Ladies & Gentlemen what is your opinion on Legalizing Prostitution?

Partial article I found to be interesting....

Some researchers say a reason for the inordinate amount of police attention to prostitution is that certain officers prefer duties enabling them to be with attractive women in hotel rooms or massage parlors. The duties are more pleasant, far less dangerous, and less complex than assignments requiring them to be among violent criminals who may be carrying weapons.

For instance, in 1999 at least one of the vice-squad officers in Columbus, Ohio, was regularly having sexual intercourse with prostitutes before arresting them. After receiving negative publicity about that practice, the police division issued new guidelines limiting officers to getting completely naked with prostitutes; touching their thigh, genitals, buttock, pubic region, breast, or other regions to the extent needed "to obtain the necessary elements of the offense"; being masturbated briefly; and "momentarily" having sexual intercourse if it's "in spite of all reasonable efforts of the officer to stop." (In practice, though, the officers apparently find it necessary to use those tactics only in arresting female - not male - prostitutes.)

Despite the revised guidelines, in 2003 the Columbus Dispatch quoted one court clerk as describing the officers' arrest reports as sometimes being so steamy she "should have a cigarette after reading it." The head of the vice squad acknowledged to the newspaper that "it appears officers are engaging in sexual contact."

His officers give new meaning to being "in hot pursuit." Unfortunately for the public, this nonsense goes on at the same time that Columbus has over 400 unsolved murders since 1990, including several prostitutes brutally murdered by a possible serial killer. When a frightened group of senior citizens and disabled persons asked in 2004 for more protection from violent crime, the Columbus police chief turned them down, saying, "Seventy-eight times a day we are unable to fill a cruiser because of lack of personnel."

As for white-collar crime, the police undoubtedly know that their jobs and careers are safer by making prostitution arrests than by investigating criminals who cause serious harm but either wield political power or have strong connections to those who do. And when the corruption involves others in the police force, the notorious "Blue Wall of Silence" leads all too many officers to ignore and protect the wrongdoing of badge-wearing criminals, too.  



-- Modified on 4/5/2006 9:11:14 AM