Friday, March 10, 2006

Who is going to pay those therapy bills?

Police arrest 139 over prostitution
Mar. 10, 2006. 09:54 AM
CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM

Police have made 139 arrests and laid 175 criminal charges in the latest sweep of men seeking prostitutes in the Parkdale area.
As part of Project Sweep, female undercover officers posing as prostitutes are placed as bait in areas frequented by men looking for sex.

Community concerns have been raised about fights between prostitutes and fights between prostitutes and drug dealers.

In what police say is a disturbing trend, some of the men who approached undercover police officers were accompanied by children.

One night, just before midnight, a man with an infant child approached an undercover officer who was posing as a prostitute.

"The officer tried to avoid the man because of the very young child, but the man was not deterred and told his child to wait in a bus shelter," police said in a release.

"The man persisted and was arrested."

Further, it is alleged that the agreed-upon sex act was to occur in the man's home. The officer was also told not to worry about the man's child in the bus shelter.

In two previous operations, men with babies in car seats have solicited undercover officers, police say.

More than 90 per cent of those arrested are from outside the Parkdale area. One suspect came from Collingwood.

The oldest "john" arrested was 72, the youngest 16.

The majority of those arrested will be appear in court at Old City Hall on May 1.

17 comments:

Princess Pessimism said...

Thats horriffic...I have a friend, shes an indercover cop, who poses as a prostitute in etobicoke...The thing about the children is horrifying, but I cant say i'm shocked....I hope those cops got CAS involved...i'm gonna call my friend and ask her. She obviously hears stuff....

yrautca said...

Prostitution should be legal.

Jennifer said...

Yrautca, I agree with you that prostitution should not be a crime, but if the government gets into the business of regulating prostitution instead of trying to prevent it, then we all have to be very specific about how we want to go about it.
There shouldn't be any regulations that force sex-workers into unsafe situations, or put them at the mercy of pimps and brothels.
Also, it seems counter intuitive, but I also think it would be wrong to force sex workers to be tested for AIDS on a regular basis. I heard an interview with a sex worker once where she pointed out that when the johns believe that you've been tested and you are disease free, they are much less receptive to condom use. She said that she had worked in a legal or decriminalized prostitution environment and that she had had johns take the condom off part way through the act. In this case, I'd say that it's important that sex workers get themselves tested regularly and stop working if they become HIV positive, but legislating this would put HIV negative sex workers at more risk. The only thing that keeps a lot of johns using condoms is self-interest.

Jennifer said...

Of course it's still illegal (here, not sure about the US) to knowingly infect someone with HIV. Which would be the legislation you could use instead of insisting on regular testing.
There was a case several months ago, here, of a woman who lived on one of the training army bases who had been positive for quite a while and had unprotected sex with countless male soldiers on the base. Including one party where she was prancing around with nothing but a thong and a cowboy hat on.
Because it was a training base, soldiers who had been on that base during the time period that this woman lived there have been sent to every base in Canada in tiny towns where they still believe that only homos and Haitians get AIDS and to Canadian Peace-keeping missions across the world where women are often forced into unprotected transactional sex with soldiers in order to feed their children.

It really makes me wonder what was in the minds of these guys, if you would have sex with the 'town bicycle' and not use protection, at what point would you say, 'oh no this is too risky, lets use a condom'?

yrautca said...

Hey babe, if prostitution was legal, I would like to see a recent health certificate of someone I was paying decent money to. I turn I will be happy to provide my own health cert.

Actually, even when in an intimate r'ship, I really need to make sure she is clean before I do anything. Just anal me.

Jennifer said...

Yrautca, ask around, I am the most particular person when it comes to not catching an STD. If I could do it in a bio-hazard suit I would.
I get what you're saying about wanting to see a health cert. (I'd want that too, from any partner, sex worker or no) but do you see what I'm saying about asshole guys who don't like condoms and don't care if they get a hooker sick? The only way to convince them to play along is to use their own self interest.

yrautca said...

of course i see what you are saying. i always do ;)

Trib said...

Ask around? Are you sure you want to phrase it like that? I heard your mom could be reading this...

Jennifer said...

