If anyone is perpetuating prostitution-related violence, it is prohibitionists like Kristof, who insist on maintaining a black market. – Jacob Sullum
Out of Control (The Camel’s Nose)
A Canadian anesthesiologist convicted of sexually assaulting 21 sedated women during surgeries was sentenced…to 10 years in prison…Dr. George Doodnaught…relied on his three decades of operating room experience to avoid detection…the…victims…gave generally similar accounts of being kissed and fondled by him, and of having his penis placed in their mouths or hands…they were conscious enough to be aware of what was happening, but were not able to move their limbs…
A cop is a cop, even when she’s a sex worker:
For years, Philadelphia Police Officer Terra Barrow had a side job running a handful of [sex] websites and phone lines…Barrow said she got into the…industry…to…make [extra] money…Competitor Donna Burns…claims Barrow ripped off her site designs, stole her client database and bullied competitors by telling them she was a cop…Burns also…gave…investigators advertisements that Barrow allegedly placed…as an escort named “Black Barbie.” Barrow acknowledged she used that nickname in email but [claims she] has never worked as an escort…
Neofeminists claim decriminalization has “failed [to protect sex workers] everywhere it’s been tried”. This is what that “failure” looks like:
A prostitute has won a landmark sexual harassment case against a Wellington brothel owner…the Human Rights Review Tribunal awarded the young woman $25,000 in damages for emotional harm as a result of sexual harassment. Aaron Montgomery, who no longer owns The Kensington Inn…was described as a bully who enjoyed controlling and humiliating women and tried to pressure workers into having sex with him…
After two decades as one of the few women who dared to challenge the hysteria, it’s nice to have so much more company lately:
…if the risk of sexual assault on campus were truly one in five…no parent in their right mind would send their daughter to coed universities…Chad Hermann…[examined] the reported sexual assault offenses over three years at…the University of Pittsburgh (UP), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Duquesne University (DU). In 2009: At UP, with 14,800 female students, four sexual assaults were reported. At CMU, with about 3,900 female students, six sexual assaults were reported (a three-year high). At DU, with 5,700 females, three were reported. But wait: We “know” (we don’t really) that 90% of rapes go unreported! Okay, Hermann adjusts the numbers to reflect that, giving UP 40 assaults, CMU 60 and DU 30. Are we at one-in-four yet? Hardly. We’re at one-in-185 (average of the three)…
…a BBC investigation into the policing of prostitution in Medway, Kent showed harm reduction was dangerously disrupted by their aggressive “cleaning up the streets” approach. In 2009, Kent Police began a scheme…called Safe Exit, supposedly to help women leave the sex trade by offering treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, training and education, and housing…But…instead…the women received a criminal record…Kent Police claimed to have reduced the number of women working on-street by over 90, but…two public servants associated with the scheme…say originally there were only 40-50 women working on-street. Our sources also told us…that the scheme was a “political PR stunt”…[some of the women were burdened with] ASBOs…and a few ended up in prison…
“What at first seems like an arrest mission on a busy Orange County street is actually a rescue mission, as police go undercover to save girls who have become victims of sex trafficking…” No, actually, it’s an arrest mission. And if you can handle reading that first one, try this one about nearby Santa Barbara County, in which the agency of female university students and Chinese immigrants is totally denied using the excuse of “Stockholm Syndrome”.
