Backpage CEO arrested

[Beancounter]

Interesting news story I thought everyone might enjoy.

 

CEO of alleged sex trafficking site arrested in Texas http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/texas-news/ceo-of-alleged-sex-trafficking-site-arrested-in-texas/329682721 (Via WFAA)

[stop]

Interesting news story I thought everyone might enjoy.

 

CEO of alleged sex trafficking site arrested in Texas http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/texas-news/ceo-of-alleged-sex-trafficking-site-arrested-in-texas/329682721 (Via WFAA)

 

 

link didn't work. corrected link:

 

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/texas-news/ceo-of-alleged-sex-trafficking-site-arrested-in-texas/329682721

[BigK]

Another waste of taxpayer money and policing resources. Don't we have more important things to worry about?

[+ Gar1eth]

link didn't work. corrected link:

 

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/texas-news/ceo-of-alleged-sex-trafficking-site-arrested-in-texas/329682721

 

I had no idea the site was Texas based.

 

Another waste of taxpayer money and policing resources. Don't we have more important things to worry about?

 

I may have to disagree with you. Going after Rentboy was one thing. I doubt very many advertisers on Rentboy were forced into offering their services. If there is a pattern, however, of sex trafficking on Backpage then something needs to be done. I don't know what the answer is. I believe legitimate ads ought to be left alone. But there ought to be safeguards against trafficking. Unfortunately with the laws the way they stand now, I can't see a site like Backpage being able to police themselves.

 

Gman

[+ quoththeraven]

The problem is that it's not easy for a general site like Backpage to prevent the posting of ads by traffickers or people they've trafficked, so this becomes a crusade to which many hours of police work is devoted.

 

I believe that it would be easier to identify and go after traffickers if sex work were not wholesale criminalized. Existing laws against underage sex and trafficking are sufficient.

 

Bottom line: this is not as different from the Rentboy bust as you may think even though the targeted ads are likely to have been for female sex workers. Right now the news is so recent that there are no details.

 

Also, some of it doesn't make sense anyway. How is someone forced into sex work through escort ads?

[+ Gar1eth]

 

Also, some of it doesn't make sense anyway. How is someone forced into sex work through escort ads?

 

The people are already forced. The ads publicize their availablity.

 

Gman

[BaronArtz]

 

How is someone forced into sex work through escort ads?

 

This question, and the way you frame the problem is entirely irrelevant and in fact, totally ignorant.

 

The ads publicize, facilitate, enhance and magnify the issues facing sex workers including, but not limited to, abuse.

[+ quoththeraven]

The people are already forced. The ads publicize their availablity.

 

Gman

 

It's a tortured use of the English language. Not infrequently, that is a sign that there is a lot of intellectual rot underpinning the allegations.

 

This question, and the way you frame the problem is entirely irrelevant and in fact, totally ignorant.

 

The ads publicize, facilitate, enhance and magnify the issues facing sex workers including, but not limited to, abuse.

 

If you had read the article carefully, you would have seen that is what is alleged. I didn't make that wording up.

[coriolis888]

 

Also, some of it doesn't make sense anyway. How is someone forced into sex work through escort ads?

 

 

They are not forced into sex work by ads placed on Backpage (or other publications or sites).

 

The current so-called arrest and "investigation" are just more b/s excuses to harass sex workers and companies or sites that allow advertising of sex worker services.

 

-

[+ Gar1eth]

The current so-called arrest and "investigation" are just more b/s excuses to harass sex workers and companies or sites that allow advertising of sex worker services.

 

-

 

I don't deny that. But from what I read sex trafficking is a real problem. Backpage contributes more to it than most likely Rentmen or M4RN does.

 

Gman

[Mocha]

I had no idea the site was Texas based.

 

I may have to disagree with you. Going after Rentboy was one thing. I doubt very many advertisers on Rentboy were forced into offering their services. If there is a pattern, however, of sex trafficking on Backpage then something needs to be done. I don't know what the answer is. I believe legitimate ads ought to be left alone. But there ought to be safeguards against trafficking. Unfortunately with the laws the way they stand now, I can't see a site like Backpage being able to police themselves.

 

Gman

 

" Late Thursday afternoon, Texas investigators were executing a search warrant at Backpage's offices at the corner of Oak Lawn and Maple Avenues in Dallas."

[+ Gar1eth]

" Late Thursday afternoon, Texas investigators were executing a search warrant at Backpage's offices at the corner of Oak Lawn and Maple Avenues in Dallas."

 

Fairly near the Dallas Eagle which is at Inwood and Maple.

 

Gman

[+ Keith30309]

The scenario that occurs is that young females of mostly Asian and Hispanic ethnicity are brought into the US under questionably legal circumstances and are wholly dependent upon one or more individuals (not entirely men). They have no money, speak little English and know no one in the city and, therefore, have little choice other than do as they are told. Their <whatever word you want but basically a pimp> places the Backpage ad and handles all the money. The women live in group squalor and are rotated either thru a "spa" or private house. In some circumstances they are moved from city to city after being discovered and raided by local authorities. THIS backpage ad was posted after I started typing this post. I've never heard of this occurring with males.

