Yous like to Party? Manhattan Stops Prosecuting Prostitution Cases

[Doc Reeves 6434]

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/549473-manhattan-will-no-longer-prosecute-prostitution

Quote

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. announced on Wednesday that his office would no longer prosecute prostitution and unlicensed massage.

The new policy, according to a press release from the office, will prevent unnecessary future contacts with the criminal justice system, eliminate the collateral consequences associated with having a prostitution case or conviction and "empower New Yorkers to interact with law enforcement without fear of arrest or deportation."

"Over the last decade we've learned from those with lived experience, and from our own experience on the ground: criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers," Vance said in a statement.

"By vacating warrants, dismissing cases, and erasing convictions for these charges, we are completing a paradigm shift in our approach," he added

Vance revealed the policy change at a virtual appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court when he moved to dismiss 914 prostitution and unlicensed massage cases, many of which dated back to the 1970s and 1980s.

Vance also moved to dismiss 5,080 loitering for the purpose of prostitution cases, which followed New York state's repeal of a decades-old anti-loitering law in February, known as the "Walking While Trans" law.

The district attorney's office, however, will continue to prosecute other crimes associated with prostitution, including patronizing sex workers and sex trafficking, The New York Times reported.

Abigail Swenstein, staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society's Exploitation Intervention Project, applauded Vance's policy change in a statement but still stressed the need for legislation that would "fully decriminalize sex work and provide for criminal record relief for people convicted of prostitution offense."

In January, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced that he planned to vacate more than 1,000 bench warrants related to prostitution and loitering.

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Doc Reeves

[Updawg 2378]

Unlicensed massages, must be trying to get deshaun Watson.

[Deej 77676]

Quote

The district attorney's office, however, will continue to prosecute other crimes associated with prostitution, including patronizing sex worker

So as long as I don't talk down the the hooker I hired, it's all good?

[Armybrat 41328]

Still gonna go after Stormy’s biggest client? 😀

[atomheartbevo 90550]

1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

Still gonna go after Stormy’s biggest client? 😀

From what she said, he's not her biggest. 🍄

[Armybrat 41328]

55 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

From what she said, he's not her biggest. 🍄

 

[gyroprotagonist 2597]

2 hours ago, Deej said:

So as long as I don't talk down the the hooker I hired, it's all good?

reminded me of this scene

Jules: Hash  prostitution is legal there, right?
Vincent: Yeah, it's legal, but it ain't a hundred percent legal. I mean, you can't walk into a restaurant, roll a joint drop trou and start puffing  boinking away. You're only supposed to smoke  boink in your home or certain designated places.
Jules: And those are hash unlicensed massage bars?
Vincent: It breaks down like this: it's legal to buy flash it, it's legal to own it, and if you're the proprietor of a hash unlicensed massage bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry  advertise it, but that doesn't really matter 'cause get a load of this, all right? If you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam Manhattan, it's illegal for them to search you arrest you for loitering. I mean, that's a right the cops in Amsterdam Manhattan don't have.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19279]

First pot, now prostitution. New York, it's a hell of a town.

[atomheartbevo 90550]

4 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

First pot, now prostitution. New York, it's a hell of a town.

Just need gambling and they could start pulling in some Vegas money.

[Underdog 29106]

^ Does Yonkers and LI count?  Both have casino/gaming spots. 

[Deej 77676]

32 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

New York, it's a hell of a town.

The Bronx is up, and I'm Brooklyn down. 

 

[Nicole44 22206]

Oh thank goodness y’all. I gotta get my credit score up! “When you get lost between the moon and New York City!” Fuck ya! 

[Leeroy Jenkins 2475]

2 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

Oh thank goodness y’all. I gotta get my credit score up! “When you get lost between the moon and New York City!” Fuck ya! 

Oh yeah?  What is your rate?  LOL

[WhatTheBuck 28904]

5 hours ago, Leeroy Jenkins said:

Oh yeah?  What is your rate?  LOL

Fifty bucks. Same as in town. 

[Bookman 4754]

Do they take Venmo?

[bernorange 8385]

Finally, the investment banking crowd on Wall Street has something to celebrate.

[scottsins 2040]

All jokes aside, this is a good move. The rationale behind prosecuting “johns” is that their actions feed sex trafficking, which obviously includes a shit ton of abusive acts and practices. The prostitutes themselves, are generally the victims of sex trafficking/being pimped/etc.

Fact: In my county I have come across cases where a customer and pro are busted in a park or whatever, where they arrest the pro and not the “patron”. I summarily dismiss those when they come across my desk.

Also, many counties have a setup where the johns can complete a “Stop Demand” class and get their charge reduced to a Class C ticket. The focus of that class is to get them to understand that most often, the workers are victims of all kinds of terrible shit. Decent idea, IMO.

What is totally bullshit is that there is no parallel type of special deal for the actual prostitutes (victims from the above class mentioned) who are just stuck with the full measure of their charges. It’s just contradictory AF.

* I ALWAYS reduce the charges for the workers in cases assigned to me, because my office gives us a great deal of discretion, but that’s more the exception than the rule.

