The Poisoned Fruits of Comstockery
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 1:03 PM

Anthony Comstock, licensed vice suppressor, would brag of the people he drove to suicide by prosecuting them for their First Amendment-protected activity. (Though it took a long time and much persecution for their activity to receive First Amendment protection.) Comstock's victims included Ida Craddock, whom he pursued Javert-like.

Our current Comstockery has claimed another victim, it seems, today. Comstock would be proud. This victim even was convicted in Comstock-fashion, for misusing the mails. Hers is the second needless death from this pointless prosecution of voluntary adult behavior. Madness envelops us.

Labels: policing, prostitution

 
Another Cost of Criminalising Vice
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 9:40 PM

The officers responsible for killing Sean Bell following his bachelor party at a strip club have been acquitted of all charges by a New York judge. I have not followed the case or the testimony so for the sake of this post I will accept that the verdict is reasonable. Other cases of police shootings of unarmed people -- most notably the Diallo killing -- also have resulted in exoneration for the police. (There might be an argument that those shot in the Bell case used their car as a weapon, but even if true, that only occurred because they were suddenly cut-off and boxed in by unmarked police cars. Here's a New York magazine article with many of the details.)

Sean Bell is dead, and there is no criminal responsibility for the police. It isn't hard to understand the latter part. Police have to make split-second decisions in highly uncertain and stressful situations. Lethal force, which can be applied at a distance, is widely available. A police officer who guesses that a suspect is holding a cell phone could easily be killed, if that guess is wrong and the object turns out to be a gun. (The first police officer to shoot in the Bell case believed from overheard conversations inside the club that a gun might be present.) I think that this is one of the main reasons that courts are extremely reluctant to convict police after the shooting of an unarmed citizen.

But what is the lesson? Well, it is a general point in public policy: the less effective are after-the-fact sanctions, the stronger the case for imposing before-the-fact controls. It is very difficult, and perhaps even undesirable in most circumstances, to hold police accountable for errors in judgment that result in the death of innocent (or even guilty!) civilians. Therefore, one should only initiate police/citizen encounters when the stakes are high. The police who killed Sean Bell were at the strip club as part of an anti-prostitution sting operation.

The criminalisation of prostitution puts prostitutes, clients, and police at great risk. The toll in the US is small relative to the deaths brought on by the criminalisation of drugs, but it is significant nonetheless. The criminalisation of prostitution isn't necessary -- many places get by just fine with legal, regulated prostitution. Even if prostitution policing were perfect and costless, and even if prostitutes were not put at great risk from clients in a prohibition regime, I would not favor the criminalisation of prostitution. But the violence suffered -- by prostitutes, johns, and police -- as a result of criminalisation makes a strong case for a legal, regulated adult sex market. One of the enduring mysteries of vice policy is why this steady violence has had so little impact on improving public policy towards prostitution.

Labels: policing, prostitution

 
Wouldn't Want Anything to Happen to Your Pretty Little Liquor License
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:45 PM

Showing contempt for government power is a sure way to bring down the forces of law and order. (Why is it that those forces seem to favor their version of order over law?) Remember those bars in Minnesota that found a way around the statewide smoking ban by declaring their activities to be theatrical productions (and hence exempt from the ban)? In Maplewood, the city attorney visited and put the squeeze on a bar that was using the theatrical productions dodge. Furthermore, the state Health Department is threatening the other "theatrical" bars -- about three dozen -- with megafines if they do not toe the official line. Maybe the Maplewood city attorney and the Health Department should, you know, enforce the law, rather than expanding the law to fit their preferences.

Labels: policing, smoking ban

 
The Withering Away of Obscenity Prosecutions
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 12:32 AM

Obscenity laws in the US have not changed much in the US in the past few decades. Yet prosecutions for adult obscenity offenses have fallen off considerably, to the point that hardcore (but not extreme hardcore) porn of the non-broadcast variety seems to be de facto legal in the US. Tim Wu, writing in Slate, asks what has led to this informal decriminalization. Wu's answer:

...it was a combined product, over decades, of the decisions of hundreds of prosecutors, FCC officials, FBI agents, and police officers—all of whom decided they had better things to do than chase around pornographers the way they chase murderers. Their consensus—that normal pornography just isn't harmful in the sense that, say, drugs are—has driven the current law more so than any official enactment.

Kansas, of course, is continuing to buck the trend.

Professor Wu first received (implicit) mention in Vice Squad with his speculation that WTO rules might lead to marijuana legalization; the first explicit Vice Squad notice came in regard to his co-authored book on the internet.

