Difference between revisions of "User:RahalMccall69"
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| − | + | He pointed to an incident two years ago at a Bethlehem Township motel: A guest left 1,400 packets of heroin in his room. The investigation led police to another room, where more drugs were found, along with strippers who were doing more than dancing.A week after that arrest, police were called back to the motel when a man was shot in the hallway during a robbery attempt. Some of the same names involved in the drug bust popped up during the shooting investigation, and then again weeks later when neighboring Colonial Regional police investigated an attempted robbery, Blake said. Prostitution is definitely not an isolated crime, he said. With it comes drugs, with drugs comes money and with both of those comes violence. Sex-trafficking lawsLawmakers in several <a href=http://www.alportico.net/page.php?sale=Gucci-Glass>Gucci Glass</a> states have asked backpage.com to end its adult services section as Craigslist did in 2010 when it faced similar criticism.New Jersey attempted to pass a state law last summer to block ads that depicted minors on the site, but a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional because websites are protected under the federal Communications Decency Act, meaning they are not liable for the material people say or post. A year earlier, citing the same reason, a federal judge struck down a Washington state law that would have required backpage.com to verify the ages of people in sex-related ads.McDougall said Pennsylvania lawmakers have not attempted anything similar.She says shutting down a domestic website such as backpage would lead to similar ads on offshore websites that do not cooperate with police or report exploitation. She said backpage employs 80 staffers who filter through ads to monitor for exploitation. They look for any illegal activity, she said, especially human trafficking. An automated filter, she added, looks for certain key words such as teen and schoolgirl. McDougall said backpage has cooperated with police during numerous investigations. Offshore websites would not do any of the monitoring that we do to prevent exploitation, she said. The aim of stopping the sex trafficking of minors, indeed the trafficking of any human being, is laudable. However, identifying and vilifying a single U.S. website <previously>Craigslist, now backpage.com] as the cause of the problem and the key to the solution are ill-founded and unproductive. A bill passed by the Legislature this month broadens the definition of sex trafficking to include more prostitution cases. Sponsored by state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, it defines sex trafficking as any commercial sex act in which a person is induced to perform by force, fraud, or coercion.Under the amended law, some prostitution-related offenses will be upped to felonies, according to Steve Zawisky, legal counsel for the House Democratic Caucus. For example, a john who knowingly patronizes a victim of sexual servitude is now looking at a second-degree felony, not a misdemeanor.The amendment also addresses the practice of withholding wages <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Miller-Sale>Tory Burch Miller Sale</a> or drugs to force someone into prostitution.Zawisky, a former Dauphin County prosecutor, said his research found only one attempt in the state to prosecute under the old human trafficking statute, which covered forced labor or services but not involuntary servitude and had no clear definition of sex trafficking. Most trafficking offenses were handled by the federal government, he said.Zawisky believes the more detailed definition of sex trafficking will lead to more successful convictions. I do think it will increase county prosecutions, he said. This is a wake-up call. Helping the womenChanges in the law reflect a change in the way police and others have come to see prostitution. Often, they say, the women they arrest are actually victims.Helene Harris is a case in point. She ran away from home at age 15 and into the arms of a smooth-talking man who promised her the world. She ended up on an Allentown street corner, working the stroll. In three decades, Harris said, she endured countless beatings, dozens of prostitution arrests and an addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. She said one beating resulted in reconstructive surgery to her rectum. I didn't know any better, said Harris, now <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Tall-Boots>Tory Burch Tall Boots</a> 53 and sober for the past nine years. I really didn't enjoy what I did, but when you have pimps in your life, you have to do as they say or you suffer the consequences. Harris said she was picked up by Allentown vice officers at least 55 times and charged mostly with loitering with intent to prostitute, a citation she said would cost her $50 at the time.During an arrest in early 1990, she was sentenced to a year in prison and warned of a tougher sentence if she landed in court again. Instead of fixing her life, Harris moved to Easton and got more involved with crack cocaine. That led to several drug arrests, including some for selling so she could support her habit. She lost custody of her four children. When her parents died while she was in state prison, she knew the time had come for her to change.Harris was released from prison in December 2010 with only the state-issued prison garb to her name. She stayed with a relative in Easton and attended church groups and other counseling sessions to prevent a drug relapse. | |