 

I can only speak to Atlanta but this is more common than you might think. There are certain areas in town where these houses are a poorly kept secret and it seems to have become an intractable problem over the years.

There's really nothing consensual about any of this type of operation and, like it or not, Backpage has replaced print media and word of mouth as the means by which these people make themselves known. I definitely agree that the legalization of legitimate sex work would make it far easier to identify and erraticate these kinds of exploitive operations.

[+ Keith30309]

link didn't work. corrected link:

 

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/texas-news/ceo-of-alleged-sex-trafficking-site-arrested-in-texas/329682721

Jeesh- I was at IAH at 2:00

[+ Keith30309]

I don't deny that. But from what I read sex trafficking is a real problem. Backpage contributes more to it than most likely Rentmen or M4RN does.

 

Gman

I would go further than that and my hunch is that RM/M4RN do not contribute in any measurable way to trafficing. On the other hand I think that BP and other, smaller web presences, do facilitate exploitation, though the vast majority of content is not of that nature.

[+ Gar1eth]

Recently in Tacoma

 

 

 

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article99552747.html

 

Nine massage parlors in Lakewood, Tacoma busted in prostitution stings

From the article:

"A woman suspected of prostituting herself in one of the parlors was arrested during Thursday’s raid.

 

She told police she earned $10 a day working in the parlor, was allowed to keep half the money from her sexual acts and lived in an apartment above one of the parlors."

 

 

Gman

 

 

[+ sniper]

I just think the numbers are blown all out of proportion. The market couldn't possibly support the numbers activists claim. Wouldn't leaving the ads there give the authorities somewhere to start their investigation of the traffickers and shut them down? It seems like the thing to do would be leave backpage itself alone but answer the ads and make arrests?

[CCMaryland]

Never scoured the ads on BP. Now I know why. Meh.

[maninsoma]

The scenario that occurs is that young females of mostly Asian and Hispanic ethnicity are brought into the US under questionably legal circumstances and are wholly dependent upon one or more individuals (not entirely men). They have no money, speak little English and know no one in the city and, therefore, have little choice other than do as they are told. Their <whatever word you want but basically a pimp> places the Backpage ad and handles all the money. The women live in group squalor and are rotated either thru a "spa" or private house. In some circumstances they are moved from city to city after being discovered and raided by local authorities. THIS backpage ad was posted after I started typing this post. I've never heard of this occurring with males.

 

I can only speak to Atlanta but this is more common than you might think. There are certain areas in town where these houses are a poorly kept secret and it seems to have become an intractable problem over the years.

There's really nothing consensual about any of this type of operation and, like it or not, Backpage has replaced print media and word of mouth as the means by which these people make themselves known. I definitely agree that the legalization of legitimate sex work would make it far easier to identify and erraticate these kinds of exploitive operations.

 

To add to what you wrote, it's also marginalized young teens (mostly female, but some male) who were born here who get involved. Think of kids who live in homes where there really isn't anyone who cares about them (whether they are still with their families or in foster care). They meet older "boyfriends" who initially seem very nice to them because they seem loving and have money. Next thing you know, they are having sex with other men at the request of the "boyfriend." And if they don't want to comply, they are threatened, beaten, or maybe worse. Not to mention that by this time, they may have already become drug addicts through drugs provided by their "boyfriends."

 

This is a real problem. I would hope that anyone who posts here would acknowledge that there is a difference between a person legally old enough to make his/her own decisions to decide to do sex work versus a less-than-age-of-consent person being manipulated by someone older into becoming a sex worker and then not allowed to quit, even if she/he doesn't want to do it.

[LADoug1]

I wonder why trafficking is so much more prevalent with females than with males.

[+ quoththeraven]

Recently in Tacoma

 

 

 

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article99552747.html

 

Nine massage parlors in Lakewood, Tacoma busted in prostitution stings

 

From the article:

 

"A woman suspected of prostituting herself in one of the parlors was arrested during Thursday’s raid.

 

She told police she earned $10 a day working in the parlor, was allowed to keep half the money from her sexual acts and lived in an apartment above one of the parlors."

 

 

Gman

 

 

 

Which is why there may also be a place for laws against pimping, brothels and public solicitation, which are outlawed in the parts of the UK where sex work is neither illegal nor regulated (my personal preference, and I believe that of sex worker advocacy groups), even though those laws themselves are problematic because of law enforcement's expansive and woodenly literal interpretation of them.

 

For example, renting an apartment to a sex worker could be viewed as pimping, as can sex worker collectives meant to keep a worker safe or the hiring of someone to help with scheduling. And does meeting a client in public - say, at McDonald's or Starbucks - constitute public solicitation? Perhaps the problem public solicitation laws are meant to address should be left to the more general crime of loitering.