Labels: obscenity, policing

 
One Month for Fake Coke Sale
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:48 PM

When you are ripped off in a transaction involving an illegal drug, just try going to the police. But when one of their informants is ripped off, well then, that is a different matter entirely. In the Pittsburgh area, Lloyd Amos just pleaded guilty to "theft by deception":

Police busted Amos in 2003 for selling a plastic bag of about 5.9 grams of bread crumbs to a police informant who paid $180 for what was supposed to be an eighth-ounce of cocaine.

Mr. Amos had been in jail for a month prior to the guilty plea, so the judge granted an immediate parole from a sentence with a 30-day minimum jail term.

Fake coke stories on Vice Squad date from our second day of operation.

Labels: cocaine, informants, policing, sentencing

 
Anti-Prostitution Policing in Practice
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:07 AM

What should you do if you see a woman waving her arms on a street corner at 8AM? Try to offer assistance, perhaps? This is not recommended in the South Side of Chicago, not far from Vice Squad's own base. When a married couple, waiting for their daughter to return with a hot chocolate, found themselves in this situation, they soon realized that the woman was not in peril, but rather, was (seemingly) selling some physical companionship. They found the situation amusing. But only for a brief moment, until police officers arrested the male driver for soliciting their undercover officer. It was eight hours before he was released, while his wife and daughter were abandoned at the corner because the police impounded their car -- aren't civil asset forfeiture rules special? The charge against the driver was dropped, but the car has not been returned: "The city wants more than $4,700 in towing and storage fees if he wants the car back." Read all about this sterling piece of anti-vice police work here.

Labels: asset forfeiture, Chicago, policing, Prohibition, prostitution

 
A Vice Career
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 12:05 PM

Vice Squad has temporarily decamped for Baltimore, where today's Baltimore Sun contains this notice of the retirement of a police officer who spent half of his career with the, er, vice squad. I have no reason to doubt the integrity of this officer, but I found the story rather depressing. He recounts arrest after arrest, including those of the clergy members he collared (sorry) while posing as a male hustler, and of female prostitutes with various disabilities. (The story claims he made 5,000 prostitution arrests and 1,000 gambling arrests.) I recognize that under any regulatory system the public manifestations of prostitution have to be controlled, but our prohibition leads to so many unnecessary arrests, while simultaneously putting prostitutes at great risk from violent crime. The officer is a wine aficionado -- I hope that in his forthcoming book he can make the connection between social costs and vice prohibition.

The prostitution arrest drumbeat is every bit as regular, but not as intense, as the drug arrest drumbeat. Search Google News for 'prostitution' and you can read of the latest toll, in community after community in the US -- and all for behavior that in much of the world is neither illegal nor a matter of public interest.

Labels: policing, Prohibition, prostitution

 
Obscenity Omission
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:32 PM

I am still playing catch-up on vice-related news following my month in Tbilisi; today I discovered this August 10 New York Times article concerning ObscenityCrimes.org, a webpage (operated by Morality in Media and linked to by the Justice Department) on which folks can turn in internet sites that they suspect contain illegal obscenity. Two retired police officers seek out illegal cyberporn and review the sites identified through the web informant page. According to the Times article, these efforts are funded through federal grants made to Morality in Media. And for those of us who think that our own toil has a Sisyphean element, take heart.

In the last few years, 67,000 citizens' complaints have been deemed legitimate under the program and passed on to the Justice Department and federal prosecutors.

The number of prosecutions resulting from those referrals is zero.

In what is surely a coincidence, Vice Squad's own Northern District of Illinois leads the nation in supplying the seemingly fruitless smut referrals.

Labels: obscenity, policing

 
Buffalo-Area Escorts
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:56 AM

The Buffalo News has run a two-part story on web-based prostitution in the Buffalo area. Part one is here, and part two is here. There's quite a bit of information in the articles, which generally avoid the "isn't this terrible?" tone that I have come to expect from journalism about prostitution. (There is a hint of that tone in part two.) And though the dangerousness of the profession (prostitution, not journalism) is noted (in part 2), there is no suggestion that most of that danger arises from its illegal status.

Nevertheless, the series is pretty well-balanced, and presents the views of sex industry workers with respect. And among the pieces of information that I learned are that the standard price seems to be about $200 per encounter, and that the Buffalo re-education camps -- er, John Schools (4-page pdf here on Brooklyn's version) -- have not been operating for the past few years.