Shifting the Blame (The Beat Goes On)
[James Brown]…was convicted of killing four women in his basement and stuffing their bodies in car trunks after he met them through online escort ads…just days apart, at his home in December 2011…Two were burned beyond recognition when a car was set on fire. Brown…faces life in prison with no chance for parole…The women who were killed were Renisha Landers, Demesha Hunt, Natasha Curtis and Vernithea McCrary, all in their 20s…
Three more brave heroes protecting and serving, in Oklahoma: “…Muskogee police officer…Mark Ridley…was arrested…after allegedly forcing…the woman’s car…off the road, then…[forcing] her to perform oral sex at gunpoint…” and in California: “Sheriff’s deputy [Damian Marquez repeatedly]…arrested a woman on felony probation ‘for the sole purpose of raping and sexually assaulting’ her at the [City of Industry] sheriff’s station…” and in Wisconsin:
[In the early stages of her pregnancy] and twice more after she had her baby, a [female prisoner] was placed in shackles…and raped over and over again, according to reports…Xavier D. Thicklen’s “abuse of his authority went wholly unchecked” by co-defendant Sheriff David A. Clarke, even though at least one of the assaults was caught on camera…Thicklen is charged with five counts of second-degree sexual assault…[and] could be sent to prison for 40 years on each…
First They Came for the Hookers…
…[New York City] has been…targeting…strip clubs by going after their liquor licenses…[after] trumping up charges…some clubs have continued to operate sans alcohol—which does, as a result of other bizarre strip club regulations, have the advantage of allowing dancers to be fully nude…But [alcohol-free clubs are much less popular and]…prohibition also zaps a major source of revenue for both clubs and dancers…
The Course of a Disease (TW3 #30)
Finland has rejected the efforts of its neofeminist “justice” minister to impose the Swedish model, but what they gave her is bad enough: “…the Ministry of Justice has proposed a tightening of the law, so sex-buyers who should have suspected pimping or trafficking can be sentenced…Justice Minister Anna- Maja Henriksson…[says she is] disappointed and…her goal is still a total ban…” They are lowering the burden of proof to only one step short of strict liability, but obviously that isn’t enough to satisfy Henriksson’s anti-sex bloodlust.
Buried beneath the Profession of Faith, agency denial, masturbatory fantasy, and penis-size bragging is the only worthwhile sentence in this crap: “the FBI [named]…Detroit…as the second largest area for human trafficking in the U.S., with only San Francisco larger…”
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has charged an Australian filmmaker with hindering the work of a…[“rescue”] organization…James Ricketson…accuses the Brisbane-based Citipointe Church of retaliating against him for his years-long efforts to help a Cambodian family retrieve two daughters from the organization’s She Rescue Home…
The Course of a Disease (TW3 #52)
The same old Labour Party busybodies (with help from like-minded prudes in other parties) are once again trying to impose the Swedish model on the UK, but this time they’re pretending to be a new group inspired by last week’s reprehensible EU vote. If these people were any more transparent they’d be completely invisible. Here’s what Tim Worstall had to say about it:
…the “slavery” in prostitution…doesn’t, in this country at least, actually exist. For we had a plan whereby every single police force in the country went out looking for people who were indeed sex slaves…and…could…not…come up with sufficient evidence to charge anyone at all…What we…have is consenting adults…deciding what to do with their own bodies…
Japanese Prostitution (TW3 #131)
While Japanese politicians work to deny, downplay or excuse their country’s enslavement of tens of thousands of women in wartime brothels…
…Japanese-American plaintiffs, served by American megafirm Mayer Brown, are pursuing the agenda of reactionary Japanese politicians through despicable litigation…In 2013 the City of Glendale [California] erected a modest memorial to the comfort women…in a public park…Japanese politicians were enraged and have repeatedly demanded that the memorial be removed. The…lawsuit…seeks to [accomplish this]…by force of law…
I love it when Jacob Sullum tears into Nick Kristof:
…how should we view armed agents of the state who invite people to engage in peaceful exchange, only to pounce on them with guns and handcuffs?…Nicholas Kristof thinks they’re heroes. Consider…his latest column equating prostitution with “human trafficking”…Kristof…insists “that isn’t prudishness or sanctimony but a strategy to dampen demand.” This strategy—cops posing as prostitutes—has been a joke and a cliché for as long as I’ve been alive, but Kristof considers it the cutting edge of innovative policing. If targeting customers is all it takes to eradicate black markets, why do they still exist?…Kristof…calls sting operations “marvels of efficiency”—which they are, assuming you want to produce futile arrests and gratuitous humiliation…
As I reported in December, the “marvel of efficiency” sophomorically entitled “Operation Flush the Johns” hasn’t had much luck convicting any of the accused who didn’t just plead out; they finally got their first one this week.
R.I.P. Petite Jasmine (TW3 #329)
A video by Carol Leigh on the memorials for Petite Jasmine and Dora Özer.
