On January 29 2013, the Atlanta City Council's Public Safety and Legal Administration voted on the banishment of prostitution from Atlanta. The Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) 13O0025(4) city ordinance amended Chapter 106, Article IV, Division 1, Section 106-127, Solicitation for an Illicit Sexual Act.
Later SOAP was put on hold by protest from Atlantans, where Mayor Kasim Reed formed a Work Group to come up with an alternative.
SOAP allows Vice Unit to go to the municipal court judge, with arrest data of prostitutes, johns and pimps in geographic areas.
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The Racial Justice Action Center (RJAC) found in 2012 the Atlanta Police Department (APD) arrested over 1,400 for solicitation, but only 300 were johns and 1,100 were sex workers.
The first conviction is 15-180 days imprisonment, with 165 days prohibition and a $250 fine. The second conviction is 60-180 days imprisonment, with 120 days prohibition and a $1,000 fine. The third and subsequent convictions, is 6 months imprisonment.
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Those convicted have to attend an educational program for a fee, which is deposited in the City of Atlanta General Fund and fines deposited in the Inmate Welfare Program Trust Fund.
In 2011, APD's Vice Unit commander Lt Scott Kreher, heard of SOAP by someone from Seattle during training in Atlanta with vice-narcotic departments. Chief George Turner asked Lt Kreher to revamp the Vice Unit, and as Lt. Kreher said “up our spirits after the Eagle Raid.”
The 2009 Atlanta Eagle Raid arrested gay patrons and employees on false reports of men engaging in sex at the bar, by APD's Vice Squad Red Dog Unit. During the raid, officers used abusive language and deleting data from their mobile phones to hide evidence. The patrons and owner were awarded a $1.2M tax-funded settlement.
Amber A. Robinson, with Atlanta's Law Department addressed the legal challenges at the January 29 Council meeting. Prostitution banishment has not been done in Georgia, “However banishment in general has been upheld in the state of Georgia, most often applied at the superior court level...(SOAP would likely) withstand legal challenge.”
Councilmember Keisha Bottoms asked “Once sentencing is complete they are free to go back into this area, as long as they are not under any probation?” Robinson said “That is correct.”
Bottoms asked “What happens if the person owns a home in this area? Can we legally still banish them, even if they are a property owner of that area?” Robinson said “We believe the law would upheld, such a sentience.”
LT Kreher said Seattle uses a special condition block for homeowners written by the judge so “as long as they are abiding by that special condition, they won't be arrested for violation of the order.”
The first January 29 Council speaker was Dr. Cathelean Steele from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Dr Steele's Stop the Violence initiative called Justice for Girls, focuses on “forced sex trafficking of young girls between the ages of say 5-18.”
Dr. Steele said “This really kind of hurts my heart...where a young girl is forced into sex trafficking at the age of 5. And as we know Atlanta, unfortunately, is a hub for sex trafficking and the Internet is a very great part of that.”
The 2005 Atlanta Women's Agenda study entitled 'Hidden in Plain View: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Girls in Atlanta,' found 200K-300K children nationwide were at-risk of sexual exploitation. Many girls were hidden in escort services, massage parlors, dance clubs and other “legal” adult entertainment establishments.
Dr. Steele knows “that girls are not the only ones being sex trafficked, but girls are in the majority.”
Dr. Steele said “to save a generations, we have to save our young girls...unfortunately when we hear of sex trafficking, we automatically think of prostitution. These young girls are not criminals, young boys are not criminals; they are victims. So lets put this at the top of our priority list. Lets save our girls, lets save our society.”
Human trafficking in Atlanta and the world is a broad subject, incorporating both cheap labor and sex trafficking, which differs from volunteer sex workers. Most sex workers are low-income women and men, so criminalizing them is based on class and ethnic oppression.
The U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking defines Trafficking as: “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
Trafficking differs from volunteer prostitution. If criminalization of human trafficking is the issue by the U.N. and Dr. Steele, then sex worker victims need more rights by laws, not criminalization.
The U.N.'s Global Commission report on “HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health,” tells nations should repeal laws prohibiting consensual voluntary adult sex work and decriminalize voluntary use of illegal injection drugs to combat HIV. This Commission also want nations to clearly distinguish the difference in laws, between sex trafficking and prostitution.
The International Labour Organization, believes sex work should be an occupation and regulated “that protects workers and customers.”
Prostitution is about sexualized power, where some women and men are desperate and poor. Some use it to increase their standard of living from low-wages or lack of jobs. If prostitutes were taxed, given health insurance and more social rights, then it would be a profession.
