If they come for me in the morning, they’re coming for you that night. – Monica Jones
Eleven months ago Monica Jones, a transgender sex worker, activist and social work student at Arizona State, was arrested for “manifestation of prostitution”, Arizona’s label for the tyrannical laws which allow cops virtually everywhere in the United States to arrest any woman they like by claiming she “acted like a whore”. The tag “Lack of Evidence” is full of such instances, and I synopsized a few of them in “Be Careful Who You Rape”:
…When prostitution is criminalized to any degree, women who carry condoms, answer personal ads, wear sexy lingerie, go without lingerie, fail forced “virginity tests”, ask a cop if he’s a cop, “act sexy”, go out after dark without a male chaperone, or even just “look like a prostitute” are regularly arrested and charged with having sex for a reason some people don’t like…
Though there have been a few cases of such ridiculously-flimsy charges being struck down lately, those were not in Phoenix, Arizona, a city so addicted to authoritarianism it has kept Joe Arpaio in office for 22 years. Jones argued in class with Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, the ethically-retarded academic paid by Arizona prohibitionists to produce bogus “studies” for them; she was thrown out of a previous “diversion” program for refuting the lies and exaggerations the propagandists were trying to drum into their victims; she has prominently protested the blatantly-unconstitutional Project ROSE; and she has posted Backpage ads to warn sex workers about the stings held to force women into the program. In other words, she was a known enemy of the Phoenix prohibitionist machine and ventured into public (i.e. cop territory) during a time she knew they were out hunting; it was a virtual certainty she would be arrested. And though many activists expressed shock and surprise when she was found guilty eleven days ago, I would’ve been extremely surprised had she not been. The American courts are not about justice; they are about providing the appearance of due process while grinding up every single person cops and prosecutors decide to target, and the few who escape are like the bits of meat that are occasionally hurled free from a mechanized abattoir and go flying to the floor: not totally chopped to pieces, but not the same as when they went in, either.
As is typical in emotionally-charged legal cases, there are a lot of rumors and half-truths flying about; I therefore think it would behoove us to set the record straight on a few matters. First: the statement which I’ve heard more than any other since this whole thing started is that Monica was arrested for “walking while trans”, in other words unjustly profiled as a sex worker based on nothing other than her transgender status. But while it’s true that cops do often wrongly assume transgender women are all hookers and harass them on that basis, this was obviously not what happened in Monica’s case; as I explained above, she was a persistent gadfly and a thorn in the prohibitionists’ side, and would no doubt have been targeted for that reason no matter what her race or gender status. Furthermore, it’s a bit disingenuous to say she was wrongly profiled when she is in fact a “known prostitute” and a vocal member of SWOP Phoenix. Her arrest was wrongful because laws against sex workers are wrongful, not because she was misidentified.
Next, as I pointed out above, the US court system is not designed to produce justice but to produce prisoners, and while there are some wise jurists out there who really do care about justice, they generally aren’t judging misdemeanor cases in municipal courts. The typical judge at this level isn’t a brilliant doctor of the law carefully considering questions of fairness and constitutionality; he’s a fair-to-middling lawyer who graduated in the bottom half of his class and is more concerned with what he’s going to have for lunch than whether a law under which someone’s been charged is just or moral. Such a man isn’t interested in rocking the boat; he pretends to believe whatever lies cops vomit out, decides whether the defendant probably did whatever it was, then reads out whatever’s on the little idiot-proof sentencing chart the ruling legislature insists he follow. Monica admitted to grabbing the cop’s crotch (for some unfathomable reason); that alone was enough to convict her under the statute even if Hizzoner had been disinclined to play the stooge for lying cops that day.
Finally, given the circumstances as explained above, the judge was actually fairly lenient by Conviction, Inc standards. In recent years the judicial branch’s power has been eroded very badly by both the legislative and executive branches; plea-bargaining and universal criminality have handed control of the proceedings to the prosecutor (executive branch), and mandatory sentencing has allowed the legislative branch to usurp much of the remaining judicial authority. Having declared Monica guilty, the judge was bound by law to sentence her to at least 30 days, which is what he gave her. The suggested fine was $2500, but he had the authority to reduce it for hardship; he lowered it to $150. Arizona’s fascist prison system also demands a prisoner pay for his own abduction and mistreatment, to the tune of $2540.70 for 30 days; the judge used a loophole (because Monica is a student) to lower that to $350. Moreover, he deferred the sentence until the end of May so as not to interrupt her school semester, and also said he would stay the sentence if she filed an appeal within the required 14 days. If she does go to jail, it will undoubtedly be the men’s jail because this is, once again, Arizona we’re talking about; however, she would be placed in solitary confinement for the duration as she was last time and would therefore “only” be in danger of rape or assault from the guards rather than the other prisoners as well.