An excellent article by Molly Crabapple on the vile Project ROSE and its equally-vile founder, Dominique Roe-Sepowitz:
…Project ROSE may seem similar to the many diversion programs in the United States…[but] it doesn’t work with the convicted. Rather, its raids funnel hundreds of people into the criminal justice system. Denied access to lawyers, many of these people are coerced into ROSE’s program without being convicted of any crime…Roe-Sepowitz …told Al Jazeera: “Once you’ve prostituted you can never not have prostituted…Having that many body parts in your body parts, having that many body fluids near you and doing things that are freaky and weird really messes up your ideas of what a relationship looks like, and intimacy”…
Too bad the BBC can’t be this honest and sympathetic about modern clients:
Visiting prostitutes is a little-known and little-discussed aspect of life on the Western Front, but it was a key part of the British soldiers’ war experience…brothel visits [were seen] as a physical necessity – it was an era when sexual abstinence for men was considered harmful to their health…
In other words, a more realistic era.
Traffic Jam (All Traffick, All the Time)
Cuckoo Clock McCain is still at it:
Cindy McCain testified at a [Congressional] hearing…that about 84% of ads for prostitution placed on [New York area] Backpage.com…during the Super Bowl involved women being trafficked…The study was funded by the McCain Institute…and used research from Arizona State University and analysis from Praescient Analytics…
Rich loon McCain hires ethically-bankrupt fanatic Dominique Roe-Sepowitz (that’s who “Arizona State” really is) to use an “analysis” method of her own design, and the “study” finds exactly what the two of them want it to find despite the fact that it contains nothing resembling either facts or methodology. What a surprise!
Here’s an excerpt from Melissa Gira Grant’s new book, Playing the Whore, and two more interviews with her; one is with Caty Simon in Tits and Sass and one with Josh Eidelson in Salon. I’m very pleased to see how much coverage Grant and her book are getting in mainstream publications, especially in this time when most of the media are forehead-deep in prohibitionist lies.
Gorged With Meaning (TW3 #409)
The Duke freshman porn starlet has revealed her photo and stage name: Belle Knox. And I like her more with every article she writes:
…the Duke Chronicle wrote a somewhat patronizing portrait of me, disguising my name…The question I am asked over and over again is this: If I am proud of being an adult performer, then why do I “hide” behind this fake name? Because…my decision to do porn does not somehow mean that the world now “owns” or deserves access to every single thing about me…My birth name is one name…My porn name is another…I can’t stop you from calling me any name you want to — including “slut,” “whore” or “bitch” — but I can decide what name I use…please dissuade yourself right now of the delusion that you control or own me…I am not your child or your property or your Madonna or your whore…
I’m sorry Maggie but I have very considerable doubts about your Ist item –the anesthesiologist who supposedly assaulted women during operations in progress. That seems to be what the article is saying and I have to doubt it. Later on, in a private room, yes that is credible, but in an operating theatre surrounded by his colleagues–none of whom is being charged as an accessory or appearing for the prosecution (the article would, I think, mentioned it if either of those possibilities were true)–no.
Operating tables have to be at a certain height–to stop the surgeon getting a bad back and so he can see/work at closer range. That height would not be convenient for what this man was accused of .Too high. Also, those on the table are –hopefully–carefully managed. A patients hands/arms would not be allowed to loll of the side of the table as the weight of hanging arms might well pull the patients torso/internal organs out of alignment. Also most op tables would be wide enough for the patients hands to lie at his/her side. Again–how is he supposed to have committed this crime physically?. Prosecution waffle about his “30 years of skills” is not a demonstration of how such a crime could be possible with, what?–a dozen witness right next to the accused.
The prosecution also shows a common pattern of false accusation. It starts from one accusation. If the 20 odd women –or even a few of them–had been to the police on many separate occasions and said “He did this, he did that..” but had been ignored by police–that would be far more credible. Here we have the whole matter starting from one women who makes a number of allegations:
*That he touched her breasts –OK possible–he would have to attach electrodes to monitor her heart–he could have done what she accuses–or just touched them once by accident. But this charge could be true
*That he kissed her on the mouth–while she is on the table, through a surgical mask, with a dozen witnesses, none of whom noticed anything?.