Labels: policing, prostitution

 
Back in the ex-USSR
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:31 AM

Two weeks ago, Vice Squad was in Kyiv. This week finds us in another post-Soviet Wonderland, Tbilisi, where we will be surveying the local vice scene for one month. But in our last hours back in Chicago, we came across this article on some inspired allocation of policing resources. It concerns MethCheck, wherein someone who exceeds the government's view of how much Sudafed you should be buying automatically has his or her name sent to the anti-drug constabulary. The article does its best to spin this as a wonderful law enforcement tool, as opposed to the ludicrous waste of time and money that it is. But it doesn't sound like MethCheck is really fixing that meth problem, especially if the opening anecdote is the best they could come up with:

LONDON, Ky. - Detective Brian Lewis returns to his desk after lunch, scanning e-mails he missed.

One catches his eye: It says a suspected member of a methamphetamine ring bought a box of Sudafed at 1:34 p.m. at a CVS pharmacy.

Minutes later, Lewis is in his truck, circling the parking lot, searching for the woman. Lewis did not find her that day, but the scenario illustrates the way law enforcement is increasingly relying on computerized tracking systems in their fight against meth, which is often brewed in makeshift labs.

Why are CVS and WalMart participating in these silly rituals?

It seems, incidentally, that former Soviet Georgia only made it to Vice Squad once before, in an inauspicious manner. Tbilisi is very pleasant, however.

Labels: drugs, policing, solipsism

 
Local Alcohol Prohibitions in Alaska, Australia
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 12:31 AM

Many Alaskan native communities in rural Alaska are officially dry. Indeed, they are drier than the US was during Prohibition (and drier than typical dry counties or municipalities elsewhere in the current US), as they have outlawed possession of alcohol. And these prohibitions might even "work". Researcher Paul Gruenewald (as quoted in this article), notes that “Although national prohibitions on alcohol are generally ineffective, and in terms of crime, counter-productive, local prohibitions can be very effective in reducing harms related to alcohol.” But even these prohibitions are being enforced with an extraordinary reliance upon informants, as a recent item in JuneauEmpire.com's Alaska Digest indicates:

FAIRBANKS - A tip line set up to try and bust bootleggers is heightening the police presence at Fairbanks International Airport, where alcohol and drugs are sneaked into rural Alaska aboard small planes.

The toll-free line was established in April. So far, airport police have received 40 tips.

The toll-free line, (877) TIP4FIA, is credited with nearly doubling the number of contacts officers make with passengers suspected of carrying illegal cargo. Three ounces of cocaine; up to eight gallons of beer and whiskey; and a pound and a half of marijuana have been confiscated, Officer Robert Dickerson said.

Australia has instituted some alcohol bans in Aboriginal areas, but recently the Prime Minister announced plans to take things much further in the federally-controlled Northern Territory. Specifically, alcohol and hard-core porn are both slated to be banned.

Labels: alcohol, Australia, policing, pornography, Prohibition

 
Fake Prostitution Crime
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:38 AM

It's the prostitution that is fake, not the crime. Vice Squad frequently notes how vice criminalization breeds further crimes, because unscrupulous people suspect that illegal vice-involved victims generally will be reluctant to call upon the police. A small case in point surfaces from Wyoming. A taxi cab driver offered to procure prostitutes for one or more customers, according to the allegations. After the customer(s) paid him, the cabbie did not follow through. The case came to light when two of the 'promised' women contacted police - they had received angry phone calls from a jilted would-be customer.

Labels: policing, Prohibition, prostitution

 
The War on Khat in the US
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:02 PM

Pete at Drug WarRant points us to an article that indicates the extent of federal resources that have been put into service to fight the relatively mild stimulant in the US. Turns out that despite the prosecutorial ardor, it might be hard to lock the defendants in cages for significant periods of time. The 'problem' is that the the 'bad' compound in khat, the one that is categorized with heroin in US drug scheduling, breaks down within a few days into another compound that just doesn't command the same amount of hard time. The article also is noteworthy for revealing, in passing, as it were, just how weak the arguments are for criminalizing khat possession at all. It is suggested that the khat crackdown might have something to do with fighting the war on terror in East Africa -- a crackdown on a drug produced in a potential terrorist-breeding ground always being a smashing policy choice (April 25, 2007).

All is not irrationality, however. The latest figures from TRAC indicate that the post-9/11 decline in federal drug prosecutions continues apace.

Labels: Drug WarRant, khat, policing

 
Publicity Isn't Always a Good Thing
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 7:03 PM

In April Vice Squad noted a detailed New York Post report on popular poker clubs in New York City. The publicity turned out to be a mixed blessing: two of the largest (presumably) clubs were raided late last week. The patrons had to give their names and (again, presumably) their chips to the police, but they were not arrested, as they had broken no laws. Employees and operators were less fortunate, however, as this article from the New York Daily News relates:

Vice cops raided the gambling parlor at 200 W. 72nd St. around 11 p.m [last Thursday night]. At almost the exact moment, more cops executed a search warrant at the Play Station at 6 W. 14th St., police said.

