erniefreeman's Blog

I've often wondered in the "tough on crime" context, if this kind of stuff sells. Godwin touts this bust as if the prostitution train stops right here and right now. Look, if you're going to trample on our constitutional rights, as some have suggested the use of this law does, why not target people who are selling drugs, breaking into homes, stealing cars and terrorizing neighborhoods. Seriously. If we're going to crack down on criminals, while toeing the Constitutional line, let's really crack down.

I'm gonna catch a lot of flack for this comment I know but here goes anyway....Legalize prostitution.

Just so you know, Ernie, prostitutes are connectd to more than just "Johns" there customers are: wanted felons, drug dealers, child porn purveyors, general perverts, rapists, and generally those without enough sense to know better, especially in Memphis where the hookers are so dang unhealthy, or just to stupid.
They don't just operate on Brooks Road, they operate in school areas, in front of churches, in front of elementary schools, on residential streets, and they don't just stay in one area, they like to move around, making neighborhoods unlivable.
Sometimes they have crack, pot, booze, heroin, coke, meth, and they wil sell that around those aforementioned areas too, another felony.
Their ever-so-friendly "pimps" sell drugs too, they beat their prostitutes in public sometimes, sell stolen cars which means a car must be stolen, and burglarize homes and since they don't place much value on human life, they are more likely to kill you if you are still home.
You can not have a law abiding safe city by allowing crime to continue or legalizing amoral behavior as an industry. Memphis has already tried that solution and that is why 3/4 of this city is what the rest of the nation would call a ghetto.
Maybe you like to sit back and laugh at all the things these criminals do to other people and the misfortune of others from your tower, but, it is real painful for those of us who have to deal with the aftermath and no, it is not even funny to us, and yes, there a lot more of us than there are of you.
We the people are through with watching our neighborhoods go down in va

@ SianSkye I'm with you. You say "legalize prostitution." I say "decriminalize" prostitution. Just as beer selling, liquor selling, drug selling is legal.

Place terms & conditions on it's practice & legality. Give the hookers full medical, dental. Regulate the industry. Test the sex workers. Tax the profits. Use the Amsterdam model. Just as everyone can't practice medicine, sell drugs, or sell liquor. Legal prostitution should work in a similar way. Anybody working outside the "district", or outside the scope of the law, should be busted. And we shouldn't conflate issues.

A drug addicted woman, selling sex for drug money is something else. An uneducated woman whose only skill is leg spreading is something else. A criminal enterprise, led by gangs, is something else. A john who likes crack whores because they are cheaper is something else. Hookers who drug & rob johns is something else.

Decriminalizing prostitution won't stop "something else". But it will affect the incarceration rates in this city. It will change the stigma associated with prostitution. And it will allow a place, or safe haven for people who have a need, or fetish for purchased sex. Alot of the cop dodging, corner hustling skanks would have to give it up, if there was a nice clean place where a man could be guaranteed to find authenticated, validated, trustworthy disease free hookers.

Crony
"Place terms & conditions on it's practice & legality. Give the hookers full medical, dental. Regulate the industry. Test the sex workers. Tax the profits. Use the Amsterdam model. Just as everyone can't practice medicine, sell drugs, or sell liquor. Legal prostitution should work in a similar way. Anybody working outside the "district", or outside the scope of the law, should be busted. And we shouldn't conflate issues."

Exactly - I couldn't have put it better myself.

Ernie,
HELL YES IT IS!, My god man, most of those girls that were arested come from backgrounds where their mom's were prostitutes, sisters too, they have a lot of children, if you go to the hospital right now and go to the ER or ICU, quite a lot of the homeless kids, kids with MAJOR abuse, multiple broken bones, burns, infant deaths, sexually abused children, children with gunshot wounds, and other severe injuries from proximity to areas where gang violence andprostitution is taking place, are children of prostitutes.
Better you should ask those kids, Ernie, whaddya say?
If you go on an economic standpoint, they don't have insurance, we pay for their medical care and super-multiple abortions ( some have had over 50!) and ALL of them are on the dole and crack and meth, making unreported money, and not managing it or anything else about their lives well, their kids don't do that well in school IF they attend, slowing classroom progress.
Yes, It is a collassal problem.
So, you ad the stolen vehicles, crack houses, neighborhood depreciation, supporting the worst gangs, effects of their presence, cost of keeping their health, their children's health costs, educational costs, adverse effects on economic health of the city, the public perception of Memphis being known as a "ho gettin city" A dunderheadedproposition, that'll get people known as "undesirables" to move here.
You only want to see the obvious parts and then push an agenda. The part you don't want to see is the bigger part of the problem and is a BIG reason your taxes are going up!
Better you should spen

Memphis already tried, "just not trying to do anything about crime" and what happened because of it was wanted felons from around the country were magnetized to the area. Also our crime rate went to the top of the list of undesirable places to live for violent crime, drugs, robbery, burglary, domestic violence, MURDER.
What, do you have the memory of a gnat?

LMAO, Crony, you are toooo funny!!

Prostitution is never going to go away. The best way to deal with it is to control it.

To the topic at hand tho - no, I do not feel like the MPD should be able to take their vehicles.

How can you seize a vehicle for this petty crime? If you do so for this crime, why not do it for all others? I would like to see a copy of this law, and I would like to know who voted for it. I also would like to know when it went into effect.