*That he put his penis in her mouth–how could he do that without literally climbing upon the table in front of a dozen witnesses?. They would have had to have seen that and must be lying for him–and of course they would, a medical career, what is that?. Years of effort and thousands of dollars and all your future expectations of wealth and comfort in your old age–of course you would risk that to cover for a colleague who climbs on the op table to put his penis in a female patients mouth.
It is also known that anesthetics can allow or give rise to sexual fantasys. A friend of mine who had been heavily drugged for a nose operation back in the fifties had a vivid, completely real experience of two nurses giving him a bath right after his operation and having sex with him in said bath. He came around in the ward and found that 1-he had not had a bath and 2- his fellow patients on the ward said that he had been in his bed unconscious for 10 hours. He had not been anywhere since coming out of surgery. The rest of his life he was puzzled as to how such a real-seamimg event could have not happened. This was in the late 1950s–long before the current climate of accusation however.
As for the twenty accusers–none of them came forward until the first did–ie the police have prob been “trawling” as they call it–looking for accusations from supposed victims and probably mentioning the criminal compensation that might come to any such victim. This man has been involved in probably thousands of operations over the course of 30 years–it would not be far-fetched that there might be a number of troubled or greedy women among the thousands.
I don’t know if he is guilty or not–but the sheer physical difficulty of the supposed crime and the pattern of accusations mushrooming–with police help–after the initial one–is suspect. He may be guilty but he may also be innocent. It would seem , on the limited basis of the article, that no explanation was given in court, beyond waffle, of how the crime was physically possible. In the present climate of hysteria jury trials are not always the defence against wrongful accusation that they should be.
It’s a troubling case, for sure. One thing on the prosecution’s side is that the alleged assaults fall into distinct groupings, which would seem to imply some factor in Doodnaught’s life pushing him over the edge at those times but not others. You’ve done a good job summarizing the arguments on the defense’s side.
There was a similar case in Germany a while back. There, the doctor in question was in charge of anesthetizing the patients and he did so alone, because it was a small hospital. On the technical side, he just inserted his finger into the privates of his female patients, which sounds much more doable and easier to hide if somebody else arrives. He also admitted to doing it but claimed it were “necessary” medical examinations. (I think there was a witness from the medical staff that caught him and he could not dispute it.) That case was pretty clear-cut and basically several expert witnesses said there were no such examinations in connections with anesthesia or the procedures done and that was it. It was said there that people under the effects of global anesthesia can fantasize any number of things and are not dependable witnesses at all. There is also the little problem that people waking up during surgery is relatively rare and if they remember it (which is even rarer), they usually come out traumatized from the work being done on them.
On the other hand, the case described here has several problems in comparison and the description is at least highly suspicious. If he really had done that, he would have been caught by other medical staff all the time.
This also reminds me of a case where children had induced rape memories that came from well meaning female kindergarten staff (accused were some male kindergarten staff members) and investigators that had no clue how to interview children. The striking thing there was the similarities of the stories. The charges were eventually dropped, because what the children told at the end could not have happened. E.g. gang-rape by men with gigantic equipment on a 6-year old girl would leave physical traces, yet none were ever found in any of the children. The actual rapists (the female kindergarten staff) unfortunately were never charged with anything, despite having destroyed a number of lives, not least that of the children that now have to life with memories of being abused. Memories being implanted in this way are apparently as bad or even worse than the effects of the real thing. There are numerous stories of the same thing happening to adults, where “therapists” created rape memories and basically raped their victims that way.
It should also be noted that if the accusation is false, this does tremendous secondary damage and could even kill people, namely when people do not want to go into anesthesia because of fears caused by this story.
Jury-trials are indeed unsuitable to decide this kind of thing. The jury may decide to convict even on flimsy or non-existent evidence to “protect the public”, just in case. And experts can only make a marginal impression on a jury basically in shock from the claimed magnitude of the crime.
That is not to say this person is innocent. But this thing stinks in several ways. Will be interesting to see what happens on appeal.