It goes without saying that I’m neither defending the conviction itself, nor the caging of human beings on the say-so of subhuman thugs. I’m merely pointing out that it’s foolish to expect a bean-counter to paint pictures or compose violin concertos when he is paid to (and is indeed only qualified to) count beans, and that it’s naïve in the extreme to expect anything but tyranny from the worst pocket dictatorship in America. If Monica can find lawyers to handle her appeal pro bono (or nearly so), she has a chance of winning based on a judgment of the law itself at the appellate level, but there is no guarantee of that; cases like this can work their way all the way up to the Supreme Court if the losing party has enough time and money to pursue it that far. Clearly, neither Monica herself nor SWOP has that kind of resources, and I’m not really sanguine about anyone else (like the ACLU) investing in it. The case has, however, drawn international attention and is even being watched by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights; perhaps some deep-pocketed organization will finally decide to stop dodging the issue and commit itself to sex worker rights by challenging the laws that let cops arrest virtually any woman they like without any valid reason at all.
I look forward to the column you linked at the end (in 10 days).
You can read it right now on Cliterati.
Ah. Thanks.
“The American courts are not about justice; they are about providing the appearance of due process while grinding up every single person cops and prosecutors decide to target, and the few who escape are like the bits of meat that are occasionally hurled free from a mechanized abattoir and go flying to the floor: not totally chopped to pieces, but not the same as when they went in, either.”
I think that’s the best description of the system I’ve ever read.
Your basic thesis is very good “People will find the bad things they want to find even if they have to go to great lengths to make the evidence fit the narrative. I spent 3 years working in a facility treating adolescent sex offenders and it became clear that the staff were rewarded for getting our young clients to “disclose” ever more heinous acts of abuse. Of course that meant we then rewarded the kids for making such “disclosures”. Of course we just created a system by which we encouraged these teens to make up stories so as to make us look like great therapists. Worse yet, as a social worker I saw over and over again children who became traumatized about sexual events in their environment only after the therapists convinced them they should be traumatized by something that had not previously bothered them.
I teach my students now to realized that all organizations become self-serving no matter why they were originally created. This post and others of your post goes to show how that works. The “Puritans” create a myth to help them combat “sin” only to forget that the evidence they then cite is a myth of their creation.
Keep up the good work.
” on the say-so of subhuman thugs” More like on the say-so of state funded subhuman thugs.
Those were indeed the subhuman thugs to whom I was referring.
Hey, I agree with a lot of what you wrote above–love your succinct evisceration of the justice system and the mediocrity of most judges–but I think that Monica’s trans status certainly added to the motivation to target her, Otherwise, why weren’t cis SWOP activists who were similarly vocal set up instead? Also, Monica spoke in my interview with her about being stopped prior to and subsequent to her arrest–along with trans friends of hers who weren’t activists–really just for walking down the street. Finally, Monica may have made the wrong decision re: grabbing the cop’s crotch, but it wasn’t an “unfathomable” one–this is a common method used by some sex workers, particularly street sex workers, to see if a potential client is a cop. If the man tries to shy away because he doesn’t actually want to do anything sexual in the line of duty–assuming the state doesn’t have laws like Hawaii (ughh) used to, the assumption is he’s not a cop. It’s a fallible practice but it’s a common and relatable one.
Oh, I totally agree that Monica’s trans status was one of a number of factors; I merely think it’s highly disingenuous to boil it down to “walking while trans” in her case. I totally realize that many transwomen are arrested for exactly that, but in Monica’s case it was clearly a case of targeting someone they knew and wanted to “punish”.
Monica has been targeted and harassed by the police even before she ever was arrested. Since she decided to fight her charges she has been harassed, stopped and, at times, handcuffed four times. I agree with you that the harassment stems from her being a thorn in the side of the state’s agenda, but, this isn’t so black and white. Being a trans women of color has A LOT to do with her arrest as well as the harassment she has suffered before her arrests and well as after. The activism and intersectionalities work in a synergistic way making it way more complex then what you are conveying and I believe that this is why this case has received so much attention.
As someone who is extremely close to Monica and the case, Monica is fighting the charges and has an appellate attorney who is working the case pro bono. The ACLU are still heavily involved. She basically has a whole team of people who are working for her without compensation. Including myself.
If you want the “facts” go to the source.
Jaclyn
SWOP PHX
See my comment to Caty; I totally agree her trans status was a factor. My gripe is that some people are trying to make that the #1 factor, when it seems far more likely her activism was the primary motive.
I’m really glad to hear she has a pro bono defense; that’s a big relief. Please keep me posted on developments!
Also, Monica grabbed the police officer because she believed she was being kidnapped because he did not pull over when she told him to. She was about to mace the guy and needed to know if he was an officer. She could tell by his reaction that he was and she was actually relieved.
This is a great piece, very nicely done. I hope you don’t mind if I link to it from my campaign site – I was looking to comment on the Monica Jones affair but you’ve done it better than I ever could.