Thursday, March 19, 2009
News Sex workers nailed – er, arrested – at W
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 5:35 PM
The AJC reports that the APD charged two young ladies with soliciting sex on one of Buckhead's ritzier blocks. Here's the story:
Police arrested two women last week in an undercover sting prompted by complaints that patrons at the W Hotel in Buckhead were being solicited for illegal sex acts.Caprice Evan, 19, of DeKalb, and Brandi Moody, 18, of Atlanta, were arrested March 11 on charges of escorting without a permit, a misdemeanor, according to an Atlanta police report.
Hey, at least they weren't panhandling. Now, the charge suggests the suspects would've been in the clear if they'd gotten their escort permits. Interesting… Here's more:
An undercover Atlanta police officer got in touch with the two women through the Web site craigslist.com, the report said. They agreed to meet at the W Hotel. At the meeting, the women asked the officer for $300 in cash for an hour-long session, the report said.
Once the money was exchanged, the women began to take off their clothes and dance, the report said.
OK, this episode confirms something I learned when I was reporting my cover story on Atlanta's escort industry lo these many years ago: namely, that call girls are generally allowed to ply their trade without harassment as long as they keep a low profile and don't annoy the public. As I wrote then:
How challenging can it be to catch a hooker who advertises herself online, often with photos that clearly show her face, her hourly rates and a direct phone number? At that point, (Lt. Tony) Biello concedes somewhat uncomfortably, enforcement becomes a question of priorities."I've only got 20 officers in vice and I'd rather dedicate my resources to protecting visitors downtown instead of raiding escorts," he says. "The top priority of any police department is to stop violent crime, and the escort agencies are not bashing people's heads in."
In what I can only assume was an odd coincidence, Biello was relieved of command of the APD's vice squad around the time the article came out.
Nonetheless, the attitude Biello described then apparently still holds sway at the APD. In any given week, dozens of escorts advertise their wares under craigslist's "casual encounters" listings, but you don't hear about arrests until hotel guests start complaining to the police.
Honestly, does anyone have a problem with this? I think we'd all agree that police manpower is better used fighting the citywide wave of burglaries. And, frankly, I find it difficult to begrudge anyone earning a living in this economy.
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