Cops seized about $100,000, along with a small amount of marijuana, and arrested 39 dealers, runners and managers. The clubs were owned by many of the same people, police said.

The suspects were charged with promoting gambling and possession of gambling devices, misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail.

Labels: gambling, poker, policing

 
Jack Cole on Undercover Drug Work, and Regret
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 9:44 PM

That outrageous undercover operation at Milford High School in Ohio is still, shall we say, a bee in my bonnet. (Or it would be, if I had a bonnet.) Today I was reading "End Prohibition Now!", by former undercover narcotics officer (and now Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) Jack Cole. In the previous Vice Squad post I expressed concern for the high school informant, who might one day recognize that her actions were perhaps not all that praiseworthy. Former officer Jack Cole learned this the hard way:

As we all know, when you fight a war you must have spies and so much more so in the war on drugs. The use and sale of illegal drugs are in effect victimless crimes; both the dealer and the user get something they want from the transaction. In the war on drugs the police undercover-operatives are the spies. A spy must necessarily be insinuated into the middle of a drug transaction if it is to be discovered and arrests are to be made. In the longest war this country has fought, spying was my job. For fourteen years of the more than three decades America has been fighting the drug war, I held that position. When I worked undercover I imagined I was a chameleon. As children, my friends and I had bought these little lizards at the circus. When we put them on our shirts, their skin changed to the color of the material - protectively blending in with their external environment for safety. Each time I met a new person the police targeted me against I became that chameleon. Changing everything but the color of my skin I quickly blended in with their environment and became exactly what they expected or wanted - easily gaining their trust. As an undercover agent my job was to do whatever was necessary to become each individual's best friend - his or her closest confidant - so I could betray them and send them to jail. And my job was to repeat that scenario with each new target: friendship - then betrayal - over and over again with hundreds and hundreds of individual human beings.

The main problem I experienced as an undercover agent was that I was never able to emotionally detach myself from the people whose lives I was affecting so dramatically; the vast majority of whom were non-violent offenders, their relatives and friends. When I posed as their confidant, for even a relatively short time, I was witness to their humanity as well as their faults. Instigating each person's ultimate arrest and imprisonment cost me something also. I am not a religious man but locked somewhere in my mind from my earliest childhood memories is the Golden Rule, as my mother taught it to me, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Facing my quarries in court, testifying that all I had shared with them was lies and manipulation designed to enhance my ability to betray their trust, could in no way be interpreted as living by that rule. Why I chose to abandon my deepest belief is still something of a mystery to me but I know it had something to do with falsely agreeing that "The ends justify the means" - the golden rule as taught by many drug-warriors.

I would guess I took part in over a thousand arrests during the time I worked in narcotics. I don't know how many kids' lives I have ruined but I'm sure the count is huge. I was responsible for putting away young people in their formative years whose only "crime" was testing their newfound freedoms, "dipping and dabbing" in the illegal drugs so easily accessible in our culture.

Labels: drugs, informants, policing, teens

 
Mumbai Dancer Protest
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:24 PM

There has been an attempt to close "dance bars" in the Indian state of Maharashtra. (Dance bars hire girls who, well, dance, while the male clientèle tosses currency in their direction. The state government thinks that the bars are fronts for prostitution, or crime incubators more generally.) Already some 1,500 dance bars have been closed, though the 700 bars in Mumbai (Bombay) have not yet met that fate. Despite an early judicial victory, the bars remain at risk. So some 10,000 dancers joined a street protest in Mumbai (Bombay), shouting "Save Our Jobs." It has been suggested that closing the bars would lead to more prostitution, as the dancers would look to alternative sources of income.

Labels: dancing, India, policing, prostitution

 
Another Excellent Piece of Vice Law Enforcement
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:28 PM

Anyone who has been paying attention these past few years knows that the US is in the middle of a poker boom. (Vice Squad is of mixed minds about the whole phenomenon.) Bars and restaurants in many cities and states have begun hosting poker nights -- for instance, in the Philly area. These games have to be careful about how they charge for entrance and award prizes, lest they run afoul of anti-gambling laws; the precise boundaries of legality might be hard to discern. So what should a law enforcer do when he or she learns that a local restaurant is openly hosting poker nights? One possibility would be to chat with the owner, learn precisely what is taking place, and warn the owner to alter any features of the game that might violate the law. But where's the fun in that? Isn't it better to send in lots of officers with guns drawn and laser sights lighting up the heads of the 24 putative poker players you arrest?

