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Photo du Jour 500
By Tiffany Maleshefski
Looks like someone’s never been to San Francisco. Or at least hasn’t been to San Francisco since it’s NOT been the Barbary Coast.
The Associated Press wrote what stands to be the most dramatic story yet on Proposition K, the ballot measure that would decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco. Now, regardless of where you stand on this measure, or prostitution in general, this story reads more like a movie trailer than actual journalism.
First off, you have got to love the lede.
"In this live-and-let-live town, where medical marijuana clubs do business next to grocery stores and an annual fair celebrates sadomasochism, prostitutes could soon walk the streets without fear of arrest."
That’s right folks, here in wild and crazy San Francisco, where the average price on a 1-bedroom flat is between $1,600 and $2,200, and the average salary is in the six figures, the law is something that's more suggested than enforced. Yeah, so what if after a happy hour filled with $14 cocktails and bar bites that include grass-fed burgers and Hog Island oysters, we pop into a cannabis club, smoke a fat joint laced with crack and then hit up Safeway for some Doritos. That’s why they have to be right next door to each other, or all hell would break loose. That’s just called good city planning. Then we go home and whip each other on our Barcelona chairs in our SOMA lofts.
Even better is the accompanying picture of "Violet," who looks more like she just left an MGMT concert at the Warfield then the Land Rover of some pervy jon looking to get some dirty action before he returns to his wife in Pac Heights.
For reals, are those little whales on her knee-high socks? And didn’t I just see that modest, knee-length skirt at H&M? That’s a prostitute???
At the very least, you’d think the AP could at least have found a picture of a real prostitute, not the kind like Violet, who no doubt have a law degree hidden somewhere under their skirts, and is going to turn this experience into a best-selling book-cum-screenplay.
Where are the cracked out trannies on Polk Street, or the cracked out homeless women in the Tenderloin, or hell, the cracked out ladies lining McAllister Street, between Larkin and 7th, who you just know are selling their bits for way below market value to dudes with masters degrees. Or the hopelessness, and desperation, and alarmingly obvious reminder of how life can go wrong and no one is there to fix it. That’s the picture of San Francisco AP should have chosen to portray, the one where we look at a measure that will either harm or help the people who the economic crisis isn’t actually affecting because their entire life has been an economic crisis. Obviously, this particular reporter (who goes unnamed) was too wussy to travel any further than well-lit Market Street. And really, that’s where there’s a better story.
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I dunno though. Don't prostitutes ALREADY walk around San Francisco without fear of arrest?
Just take a stroll around Polk and Ellis late one night. You'll be accosted by tranny prostitutes wanting your business while watching police cars drive by on their way to the local pizza shop.
About Proposition K:
Many people in this city are worried that if Prop K passes, it will be a cattaist for Child prostitution to continue to plauge our city streets. In reality, if Prop K passes, it wil be a better chance for Police to see who is on the streets and make sure women, and men are safe from physical assults, and terany.
"Violet" looks like every other girl in SF waiting for the bus. She doesn't look like the prostitutes I see in the Tenderloin. Maybe the reporter should have walked just a couple more blocks to 6th and Turk.
One recent afternoon in the Mission District, six prostitutes were plying their trade on a single block.
One recent afternoon?
Why would you show an ugly cracked-out tranny whore to the rest of the country? If you were proud of your city would you show friends pictures of the Golden Gate bridge or shots of some homeless guy taking a dump on the sidewalk? I think someone is jealous over a pretty, young prostitute.
if you wanted your friends to know the 'real' san francisco, you would have to show more than coit tower, unless that was indeed your gilded experience.
as i see it, the idea behind prop K is to make easier for the 'tutes to go to the cops. I don't think this is the best way to do that. Because wouldn't also increase sex slavery since you could snatch a chick in Romania and turn her into a cash machine on Polk street?
Static and hand waving aside, I'm voting No on Proposition K. It's heart is in the right place, but it's fraught with unintended consequences. Many of the concerns behind it are valid, but many protections are already in place or can be put in place through the legislative process.
This is a fantastic post. More from this "Tiffany" person, please!
Wow. That's just some random woman waiting for the bus on Market Street. Probly the 6 or the 71, based on my sense of stereotypes.
It is always the same with these ballot initiatives. The opposition does not have to prove it is a bad idea, they just have to prove that there are "unintended consequences."
If the opposition wants to stop sex slavery, why aren't they doing anything about it now? There have not been any prosecutions for trafficking in the past two years in SF. How can you get any worse than that?
The National Lawyers says that trafficking prosecutions will increase if prop k passes. That was an INTENDED consequence, no matter what the opposition says. They are just trying to confuse people, and it is BS.
Prop K is a good idea.
i think prop. k might be a step in the right direction, but i wish they could do more. the prostitutes and their clients should really pay taxes.
Yeah, what "The Sonia Show" said, thinking that woman looks like a lot of the women waiting for the bus.
Great Post! More from Tiffany please.
About child prostitution: it has already been decriminalized in California with a pilot program in Alameda County. Children should not be treated as criminals.
http://www.foxreno.com/news/17577750/detail.html
I wonder if the woman waiting for the bus in the picture knows that she is a prostitute in the news.
I'm Violet. I'm a real live sex worker. The picture isn't intended to show me working, just that I'm a regular person waiting for the bus. Sex workers ride the bus too, you know.