Dr. Steele is noble to save our 5-18 year old girls from sex trafficking, but what reasons do females and males become prostitutes? What about solving specific issues that leads to the choice of prostitution?
One ACLU report found women experience domestic violence and lack of safe affordable housing. Some landlords have zero tolerance crime policies, including domestic violence by not renting or evict residents.
The lack of affordable housing, leads to homelessness and desperation by single-mothers to provide for their family, through the choice of prostitution.
Another ACLU report found poverty linked to homelessness and hunger for American children.
American Psychological Association (APA) found American homelessness affects 2.3M-3.5M people per year of all ages, geographic areas, occupations, and ethnicity.
APA said runaways from the ages of 16-22, range from 575K-1.6M a year. Family conflict is the primary cause of runaway homelessness, with 46% experiencing abuse from family and 20-40% conflict over being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered.
Tracy Austin, a child advocate was the second speaker at the January 29 Council meeting said “The city is already weak on addressing issues related to underage prostitutes forced into the trade, but being convicted as criminals, rather than treated as victims.”
Austin believes “Many adults involved in the trade, men and women; were victims of sexual abuse as a child for years that either went unreported or unaddressed. And as a result, suffer from issues of emotional and mental illness that continues to go untreated that leads them to lifestyles, such as prostitution.”
Austin said “If you want to fix the problem, the issue of prostitution, then you need to fix the actual root of the problem, which is the pimps and I emphasis the pedophiles. And those operating and funding the sex trade, they need to be banished first. Further victimizing these individuals as a top priority is out of order. Banish the pedophiles, banish the pimps. Banish those that fund and operate the trade and you will eliminate the problem, and make our city safer for our children and for Atlantans as a whole.”
Peggy Denby, the last speaker at the January 29 Council meeting, is president of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance. Denby said “Our biggest problem has been prostitution...(in two areas where) those people have been coming to the same areas for 30 years; that is what they do. That is why we have to banish them. Otherwise we are not ever going to get them out. We cannot arrest them out, we cannot run them out. The only way to get rid of them, is to banishment them.”
Denby used banishment in superior court for other criminals for 3-4 years and “We were really really impressed with how that works. They can actually banish them from every county, except for one to let them to come into the state. So they have to give them a county...where ever these people are creating havoc in the neighborhood, so banishment does work.”
Denby believes “Prostitution particularly the kind we have, is a huge quality of life issue in neighborhoods.” The two pockets “One of them is on Piedmont Ave, Myrtle St, and 3rd and 4th St. We just recently have increased the no cruising hours on those streets, but that still doesn't solve the problem and is just a band-aid approach to the big problem.”
Denby explains “The prostitutes in this area in Piedmont, Myrtle, 3rd, 4th area are Transvestites. Transvestites are particular type of prostitutes that are really quit dangerous...They are stronger, more aggressive, they and this is from our 11 years of observation. They generally carry a knife on them somewhere. We have in our possession, a machete that we found that one had stashed away.”
Denby believes “We know they deal drugs and act as inter-mediator to protect the drug dealer...and sell them to the Johns...When they get caught they only carry small amount of drugs on them, so they do not spend very much time in jail, and thereby protect the actual dealer.”
Denby said “Since they are in high density areas of the city, they threaten and harass the people that live there, the residents. They are there all night, almost every night, even in the cold weather. Probably 12 to 15 of them on any given evening, you can find in these areas. They fight, they scream and yell all night. They litter the area with drug paraphernalia and sex paraphernalia. Alot of them are still working, when children are getting onto the school buses. This is what we have been dealt for the past 30 years and we just cannot get rid of it.”
Denby said “The other pocket is on the other side of Peachtree St on Cypress St and 7th and 8th and over to West Peachtree. And they are the young gay males and they work all night, every night as well. The same situation goes on. People at Peachtree Loafs, Echo restaurant, at the bar down at 6th St.”
Denby believes “Calling the police, they can only do so much. They arrest them. We had one arrested two nights ago and he is back onto the street today. That doesn't get us anywhere. Just frustrates the police, because they are wasting their time, they can't help us and we cannot help ourselves. This is the only option that I see, we have left.”
In February 2013, a list of 16 Midtown residents and 2 businesses sent a letter to the Council, Mayor Kasim Reed, and Councilmember Alex Wan stating, “some of our neighbors are getting an outsized amount of attention in this debate...they do not speak for the entire neighborhood.” They felt “We simply cannot arrest our way out of this problem or use an uneven approach that doesn't address the demand created by those who seek such services.”