There was a similar case in the UK quite some time ago. I’m not sure that I remember all the details correctly. The anaesthetist told all the other theatre staff to leave at the end of the procedure, as he wanted to do some sort of test (or whatever). I think the women sort of remembered him assaulting them; the staff became suspicious, and, I think, caught him in the act. His case was heard before the General Medical Council; he was struck off. I can’t remember if there was a criminal case.
I’m really liking Belle Knox too! Especially since she has yet to throw any other sex workers (ie. prostitutes, escorts, strippers, etc) under the bus in order to differentiate herself from others.
I worry, however, that the powers that be at Duke will demand some sort of “profession of faith” in return for letting her stay enrolled. Would not be unprecedented.
True. We’ll see.
Duke University is no stranger to national sex “scandals”.
They did suspend the two Lacrosse players that had not graduated after they were indicted for rape. They FIRED the Lacrosse coach and suspended two games – or something like that. The students were readmitted when the charges were de-railed.
Important to know here – that though the Lacrosse players had charges dropped – Duke still KNEW they had been involved in unsavory conduct with “strippers” and “alcohol” – yet they let ’em back in.
And Karen Owen – I think she was allowed to graduate after her infamous “power point” fuck list (with names and photos) – which was absolutely WRONG on her part.
I would not want to guess how they will react.
I suspect she will be allowed to stay – she hasn’t broken any laws.
Were I the President of Duke I’d say …
“One – she hasn’t broken any laws. Two – she’s a good student who doesn’t cause any problems. Three – she tried to keep the university out of it. Four – Jesus ministered to sinners. We don’t her conduct … but it happened off campus on her own free time. I don’t see how leaving her here harms Duke and it may bring this lady back on the right track.”
Of course – I don’t think she was ever on the “wrong track” – but just sayin’ – if I were the Duke President and all … this is what I’d say to the religious people phoning and faxing me for her dismissal.
Seems easy.
Half of controversy is reaction to it. Take the high road and minimize the reaction. I actually believe that religious institutions are better at this than the government.
Belle Knox rocks. I wish her all the best.
The Nordic model for the UK:
The Report from All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade only dealt with England and Wales, not the whole of the UK. Scotland and N Ireland have Assemblies where Criminal Justice is devolved. In Scotland, Rhoda Grant’s Bill to introduce the Nordic model failed; in N Ireland, Lord Morrow’s bill is progressing through the Assembly.
The Guardian reported thus:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/03/selling-sex-decriminalised-buying-illegal-mps
Some of the comments are interesting; the Chair of the Group is described as an Evangelical Christian and former Minister.
The APPG received support, including it seems financial support, from CARE. Their website is here:
http://www.care.org.uk/
and has a link to their views on the report. CARE aims ‘to make a Christian difference’.
The APPG is registered in the Members’ interests in parliament:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/prostitution-and-the-global-sex-trade.htm
The APPG’s website is:
http://appgprostitution.org/
though it doesn’t say much; there is a link to the full report at:
http://appgprostitution.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/shifting-the-burden.pdf
This does have a detailed account of the present legal position in the UK, and this does seem to be accurate. The Report summarises the evidence presented to it; what isn’t apparent is exactly how they reached their conclusions, their working through of possible options.
Note: the term ‘common prostitute’ seems to have been first used in law in the Vagrancy Act of 1824. This Act dealt with the ‘problem’ of homelessness amongst those who had fought in the Napoleonic wars, and had returned to the UK. It is still in force, and is still used by the Metropolitan Police.
A ‘common prostitute’ was what would today be called a streetwalker. The legal definition of a common prostitute includes the words ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’, though ‘indiscriminate’ does not mean absolutely indiscriminate.
Traffic Jam – “Once you’ve prostituted you can never not have prostituted…Having that many body parts in your body parts, having that many body fluids near you and doing things that are freaky and weird really messes up your ideas of what a relationship looks like, and intimacy”. All non-relationship sex would be banned by this rationale.
King of the Hill – “One of the big questions I get is, ‘Is this for real?'” Heise said. “The answer is it’s absolutely a real problem. It’s happening in Michigan and it’s happening in our community.” It seems like there is a substantial amount of skepticism out there.