The leg warmers are polka dotted, although whales would be their own cute idea. I dressed like a regular person in order to help dispel the stereotypes of sex workers. Ok, in real life I'd never wear stripes and polka dots at the same time!
I've worked in the sex industry for six years. I'm no more or less representative of sex workers than are the women working on the street in the Tenderloin (although street based sex workers make up only about 10%). Sex workers are an incredibly diverse group of people. Some of us choose the work because we love it, some of us do it out of economic necessity. But whatever the reason someone is doing it, arresting them doesn't help anything. Once you give someone a record, it becomes very difficult to find other employment. The city is wasting money that could be spent addressing violent crime or providing voluntary social services.
Vote yes on Prop K if you care about the public health and safety!
San Fran’s Prop K: A Very Bad Short-Sighted Idea ?
Most people who know me will be very surprised that I don’t support SF’s Prop K. This is the bill that many claim will decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco and anyone who knows me knows that I’m a fairly strong proponent of that. So why do I believe Prop K is short-sighted?
Prop K doesn’t actually decriminalize prostitution. It will be a city law and laws against prostitution are state laws. What Prop K does is say that the City cannot spend any money enforcing the state prostitution laws. It prevents city police from arresting anyone for prostitution. It does not, in any way, limit the city from investigating, arresting, and prosecuting people for crimes such as human trafficking or underage prostitution. So far, so good.
With Prop K someone can establish a brothel anywhere in the city they want. They can put up any signage they want. Streetwalkers will be able to ply their wares on any corner or in front of any store.
I’m all for ending our wars on prostitution. SF spent between $2.8 and $11 million last year enforcing prostitution laws and yet they have just as much prostitution as any other city. Civil prohibitions against personal vice are simply not realistically enforceable, no matter how much money we spend. As Steven Levitt noted in his 2007 draft paper on prostitution – “A prostitute is more likely to have sex with a police officer than to get officially arrested by one.” Our laws don’t reduce activity, they only drive it underground which makes life that much easier for human traffickers to enslave women of all ages and makes things that much more dangerous for the prostitutes and their clients. And the list goes on and on.
Our war on prostitution causes far more problems than the original problem it was intended to solve.
However, I’m also a proponent of limited (VERY LIMITED) regulation. I have no problem with sex workers who provide outcall services going anywhere in the city to meet a client. A brothel next to a school or streetwalkers on any corner is another matter. Not just for me, but for most people in San Francisco. With legal prostitution cities need to be able to, within reason, regulate where businesses are located. They need to be able to establish zones where indoor brothels or red light windows can be located and what kind of advertising they may post on the outside of their buildings. They need to be able to limit where streetwalkers may ply their trade.
Prop K may not allow this. Depending on one’s reading of the laws it may be impossible to establish any zoning under Prop K.
Here’s what I fear will happen. The average San Francisco sexworker is not a wallflower. Just watch many of the annual parades with Scarlet Harlot and her entourage if you don’t believe me. With no boundaries they will go wherever they want and do whatever they want to get attention and make money. If I were them I’d do the same. That’s the point. Find as many potential customers as possible so you have the greatest choice of who you service and can make the most money with the fewest hassles.
Many people who support decriminalization will find a brothel across from their favorite kids store or streetwalkers in front of their favorite café. “This isn’t what I signed up for.” They’ll say. The political types in city hall will start getting engulfed in complaints.
Now, the average politicians way of dealing with things is brash and trash. Nuance is not their strong suit. While a good option at this point would be very moderate regulation, they’ll instead pontificate on the need to reverse Prop K. Instead of finding a way to establish some reasonable zones for brothels, windows, and streetworkers, they’ll go full throttle back to the current failed attempts at civil enforcement of prostitution laws. Instead of a proposition on the 2011 ballot to allow the moderate regulation that Prop K doesn’t allow, expect a proposition to abolish Prop K. And it will likely pass with a large margin.
And you know what, prostitution won’t go down any, but complaints will. The bulk of prostitution will go back underground and streetworkers will re-congregate to ‘safer’ areas. People will be less likely to complain about it, even when they see it near their favorite café, if they just think the cops are doing something about it, than if not.
After this it could be 50 years before anyone can even think of decriminalizing prostitution again in San Francisco. And worse, anytime decrim is brought up anywhere else, all the opponents will need to do is point to the failed decriminalization in San Francisco of 2008 and the battle will be done.
San Francisco I Am has a great video on whether illegal cannabis clubs are really hurting medical marijuana patients with California Attorney General's recent crackdown down on medical cannabis clubs.
You can check out the video here:
http://www.sanfranciscoiam.com/videos/0faa12024b6c
San Francisco Iam also has a lot of other interesting video journalism bringing us stuff that the mainstream media isn’t.
Just read Harmon Leon’s new book, The American Dream: Walking in the Shoes of Carnies, Arms Dealers, Pot Farmers, and Christian Believers. He goes undercover and lives many people perception of the American Dream by walking in their shoes. The funniest chapter by far is when he goes undercover and works on a pot farm in Mendocino.
The biggest fear on a pot farm is not being busted by the DEA but robbery.
Harmon concluded you could probably rob the pot farm he was on with a pen knife and affected raspy voice. I highly recommend the book.
You can check it out here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568583524/ref=s9sdps_c1_14_at3-rfc_g1-frt_p-3237_g1_si7?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0JNZX0XR42X3VWQYQH0J&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383391&pf_rd_i=507846