Ex-Officer Pleads "No Contest" to Solicitation Charge...
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:46 PM

...but he wants his job back. In much of the world, of course, consensual adult relationships are not criminalized, and 22-year veteran police officers needn't fear arrest and public humiliation for this activity -- but not in Omaha.

Meanwhile, in Richmond, Virginia, efforts are afoot to crack down on prostitution by going after cruising:"...police would be able to charge motorists with a traffic infraction for passing by the same point in the same direction more than twice in a three-hour span between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. Each infraction could carry a fine of up to $100." Sounds like pizza delivery men should avoid the targeted neighborhoods. Some muckety-muck at the Virginia ACLU seems to think that in a free country, you should be able to walk or bicycle or drive pretty much where you want without getting a ticket for retracing your steps. Sounds like anarchy to me! (Actually, one of the odd bits about this story is that an anti-cruising law is already on the books. The linked article makes it sound as if the proposed change actually liberalizes the law, by introducing the three-hour window. But as the intent of the law is clearly to crack down on cruising, I could be mis-reading the story.)

As I have noted before, I recognize that public manifestations of prostitution can legitimately be controlled. Nevertheless, I despair over the complete criminalization in most of the US that implies that adults have no legal routes to such exchanges. Many countries (Britain, Canada) seem to get along in no worse fashion with prostitution itself legal, though public solicitation may be barred.

Labels: policing, prostitution