Opposition over SOAP created the Working Group On Prostitution (WGOP), later changed in July to Working Group to Reduce Prostitution (WGRP).
SOAP banishment “would make the enforcement of these offenses against public morals far more effective.” This is 2013's language of the Anti-Vice Temperance Movements, from the 1820s-1940s.
This SOAP Order is just one of many city ordinances on vice, like Cheshire Bridge's ordinances and Brookhaven to clean up and close Atlanta's adult entertainment.
Why is prostitution not legal in Atlanta, like other parts of the world; where laws suppress sexual behavior and has not worked for over 180 years in America?
A 2001 study by Barbara G. Brents and Kathryn Hausbeck of University of Nevada; entitled 'From State-Sanctioned Sex: Negotiating formal and informal regulatory practices in Nevada Brothels.' Found four categories of prostitution policies throughout American history of either: Legalization, Abolitionist, Criminalization and Decriminalization.
Since 1971, the Nevada Brothel Owners' Association, lobbied for the Legalization policy. Nevada laws cover advertising, STDs, pandering, forced labor; even zoning of brothels from not being 400 yards from schools or churches.
Nevada sex workers are required to get a work card permit and banned, if convicted of a felony. These work permits require: a complete employment record, all known addresses, a complete criminal history, and a FBI background cheque. The staff, security, maintenance, desk clerks, etc; are also required work permits.
If volunteer sex workers were given more rights over others, then this would limit exploitation.
Some Atlantans want to control “bad” behavior, but what is bad for one person, is acceptable for another; so behavior is based on perspective and a biased point of view. Creating laws just causes more bureaucracy and more issues, instead of solving the initial problem.
Laws that ban any human act, just makes a second illegal underground economic market for those desperate with few choices. If the government alone without the whole voice of the community resolves a problem, just creates this illegal market defining what is legitimate and criminal. Giving one side more rights and stereotyping others.
Why are guns a natural born right, but not drug use, junk food, affordable healthcare or sex? Is it an individual's choice and a natural desire?
The problem is one person's action affect others, which is why laws are created and diminish natural rights. One person or group screws it up for everyone else. Others want to prevent tragedies from happening through rules and laws, but cannot.
Can any level of government control every act of tragedy? Should every level of government prevent how an individual chooses to use their body or puts in it?
Psychologists, sociologists and economists have debated, if positive and negative reinforcers of rewards and punishment, undermines Intrinsic Motivation and self-confidence by forcing controls onto cognitive dissonance and freewill choices. The same argument should be asked, if the natural desire for sex can be satisfied by criminalization and the removal of individual's freedom of choice?
Austin and Dr. Steele's points are noble about girls and women being abused, but how do you control domestic abuse and sex trafficking? Increase surveillance, insert GPS tracking in every girl to detect stress levels, and arrest people preemptively.
To create a law as a preemptive measure and criminalize any human behavior, has never solved specific issues. There is no simple issue with a simple solution.
Why do Atlantans not go after specific issues they disagrees with like: abuse, addiction, homelessness, exploitation, mental illness, STDs, sex workers without permits, forced labor, visible street prostitutes by legalized brothels, and give more rights to sex workers? Is it better to legalize the behavior, zone it to one area and punish specific behaviors?
Most women and men in prostitution, see it as a temporary way to solve their financial situation. Outsiders see it often as an expression of self-destructive deviance and immorality – a vice.
A report by Crimes against Children Research Center and Dr. David Finkelhor entitled “The Internet, Youth Safety and the Problem of 'Juvenoia;'” found sexual crimes against children dropped.
The Juvenoia or amplified deviance by “exaggerated fear about the influence of social change on children” has existed in every generation creating overreaching laws. From the 1872 “dangerous classes” scare by Charles Loring Brace; and the 1954 comic book scare by Fredrick Wertham and Estes Kefauver. Also, the 1990s “crime bomb” scare by criminologist John Dilulio Jr. from violent “fatherless, Godless, jobless” super-predator juveniles.
Overreaching laws limit autonomy and freedom of choice for desires, by the fear of some.
The ephebephobia by a nostalgic older generation, unhappy about the present and want a fictional good o' days to return; just create overreaching Big Liberal-Conservative Government laws that do not work.
Atlanta's public policy should not be based on misinformation and myths, where lawmakers and media exploit fears of prostitution based on ethnicity, income and gender bias. The “moral poverty” panic created by the loudest voices, just create impractical get-tougher laws to save the future.
Selecting prostitution is about not choosing poverty. Criminalization by banishment, should not be the end-all to solving Atlanta's specific problems.