 

To add to what you wrote, it's also marginalized young teens (mostly female, but some male) who were born here who get involved. Think of kids who live in homes where there really isn't anyone who cares about them (whether they are still with their families or in foster care). They meet older "boyfriends" who initially seem very nice to them because they seem loving and have money. Next thing you know, they are having sex with other men at the request of the "boyfriend." And if they don't want to comply, they are threatened, beaten, or maybe worse. Not to mention that by this time, they may have already become drug addicts through drugs provided by their "boyfriends."

 

This is a real problem. I would hope that anyone who posts here would acknowledge that there is a difference between a person legally old enough to make his/her own decisions to decide to do sex work versus a less-than-age-of-consent person being manipulated by someone older into becoming a sex worker and then not allowed to quit, even if she/he doesn't want to do it.

 

One problem with the anti-sex work crew is that it is still working off an outdated mentality in which it's those damn foreigners who are the problem. Yes, international trafficking is a problem, and by its very nature is probably more organized and requires a bigger support structure than the more casual exploitation of disaffected, neglected or runaway teens, but it is not the whole picture.

 

I don't remember her name, but I've read essays by a teenager who was pimped by her stepfather. She felt that she was better off and more empowered living on her own, attending school and continuing to support herself with sex work than she was being placed in foster care and given "help" by rescue organizations that impoverished her, exposed her to molestation by members of her foster family, and was of no practical use. It was powerful and convincing stuff.

 

I wonder why trafficking is so much more prevalent with females than with males.

 

Because of patriarchy. Slightly longer answer: The teenage essayist mentioned above faces the same reality as her Victorian-era sister: independent sex work pays better, and has better hours, than any so-called "honest work" she is qualified for.

 

Another part of it is women's greater vulnerability to physical and sexual violence. But that too cycles back to gender roles.

 

@marylander1940 would probably say it's because it's one of the few professions (along with porn and modeling) in which women make more than men. While it's not entirely clear that's the case, it seems safe to say there is at least rough parity instead of the wage gap that exists in "honest professions." That's not even to speak of the fact that jobs that are predominantly filled by women or are female-identified are generally also lower-paid.

[maninsoma]

I wonder why trafficking is so much more prevalent with females than with males.

 

The other answer is that there is a much larger market for underage girls because the main buyers are men and there are a lot more heterosexual men than gay men.

[Phlmuscle]

Every time there is an election coming up the sex patrol comes out. Do you see a pattern here? Your politicans at work.

[+ quoththeraven]

There is a real need to undo the notion that only certain types of sex or relationships among adults are moral or ethical and others aren't even if they are known and consented to by everyone involved. I'm thinking of non-monogamy and polyamory irrespective of how many people are involved, their gender identity, and their relationship status, as well as sexual orientation.

 

That kind of simplistic, moralistic "men are cheaters and women are exploited" thinking is behind the persecution of openly transactional sex instead of that portion of it that actually is inherently harmful and exploitative.

[+ saminseattle]

I would hope that anyone who posts here would acknowledge that there is a difference between a person legally old enough to make his/her own decisions to decide to do sex work versus a less-than-age-of-consent person being manipulated by someone older into becoming a sex worker and then not allowed to quit, even if she/he doesn't want to do it.

 

The problem is that the people who are pushing these crackdowns fail to acknowledge that difference. We are all opposed to the sexual abuse of minors and the coercion of vulnerable people into sex work against their will. But many people are also ideologically opposed to voluntary sex work by consenting adults. Indeed, these people often refuse to accept that this kind of work should ever be seen as voluntary or legitimate, since they believe it is inherently maladaptive and immoral. (see, for example, http://seattleops.org/what-we-do/mens-accountability/; an alternative ideology, to which I tend to subscribe, can be found here: https://sexworkclients.org/myths-vs-facts/ ).

 

These folks seek the “abolition” of prostitution by trying to “end demand.” And while this is obviously a silly goal that they will never achieve, they have been very successful recently in using the prosecutorial apparatus of the State to crack down on webpages and webpage operators to further their agenda. (see, for example, http://seattleops.org/buyer-beware/, http://www.companyofmen.org/threads/followup-on-amnesty-internationals-call-for-decriminalization.113549/, http://www.companyofmen.org/threads/crackdown-continues.110695/). This success is not because everyone agrees with their philosophy—opinion is actually quite divided about legalization as a general matter—rather, it is because they and the government authorities involved focus their public statements exclusively on cases of minors and coercion/trafficking, about which there is a widespread consensus. In essence, they disguise their effort to crack down on all prostitution (about which people are ambivalent) by constantly conflating it with the most abusive forms of prostitution that everyone is against. That is why I, for one, am always skeptical when I see these arrests and website seizures justified by the need to protect vulnerable women and children. While this is a real problem, I don’t thinking shutting down escort advertising sites like Redbook, Rentboy, or TheReviewBoard.net, or arresting the CEO of Backpage is the solution.