[Js1 86950]

7 minutes ago, scottsins said:

All jokes aside, this is a good move. The rationale behind prosecuting “johns” is that their actions feed sex trafficking, which obviously includes a shit ton of abusive acts and practices. The prostitutes themselves, are generally the victims of sex trafficking/being pimped/etc.
 

This.

[TwiceHorn 31994]

17 minutes ago, scottsins said:

All jokes aside, this is a good move. The rationale behind prosecuting “johns” is that their actions feed sex trafficking, which obviously includes a shit ton of abusive acts and practices. The prostitutes themselves, are generally the victims of sex trafficking/being pimped/etc.

Fact: In my county I have come across cases where a customer and pro are busted in a park or whatever, where they arrest the pro and not the “patron”. I summarily dismiss those when they come across my desk.

Also, many counties have a setup where the johns can complete a “Stop Demand” class and get their charge reduced to a Class C ticket. The focus of that class is to get them to understand that most often, the workers are victims of all kinds of terrible shit. Decent idea, IMO.

What is totally bullshit is that there is no parallel type of special deal for the actual prostitutes (victims from the above class mentioned) who are just stuck with the full measure of their charges. It’s just contradictory AF.

* I ALWAYS reduce the charges for the workers in cases assigned to me, because my office gives us a great deal of discretion, but that’s more the exception than the rule.

That's good stuff.  And in a less than urban county.  Impressive.

I'm somewhat skeptical of these "market" driven justifications for criminal laws and prosecutions.  It makes a sort of intuitive sense, but I'm not sure it's really effective at reducing the problem.  Stop the Demand sounds like a more reasonable measure. On the other hand, I think a "market" approach to drugs would have been more effective than the "supply side" approach of the War on Drugs.  But I think the approach should still focus on things other than criminal prosecution and punishment.  Criminal laws just aren't an effective deterrent generally and I think that's even more true when you're dealing with behavior that has a compulsive element like drug use or sexual morals crimes.

For all its faults politically, Texas does seem to generate and implement some pretty progressive crime notions, and not necessarily in places you'd think that likely.

Edited April 22, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Restinmybones 111]

Since prostitutes are a majority of Manhattan's population, this makes sense.

[Restinmybones 111]

1 hour ago, bernorange said:

Finally, the investment banking crowd on Wall Street has something to celebrate.

Venereal disease for everyone. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

[next2naus 439]

12 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Just need gambling and they could start pulling in some Vegas money.

halfway there, we have casinos close to the city but they do not have true table games. it's all video gambling, give it time, its gonna happen. 

[Underdog 29106]

12 hours ago, Nicole44 said:

Oh thank goodness y’all. I gotta get my credit score up! “When you get lost between the moon and New York City!” Fuck ya! 

You're a hooker? Jesus, I forgot! I just thought I was doing GREAT with you!

[markstanco 12773]

Oh yeah?  What is your rate?  LOL

Generally a 20 year old is 2000 per hour. Roughly knock off a hundy for every year older.

So, Nicole has to give you money to bang her.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

2 hours ago, markstanco said:

Generally a 20 year old is 2000 per hour. Roughly knock off a hundy for every year older.

So, Nicole has to give you money to bang her.

This is pretty accurate. 

also remember you can get a porn star. If you dont have one locally, most of them will fuck you in Vegas for $2500 

[Underdog 29106]

Casinos fuck me enough while I was out there, don't need no porn star to get fucked over. 

[Underdog 29106]

2 hours ago, markstanco said:

So, Nicole has to give you money to bang her.

Go on... 

[Superhero 8993]

21 hours ago, markstanco said:

Generally a 20 year old is 2000 per hour. Roughly knock off a hundy for every year older.

Obviously you haven’t visited the Chicks over 40 that still have it thread.

Plenty on that thread I would like to sex up and get paid at the same time. 

[Wulaw Horn 19560]

I’d rather see this happen through legislation than by DA unilaterally declaring they won’t prosecute, but DA as an elected office does have the ability for citizens to have their voice heard if they don’t like the decision. 
This is completely a procedural argument for me- I doubt New York City residents have a problem with this and the justification for why they are doing it seems pretty solid. 

[TwiceHorn 31994]

2 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

I’d rather see this happen through legislation than by DA unilaterally declaring they won’t prosecute, but DA as an elected office does have the ability for citizens to have their voice heard if they don’t like the decision. 
This is completely a procedural argument for me- I doubt New York City residents have a problem with this and the justification for why they are doing it seems pretty solid. 

Fair point.  But, for now, most politicians lack the political courage to actually change the laws.  "Tough on crime" has served most politicians well, to date, and few of them possess the courage to do the right thing here.

As you note, DAs are subject to the political process, too; and only once they survive an election or two with progressive policies will state legislators (or federal) muster the political courage to depart from disastrous "tough on crime" policies.  Plus, if the "progressive" policy fails, it's easy enough to undo at the local level, whereas repealing legislation doesn't happen with sufficient regularity in practice.