Flutterby™! : New Orleans makes poverty worse 2010-01-20 16:32:37.2135+00

New Orleans makes poverty worse

2010-01-20 16:32:37.2135+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Bunch of people have been pointing out that police in New Orleans have been using an "unnatural copulation" law to label prostitutes as sex offenders, meaning that now not only are they poor and struggling, they have all of the ridiculous restrictions on where and how they can live.

Tabitha has to register an address in the sex offender database, and because she doesn’t have a permanent home, she has registered the address of a nonprofit organization that is helping her. She also has to purchase and mail postcards with her picture to everyone in the neighborhood informing them of her conviction. If she needs to evacuate to a shelter during a hurricane, she must evacuate to a special shelter for sex offenders, and this shelter has no separate safe spaces for women. She is even prohibited from very ordinary activities in New Orleans like wearing a costume at Mardi Gras.

The law under which she was convicted seems to me to be clearly unconstitutional in light of Lawrence v. Texas, but it's probably also a matter of having the resources to challenge the local schmucks far enough to get that conviction overturned.

Heck, almost everything about New orleans in unnatural, and abusing the system this way is just sprinkles on the frosting. But that does not make it right.

What needs to happen is that sex-workers are licensed just like massage therapists, doctors, barbers, etc.. the city collects a little fee, and makes some minor bogus attempt at health requirements, STD information, condom requirements, personal safety, etc.

It might help get the girls and boys off the streets and back into what new Orleans needs: some good "houses". That'd sure pump up the limp tourist economy.

The gendarmes in NYC have a similar trick for dealing with possession of small amounts of pot. Less than 1/2 an oz is a $100 ticket -- a violation. But when the cops see/suspect someone, they promise to go easy on the victims if they hand the pot over to the cop. The cops tell them that is because they don't want to have to search the vic, and put their hands in the vics pockets. When the vics hand over the drugs, the cops bust them for the public display of pot, which is a misdemeanor. Over 48,000 such busts in NYC last year. Pile on the charges for victims who have little or no means of redress. These legal practices make coprophagia look wholesome.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-01-20 21:23:42.438924+00 by: mvandewettering

I was in a small restaurant in New Orleans once (pre-Katrina) and the restaurant owner (who was very happy we were there, spending money in his restaurant) thanked us for coming, but warned us not to get in any trouble, because (his words) "the cops here are as crooked as they come". He was spending a significant fraction of his profits in protection money to police.

When I ran some operations n Germany, I learned that my men who got the clap (or worse) got it from their girl friends, not from prostitutes, because the latter were registered and tested weekly.