Revision as of 13:16, 1 October 2014
He pointed to an incident two years ago at a Bethlehem Township motel: A guest left 1,400 packets of heroin in his room. The investigation led police to another room, where more drugs were found, along with strippers who were doing more than dancing.A week after that arrest, police were called back to the motel when a man was shot in the hallway during a robbery attempt. Some of the same names involved in the drug bust popped up during the shooting investigation, and then again weeks later when neighboring Colonial Regional police investigated an attempted robbery, Blake said. Prostitution is definitely not an isolated crime, he said. With it comes drugs, with drugs comes money and with both of those comes violence. Sex-trafficking lawsLawmakers in several <a href=http://www.alportico.net/page.php?sale=Gucci-Glass>Gucci Glass</a> states have asked backpage.com to end its adult services section as Craigslist did in 2010 when it faced similar criticism.New Jersey attempted to pass a state law last summer to block ads that depicted minors on the site, but a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional because websites are protected under the federal Communications Decency Act, meaning they are not liable for the material people say or post. A year earlier, citing the same reason, a federal judge struck down a Washington state law that would have required backpage.com to verify the ages of people in sex-related ads.McDougall said Pennsylvania lawmakers have not attempted anything similar.She says shutting down a domestic website such as backpage would lead to similar ads on offshore websites that do not cooperate with police or report exploitation. She said backpage employs 80 staffers who filter through ads to monitor for exploitation. They look for any illegal activity, she said, especially human trafficking. An automated filter, she added, looks for certain key words such as teen and schoolgirl. McDougall said backpage has cooperated with police during numerous investigations. Offshore websites would not do any of the monitoring that we do to prevent exploitation, she said. The aim of stopping the sex trafficking of minors, indeed the trafficking of any human being, is laudable. However, identifying and vilifying a single U.S. website <previously>Craigslist, now backpage.com] as the cause of the problem and the key to the solution are ill-founded and unproductive. A bill passed by the Legislature this month broadens the definition of sex trafficking to include more prostitution cases. Sponsored by state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, it defines sex trafficking as any commercial sex act in which a person is induced to perform by force, fraud, or coercion.Under the amended law, some prostitution-related offenses will be upped to felonies, according to Steve Zawisky, legal counsel for the House Democratic Caucus. For example, a john who knowingly patronizes a victim of sexual servitude is now looking at a second-degree felony, not a misdemeanor.The amendment also addresses the practice of withholding wages <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Miller-Sale>Tory Burch Miller Sale</a> or drugs to force someone into prostitution.Zawisky, a former Dauphin County prosecutor, said his research found only one attempt in the state to prosecute under the old human trafficking statute, which covered forced labor or services but not involuntary servitude and had no clear definition of sex trafficking. Most trafficking offenses were handled by the federal government, he said.Zawisky believes the more detailed definition of sex trafficking will lead to more successful convictions. I do think it will increase county prosecutions, he said. This is a wake-up call. Helping the womenChanges in the law reflect a change in the way police and others have come to see prostitution. Often, they say, the women they arrest are actually victims.Helene Harris is a case in point. She ran away from home at age 15 and into the arms of a smooth-talking man who promised her the world. She ended up on an Allentown street corner, working the stroll. In three decades, Harris said, she endured countless beatings, dozens of prostitution arrests and an addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. She said one beating resulted in reconstructive surgery to her rectum. I didn't know any better, said Harris, now <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Tall-Boots>Tory Burch Tall Boots</a> 53 and sober for the past nine years. I really didn't enjoy what I did, but when you have pimps in your life, you have to do as they say or you suffer the consequences. Harris said she was picked up by Allentown vice officers at least 55 times and charged mostly with loitering with intent to prostitute, a citation she said would cost her $50 at the time.During an arrest in early 1990, she was sentenced to a year in prison and warned of a tougher sentence if she landed in court again. Instead of fixing her life, Harris moved to Easton and got more involved with crack cocaine. That led to several drug arrests, including some for selling so she could support her habit. She lost custody of her four children. When her parents died while she was in state prison, she knew the time had come for her to change.Harris was released from prison in December 2010 with only the state-issued prison garb to her name. She stayed with a relative in Easton and attended church groups and other counseling sessions to prevent a drug relapse.
