Jim Mork wrote:

So one big topic should be "how do you offset
the effects of poverty?"


WM: Sufficient money for at least three generations.

For instance, I
never talked about propositioning minors.  I'm all in favor or
prosecuting those who do, but what does that really have to do
with the question of prostitutes being on the street?

WM: Most females are forced into prostitution by the age of 14 usually by a family member or a "boyfriend." Street prostitutes are not invariably 14 at the beginning, but most are. This information from the Prostitution Task Force. If a female is forced into prostitution at 14, it's logical to say that
by the time she reaches adulthood her ability to "choose" to be or not be a prostituted woman is entirely gone, along with any sense of self she might have had.


It would
be the same result no matter where prostitutes did business from.
And how in the world can Jim make a statement about all
prostitutes without examining their cases. He alleges that no one
sells their body except to buy crack.


WM: The Prostitution Task Force can tell you that, but if you talk to them, the street hookers will tell you the same thing. They may not have started out prostitution for drugs, but the only way they can keep doing it is self medicating through street drugs. There are two who wander around my house who have been out here 20 years. They're both heroin mummies and have been forever. One has had all five of her children taken away from her. Every prostitute I see out here is on something--drugs and alcohol and poor diet.

Because I think that's a legend you swallowed hook, line, and
sinker.


WM: Not quite a legend. The street hookers are not successful at finding berths in saunas and they certainly don't qualify for expensive out call services. Even those who take their tricks to a hot sheet hotel start on the street each day.

the common complaint is that it is
happening on the street. Why does it happen on the street?


WM: The police can accurately describe the routine of the johns. The johns troll for hookers from their cars, going round and round an area till they find a hooker on the stroll. The police theorize that the johns search for hookers in a ritual fashion and a ritualized pattern. Since they have traced their routes, they can say that with some authority.

Has your police friends supplied you with a plan
not used by governmental authorities for the last five or six
thousand years?

WM: No, the police have not; however, women working against prostitution have asserted that the way to lessen prostitution is to arrest the johns and the pimps and follow through with strong court sanctions. It is true that johns who are caught seldom, if ever, return to the same area to find prostituted women.

So give me something fresh, OK?  Something that seems to
incorporate a wisdom born of familiarity with the long history of
civilization. That is how I expect Minneapolis to be governed,
not by recycled sermons from some Southern Baptist church.

WM: I doubt I'll come up with a Baptist solution, since I'm not Baptist. Nor a Catholic solution, since the church solution is stupid on the face of it. The enduring solution is to set ourselves to respect women and girls and reflect that respect in our behavior, laws and the way those laws are applied. The push for an equal rights amendment would go a long way in providing torque for a change. So would a demand by the body politic to sanction johns and pimps sternly. But in the end it's each person rooting out his/her misogyny personally. Kinda like rooting out one's own racism or classism. One day at a time.

WizardMarks, Central

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1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject 
(Mpls-specific, of course.)

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