Trib, I have a reputation for being very concerned about STDs not just for myself but for those around me. I've taken my obsession to a new level. I bring it up in polite conversation. If the other person gives me any opening I ask when the last time they were tested was. If they tell me about their sexual exploits I point out some safe sex tips. Like, say someone told me that they had anal sex for the first time, or they are thinking about it - I'd probably point out that if you're having anal sex with a partner you normally wouldn't use condoms with, it's still important to use condoms because the boy/top can get a nasty urinary tract infection. This may seem obvious, but you'd be amazed how many people tell me that they've had bareback anal. Yuk! Yuk in two ways, that people do this, and that people tell me this.
One of the last times I went to get my hair cut my hair dresser launched into a story about working at a bathhouse and about the first time he got crabs.
I don't know which came first, people telling me really personal stuff, or my talking about safe sex, but I thought if I'm in this situation, I might as well perform a public service.
There is a program in South Africa, that has been highly successful where they employ older women, grandmother types, to travel the public transit and start conversations with young men about safe sex and condom use. The idea of hiring grandmother types to do this work, is because the grandmothers get respect, and don't seem dirty talking about this stuff, and in the local culture have a joking relationship with young men.
I think it would probably really creep young people out if a grandmother type sat down next to them on the bus and started talking about the benefits of condom use, but we have a grandmotherly sex educator in Canada. Her name is Sue, she has a show called the Sunday Night Sex Show, or Sex with Sue.

Jennifer said...

And I think any parent would be proud of having a child who had taken the message of high school health class to heart as much as I have.

Trib said...

No argument on your intent, but may I suggest future statements to be worded: "If you ask my friends and associates, you will find that I am very concerned with the public health risk of unprotected sex. In addition, my mother is proud of my stance on this issue." See? That clears it right up.
Although obviously a theoretical risk, I think UTIs in guys below 50 are pretty uncommon. Like 8/10000/yr. And considering that 35% of men have had anal sex the .08% that have gotten UTIs from any cause including catheters seems pretty small. Still gross, though.

Jennifer said...

0.8% is too big a risk for me. Not to mention the increased chance of catching other stuff. And poop getting lodged places. 35% of men having anal, that's a great stat, blows the idea that only homos have gay sex out of the water, if you believe that 10% of people are gay. I never thought that only homos have anal sex, but I always like to have stats for arguements with bone-heads.

I'm not concerned that anyone might be lead to believe that I'm gettin' around, because compared to my friends I'm mother-freakin'-theresa, and everyone knows that. I've been in a monogamous relationship for ages, years, forever. And I'd never ever ever have unprotected sex, ever. Ever.

Jennifer said...

0.08%, I read your stat wrong, but UTIs suck. I had one, it burned when I peed and I ran a fever and ached all over, and I had a weird back pain at the same time. So I was convinced that it was a kidney infection because one of my friends had this happen. She had an asymptomatic UTI that turned into a massively painful kidney infection.

Trib said...

32% of women have had anal sex with those guys. That's why it's funny for me when you're hanging out with a group of sexually active women and they all protest very loudly that they'd never let a guy do that, that's the out hole, etc. I personally believe that only about 3-6% of the general population is gay so that leaves a lot of straight anal sex. Kidney infections can be pretty serious.

Jennifer said...

I'm afraid of kidney infections. Turned out that I just had a bad UTI and coincidentally had pulled a muscle in my back. More than 32% of my female friends have tried anal, and more than 35% of my guy friends.
Actually, I was sitting around one night having a candid conversation with a bunch of female friends and we all agreed that while everyone used to think that the ultimate male fantasy was to have a threesome with two girls, way more of the women who were there said they'd been asked for anal. I don't know if it's the prevalence of anal in porn, or something else that makes guys think that the but should be in the regular sexual repertoir.
I personally have a policy on the issue. If you want to do me up the butt, then first we have to go out to a sex shop and buy a strap-on of comparable size to your penis, and then I do you up the ass first.
I've never had a taker.
Really, this makes much more sense. All these guys wanting to do girls up the butt seems kind of ass backwards to me (pardon the pun), the guy is the one who has the prostate, that would be stimulated by ass play anyway.

Trib said...

Yeah, I'd agree with your male fantasy idea. I think a lot of guys are kind of leery about bringing another person into the relationship. We're kind of territorial like that. As far as the strapon thing goes, I've always thought turnabout was fair play. Everyone always says that it's all about the prostate, but I don't really think so. I think it's more about doing something taboo, submission and thinking holy crap I'm getting fucked in the ass. Guys have the additional perk of role reversal. There are plenty of sensations, the prostate is not the greatest of them.

Jennifer said...

I don't have a prostate (that I know of) so I'll take your word for it on that. I don't suppose there is any way of telling for sure if men or women find ass play more pleasureable. But you'd be amazed how many guys would be perfectly happy to do their girlfriends in the ass, but if you suggest the same to them, they say, "Fuck no, no one's doing me in the ass!"
On the other hand, I had a similar experience with a guy friend who had a motorcycle. He had taken me out riding, with me as the passenger. So when I got my licence, I asked him if he wouldn't mind being my passenger for practice. I wouldn't have been offended if he had said, "no Jennifer I value my life and you just got your licence, maybe in a year or two." But instead he said, "I'm not riding in the bitch seat, that's never going to happen!" I think it changed my perception of him forever.