Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, May 27, 2009
Crime License to Spill
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Wed, May 27, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Dominic and I have a big piece in this week's paper about the Seattle Police Department's prostitution raids last week. We managed to get exclusive interviews with the Sacred Temple massage parlor's owner, Rainbow Love, as well as several women who worked there, about the conditions and nature of their business.
As SPD continues to investigate Rainbow Love and the Sacred Temple, additional details about the case are coming to light, including information on how the police department is willing to look the other way on prostitution as long as the man soliciting a prostitute has his private investigator's license.
According to SPD's warrant affidavit, just released by the King County Superior Court, in September 2008—three months into SPD's investigation—vice detectives received a call from an employee at Archangel Cyber Investigations, a Seattle-based private investigation and security firm, who told detectives that the agency was also conductin its own investigation of the Sacred Temple.
The affidavit says Archangel was planning to send one of its own agents in to investigate a female employee at the Sacred Temple who was involved in a custody battle. Court records say Archangel sent one of their employees in to see whether the woman was involved in prostitution and that on October 7, the company emailed Seattle police their investigation report. The report apparently said that an Archangel employee went to the Sacred Temple, paid for a session and received a handjob from an employee. Again, the Archangel employee voluntarily provided this information to SPD.
Unsurprisingly, the department doesn't appear to be investigating the Archangel employee.
I called Archangel earlier today and spoke with Mike Rock—the person who notified police about their investigation in September—and asked him whether Archangel employees were somehow exempt from laws regarding prostitution. "We’re part of the general public," he told me. "We don’t have any police powers. Most [of us] are retired law enforcement."
Rock says that Archangel "absolutely" has a policy against employees engaging in illegal activity, but would not comment on the Sacred Temple case.
If indeed SPD ignores the Archangel employee's apparent solicitation of an (alleged) prostitute, it would seem to go against recent moves by the city to focus law enforcement resources on johns, rather than prostitutes.
In March, the city council approved a plan to begin fining johns $150 to help pay for counseling services for john and prostitutes and the city's john school.
It appears, however, that the department is still more interested in busting women for prostitution, instead of going after the men who are paying them for sex.
2
WASTE of time and $$
4
5
And, all of that for maybe one felony charge? How much did that fucking cost?
7
Vice Departments always end up floating in the same sewer they claim to be protecting us from.
Nice reporting, Jonah and Dom; this is a big story.
I think we know that if the Seattle police started going after "johns" they would be arresting themselves!
When do WOMEN have VALUE in this society!!
There is one country in the western world where they go after guys and prostitution is perfectly legal. What the guys do is a crime. Sweden.
11
I wonder if any cops who took part in the raid had been John's?
Quote:
"It shouldn't be a crime, at the very least it should be decriminalised."
That's an interesting argument but as of now it is a crime. As I said none of the working women have been charged nor will they be. Look at some cases and you'll see they just don't do it. They could make simple solicitation busts everyday. It's a $100 ticket.
As far as promoting prostitution, it's a class C felony. The owner just confessed in the main article. Wanting to change bad law is one thing. Violating the law before you change it usually comes with the price of whatever penalty the legislature has decided is warranted.
RCW 9A.88.080
Promoting prostitution in the second degree.
(1) A person is guilty of promoting prostitution in the second degree if he knowingly:
(a) Profits from prostitution; or
(b) Advances prostitution.
(2) Promoting prostitution in the second degree is a class C felony.
First of all the law does not say they need to ask for money for sex. You should read the actual law. If you did any legal work it wasn't criminal defense which is what this matter is.
RCW 9A.88.030
Prostitution.
(1) A person is guilty of prostitution if such person engages or agrees or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee.
If you read the article they have 3 undercover police officers that paid the $150 and were offered (possibly even received) full release hand jobs. You've also got one employee at a private detective agency that paid $150 and did receive a hand job.
In addition you've got an undercover female officer applying for a job and being told she had to give hand jobs. And don't forget the disgruntled receptionist that was told to give a hand job.
There are a ton of reviews on various web sites including national and international sites describing the services down to the smallest detail.
When they are done with the investigation (months from now) they will have a massive witness list that will agree to testify rather than be charged.
You've got the owner confessing in this article that sexual release is part of her method of healing.
The "no sex happened" argument is off the table even by the owners definition of services offered.
And, AGAIN, here comes SLOG to push the PD for selective enforcement. The ACLU would love that!
For the UMPTEENTH time, yes, I've been counting, if you don't want it enforced take it off the books! Pot, prostitution, baby raping, whatever... don't blame the cops for enforcing the law they're paid to enforce!
16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_deli…
It has nothing to do with the 5th Amendment, or the 1st Amendment for that matter.
I imagine there would be other proof problems too.
By the way, here's info about Seattle's John School:
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweek…
The police handling of this was WRONG. We have been watching the SPD make bad decisions with our money and abuse their power for years now. If anyone watched KOMO news "breaking" the story last Thursday night the first story was about the young man the police threw into the wall and is now in a COMA. Next we see 30 armed SWAT team officers using brute force on a group of women, some pregnant, at a place called "Sacred" temple. They had been in that establishment several times and knew NO ONE was dangerous.
Why is persecution of these women okay? As Jesus said... let the those without sin cast the first stone. Morality is a JUDGMENT call. The problem is that we are dealing with archaic judgments formulated a thousand years ago. They no longer apply. When do we stop looking to religion to define our morality and go within to see what is SANE and JUSTICE for EVERYONE.
"The police handling of this was WRONG. We have been watching the SPD make bad decisions with our money and abuse their power for years now. If anyone watched KOMO news "breaking" the story last Thursday night the first story was about the young man the police threw into the wall and is now in a COMA."
That was King County Sheriff Metro Transit Division and they'll be paying that young mans family millions. It had nothing to do with SPD.
Quote: AmeliaFullOfGrace
"The problem is that we are dealing with archaic judgments formulated a thousand years ago. They no longer apply."
Prostitution was legal and unregulated until 1910 in the United States.
The White-Slave Traffic Act (Mann Act) of 1910 prohibited so-called white slavery. It also banned the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”. Its primary stated intent was to address prostitution and immorality. The Supreme Court later included consensual debauchery, adultery, and polygamy under “immoral purposes”.
In 1918, the Chamberlain-Kahn Act gave the government the power to quarantine any woman suspected of having a Sexually transmitted disease (STD). A medical examination was required, and if it revealed an STD, this discovery could constitute proof of prostitution.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner by Jen Graves
-
Los Angeles Gay Bar Bans Bachelorette Parties Until Marriage Equality Is Attained by David Schmader
-
Fill in the Blank by Grant Brissey
-
This Reminds Me of the Great Calculator Scare of the Late '70s/Early '80s by David Schmader
-
Idiot Tries to Defend Bigoted Anti-Gay-Marriage Preacher on Anderson Cooper by Paul Constant
-
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes by Paul Constant
-
Why Mayor McGinn's Wife Canceled Her Family's Seattle Times Subscription by Eli Sanders
-
What the Hell Is Wrong With Seattle's Pride Parade? by Dominic Holden
-
The Saturday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
-
NYC Man Ticketed for Not Riding in the Bike Lane by Jonathan Golob
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (21) RSS