Gorged With Meaning – She seems like a smart and normal young lady; which is of course what the prohibitionists and their useful idiots hate most of all.
This my favorite quote from the Reason article about strip clubs in NYC:
<>
So let’s shut down high schools along with other institutions that are actually associated with crime, i.e., gas stations/convenience stores and banks!
🙂
The quote:
University of California-Santa Barbara professor Daniel Linz, who has done substantial research on the issue, says there are problems with many of the studies that do purport to show huge crime increases in areas around sexually-oriented businesses. “Those studies that are scientifically credible demonstrate either no negative secondary effects associated with adult businesses or a reversal of the presumed negative effect,” he told Salon in 2012. “We’ve done crime map after crime map after crime map of many cities and there just aren’t clusters of crime around [strip clubs]. Most crime in most cities tends to occur around high schools.”
Bah, facts! Who cares about facts when some nice prejudices are to be had.
Most people fail at developing a sense of what is real and what is not and are hence easily manipulated by creating bogus threats.
I am at a loss as to why you are cheering for this Belle Knox. This is the same person who will gladly throw you under the bus for “promoting sexual abuse”, “emotional abuse”, “economic abuse”, “being cis-sexist”, “being patriarchal” without a second thought. This is not to mention that she will do far worse things to men, as the array of imaginary charges that women’s studies colleges bring against them is even wider.
Her flight to take cover under the accepting mantle of feminism and sex workers’ rights (which are in constant conflict, as you well know) has absolutely nothing to do with her concern for actual sex workers, women or freedom. She is just parroting some lines about “being a threat to the patriarchy” (I didn’t know we had one!) because that is the dominant side in today’s mainstream media and thus provides her with the biggest chance to remove negative consequences from her reckless actions.
Why do I say that her actions are reckless? If this was truly about money, she would have worked as an escort instead, not to mention having made use of many financial options, scholarships and transfers available to her. She even boasts about spending the money on iPhones and handbags instead of her tutition. However, money was not her goal – it was the attention that she wanted. And when she finally got it, she panicked about the negative aspects that come with such attention and started looking for shelter.
Fortunately, getting shelter is easy today. Anyone who repeats some empty claims about “patriarchy” is welcome in feminist circles, as we can see from the warm welcome that bizzare creatures such as Hugo Schwyzer had received.
I have absolutely nothing against her using her female youth and beauty to earn money. If I were a woman, I would do the same. However, I have issues with her hypocrisy. Her claims are disturbingly similar to those of Octomom or Catarina Migliorini. It’s a classic case of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I don’t know whether Belle expected to be “outed” or not. If she thought she could keep her porn persona and her college one separated, surely she was either stupid or naive. It seems clear enough that any girl who has worked in porn for whatever reason will sooner or later be recognised; and hounded, lest the “sex rays” or miasmic emanations corrupt all around her. And there are two further problems for her to think over. Firstly, porn doesn’t pay as well as it did 20 years ago—or so the UK media tells us. Secondly, those who enter porn at an early age usually seem to forgo their (formal) education, and when their acting career ends, they face financial hardship, having no “fall back”. I suppose, though, that if she finishes her law studies she could be employed by a porn company or something similar.
Re: Operation Rose. I think your libertarianism blinds you to potential allies, Maggie, and that is at great cost to your sex worker cause. Check out the video blow of the Young Turks, a progressive news program, talking about the Operation Rose case. They seem to be coming at it from very nearly the same perspective you do. I think progressives and libertarians are very nearly identical in their stand on the rights of sex workers. Allies are good things.
You’re barking up the wrong tree, dude; go take a look at the way Salon and Alternet demonize libertarians, and then come back and tell me who are the ones who are “blind to potential allies”. Here, I’ll help you with a relatively recent, particularly-stupid example. Frankly, I can’t believe that anyone who’s read more than a handful of my columns could accuse me of something so ridiculous.
[…] highly-criticized factory for generating bogus prohibitionist studies and the academic leg of the awful Project ROSE. And who, pray tell, financed the development of this data-mining program? Why, the Defense […]