The police chief of Palmer Lake, Colorado defended the choice of the guns-drawn approach, citing tradition. But sometimes drawn guns go off. Would it still be such a good idea if one of the alleged gamblers had been shot, or perhaps died of a heart attack?

Labels: gambling, poker, policing

 
Youth and Games
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:38 PM

The youthful Vice Squad member and research assistant, Ryan Monarch, brings us word of the video game "Narc." Unlike real life, in Narc, the police officer might be corrupt, and illicit drug use might have some benefits. For this offense, Narc has been banned in -- well, just guess. Hint: It's not Afghanistan, or Iraq (at least not yet -- or maybe, at least I haven't learned of those bans yet.) Give up? OK, it's Australia (really), which I understand is also thinking of banning alcohol.

Are you worried what fate holds for someone who joins Vice Squad while still a youth? See for yourself this Thursday, April 28, when Ryan appears on Wheel of Fortune. (Nope, I am not making this part up, either.) In Chicago, I have been reliably informed, it airs at 6:30PM CDT.

Labels: Australia, drugs, policing

 
The New Zealand Sex Industry
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 2:44 PM

One of the consequences of vice prohibition is that information about the extent and nature of the criminalised activity becomes degraded. People often aren't all that eager to discuss their vices in any event, but when their behavior is criminal, they are less likely to be forthcoming. So one advantage from the 2003 liberalisation of prostitution in New Zealand is that the size of the sex industry may be somewhat easier to gauge. The liberalising act required that this advantage be pressed, by mandating an initial survey of the sex industry, with later follow-ups to track changes. That initial assessment is now available.

The information was gathered by surveying police officers and by auditing advertisements for sexual services. The findings listed in the Executive Summary are sufficiently interesting that I will reproduce them in full. (These are the findings drawn from the police survey alone; there are separate findings for the ad audit):

* A total of 383 sex businesses were identified across New Zealand. Massage parlours represented the highest number of businesses (189) followed by escort agencies (101) and then rap/escort parlours (93).

* A total of 5,932[footnote deleted] sex workers were identified over the areas canvassed. Sex workers employed in massage parlours constituted nearly half of all sex workers (44%). Private workers followed in numbers accounting for 24% of sex workers. Street workers represented 11% of those working in the sex industry and sex workers in rap/escort parlours and escort agencies accounted for 10% each of the sex industry.

* Not surprisingly, sex businesses were concentrated in the Auckland Police District. There were comparatively few businesses in other police districts. Street workers were concentrated in the main centres and in particular in Auckland City and Counties-Manukau districts.

* Respondents estimated that on average 30% of street workers were transgender or transsexual. In comparison only 4% of private workers, 1% of escort agency workers and 1% of rap/escort parlour workers were identified as transgender/transsexual. Male sex workers were found primarily working on the streets, privately, or in escort agencies.

* It was estimated that there were around 200 sex workers under the age of 18 and over half (60%) were located in the street sector.

* Non-New Zealand sex workers were considered to be a significant issue in the greater Auckland area. These workers were predominantly from Thailand and China but other Asian countries were also represented.

* About a quarter of police respondents answered affirmatively when asked about exploitation of sex workers in their area. Forms of exploitation included a system of bonds and fines, use of drugs, and unreported crime against sex workers.

* About half of the police areas or districts responding to the survey indicated that they had a police officer with a portfolio dedicated to prostitution. However, in most of these cases the proportion of a person’s full-time portfolio dedicated to prostitution was very small. Police role included liaison, licensing/vetting of massage parlours, registration of sex workers and investigation of complaints.

The Ministry of Justice also prepared a helpful literature review on the New Zealand sex industry.

Labels: New Zealand, policing, prostitution, sex

 
Lucrative Undercover Work in High Schools
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 3:46 PM

Are you a recent college graduate with a degree in criminal justice? Then after only three weeks of training, you might be ready to infiltrate high schools to try to get high school students and their friends to sell you drugs. Then, you will take off, while the kids will be arrested; if all goes well, your former school chums will spend years in prison thanks to your testimony! And you can earn $40,000 per year! Do well by doing good!

The unsavoury story of the now 17 current and former Ohio high school students arrested following such an undercover operation was noted yesterday by D'Alliance. The information on how to become a private undercover investigator working in a high school comes from this story in the online version of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The company that provided the undercover agent was hired by the district superintendent for $60,000. Local prosecutors and the school principal, apparently, didn't even know about the eight-month operation. Soon we will see if three weeks of training is enough to ensure that informants don't engage in entrapment, and all-in-all conduct themselves in a manner that will not jeopardize the ensuing cases.

Labels: drugs, policing, teens