incidents on their rap sheet, who is walking the streets and needs the police to "be allowed" to "do their job."

Like they did with Philando Castille?

Would you be happy then, when the kids are shot?

You can't see what's in front of your face, and you are a bloated parasite on the body of a thriving city. Help fix the problems, don't call for violence and punishment.

Provide.

Educate.

Create yourself a client base that can afford and appreciate your cuisine.