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Friday, August 17, 2012

Common Nightwalkers, Disabled Escorts, & Massachusetts Law Enforcement


If you ever want to lose your lunch, check out some of the popular escort review sites. This will be an effective way to make yourself sick, and test your stomach's strength. Sites such as USA Sex Guide are forums in which clients can discuss their experiences with sex workers of various types. USA Sex Guide states on their site "The purpose of this Forum is to facilitate the exchange of information between men who are looking for sex with women.”

Okay, fair enough. From a business model, it makes sense that these sites exist so that customers can make informed decisions about the sex workers that they choose to spend their money on. Unfortunately, many of the reviews are extremely crude, offensive, and degrading. While this is not always the case, I have come across many postings that made my stomach turn. Listen fellas, here’s a word of advice- RESPECT YOUR HOOKER AND PAY THEM WELL! Lots of ego stroking going on in these forums...among other things.

Yesterday, I spoke to two of my friends who were very upset and alarmed by what they read on USA Sex Guide. Here are some screen caps of men discussing their experiences with an escort who goes by the name Kathy, in the Fitchburg MA forum. Before I say anymore, I will let you look at the screen caps, and form your own opinion. Have fun! 


Well, isn't that pleasant. Oy vey. Now, here we begin to hear about her possible disability...







Okay, so what do we have here? A disabled escort who may or may not be able to give consent. There are many questions still unanswered; what is her disability? Is she able to give consent? Is she being sexually assaulted? If she really has the mindset of a child, as one client suggested, how is she posting advertisements on Backpage and seeing clients? Is she receiving help from somebody; is she possibly being coerced by somebody?

The forum messages were found in the Fitchburg Massachusetts forum, but we learned from other postings that Kathy has moved to Leominster, MA. Both of my friends called the Leominster police station, concerned over what appears to be happening to Kathy. Oh…we are such silly activists, aren’t we? Assuming that the police will care about a sex worker?

My friend spoke to a male police officer who informed her that Kathy has been arrested several times for being a “common nightwalker,” and that she is not disabled. This is paraphrased: “Kathy is dumb and stupid, but not mentally disabled. She knows what she is doing. She is not a victim, she is a criminal and we have been arresting her for years.”

Oh my. That didn’t go so well, did it? So, the next step was to call Adult Protective Services, and there is now a case open and an investigation that is supposedly going to take place. So far, no word back on that.

I finally got fed up and decided to call the Leominster police station myself. I was calm and articulate, and opened by stating that I am a sex worker rights activist as well as a therapist and doctoral student. Yes, I was waiving my credentials around because I knew that perhaps it would help me to be taken seriously. That is the world that we live in, and it worked. I spoke to a female cop for at least 10 minutes, and she was polite and willing to listen. However, her perspective on the matter was just as disturbing as the male cop's perspective.

Paraphrase (this is a conversation that I will probably never forget): After I told the cop my concern about a developmentally disabled woman being abused, the cop said “Oh, she’s not a victim, she’s a prostitute and we have arrested her several times. We are very familiar with Kathy.” Okay take note of the language used- SHE’S NOT A VICTIM, SHE’S A PROSTITUTE.

I managed to keep my cool on this one, and informed the woman that anyone can be a victim, and that it is in fact possible for a prostitute to be raped/assaulted. She stammered a bit, and went on to explain that Kathy is not disabled in any way. Okay…now we are getting somewhere! Next, I asked her which psychological evaluations have been conducted to determine that she is not disabled, and where these were done. The cop said that none had been done, but that the police have had enough interactions with her to know that she is not disabled. Whoa…wait, what? I wasn’t aware that cops receive mental health and assessment training. That’s news to me!Why am I even bothering to get my doctorate in psychology? I could just be a cop.

She continued to repeat that Kathy is choosing to post herself online and is engaging in illegal activity. Therefore, she is not a victim. I attempted to reason with her, telling her that I understand that prostitution is illegal, and that I am not disputing the arrests. I am merely concerned that this may be more than just a case of prostitution, but of a woman who is not able to consent; a woman who is being taken advantage of. The cop offered to send police officers to Kathy’s home to “check on her and ask her if she needs help.” She called me back a couple of hours later, and reported that Kathy told the police officers that she did not need any assistance. Yeah, no shit. I would not want to deal with a group of cops that have repeatedly arrested me and referred to be as “dumb” and “stupid.” That was that, and it was the last that I heard.I was appreciative that the cop took the time to send officers to Kathy's house, and called me back. That is more than I expected.

My friend has been in touch with another Leominster cop who has been more helpful, so we are still waiting to see what the outcome is.

So, there you have it. Another fucked up story involving a sex worker and law enforcement. Is anyone surprised? I'm not.


19 comments:

  1. Bella Robinson advocate for CoyoteAugust 17, 2012 at 5:13 PM

    Brilliant Christina, thank you for helping us find some justice for Kathy. I wish they would publish this like they do the human trafficking article below, which is full of crap, as the human trafficking task force told us they only investigate minors that are exploited and were not interested in taking a report. http://www.bpdnews.com/2012/08/17/undercover-investigation-enables-the-human-trafficking-unit-to-arrest-five-suspects-during-on-line-sting/

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    1. Will someone please text them and says its poor Kathy case number 64715 the one they won't go rescue. "The Polaris Project also recently created a texting feature, in part to help people who are victims of sex trafficking or slavery. People who are in trouble, or who suspect they have witnessed trafficking, can text "help" to "BEFREE" (233733).

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  2. Some of the hobbyists seemed to be genuinely concerned. The first one *must* have been fictionalized to a degree, but revolting nonetheless (thanks for posting that one first, Christina >-O).

    The really alarming ones are those where the john notes Kathy's potential inability to consent, yet go ahead with the date.

    Ball-less sacks of shit.

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  3. Amazing. Sad. Alarming. I'm not surprised by the police's response, which might even make this worse. I have to run, but I was just thinking...much as her verbosity seems telling based on the report of clients, be careful to remember that the information you're going on isn't necessarily solid either. Her clients are likely as trained in mental health and assessment as the police officers are. Regardless, though, their flippant responses are appalling. Good for you, though. I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall for those phone conversations!

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    1. Bella Robinson advocate for CoyoteAugust 18, 2012 at 6:05 AM

      It is a fact law enforcement has very little training to determine if one has a disability, and many of them lack any compassion for WHORES. Law enforcement claims they have a hard time determining who is a victim and this is why they insist on arresting everyone. But they seem to have no interest when the public tried to report a victim, as there own worlds were, "Kathy is not a victim, she is a prostitute".

      Even Dr Melissa Farely says all sex workers have PTSD, so how are you so sure that Kathy is not retarded or has been so traumatized that she is just on auto pilot. The cops assume because she has a online ad that she placed it, without even reading the forum posts we were trying to tell them about. In these posts the guys said they think someone else posts her ads because she doesn't even have a computer at her place.
      Even though 5 years work of posts from PREDATORS all say she can't consent we should just believe the police who have had her in and out of jail for years and never bothered to have her evaluated, every county jail has a shrink + doctor available, and even the guys say in the posts they think they stopped arresting her because the COUNTY does not wan get stuck paying for the services she needs. This is the same thing that happens when families try to report a sex worker missing, they are told they don't take missing persons reports on hookers. It is common knowledge within law enforcement to call sex workers and the homeless, NP, for NON PEOPLE.

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  4. We should all write letters and mail them to our state represenatives and state senators to tell them to legalize prostitution. We should try to appeal to gay rights organizations and labor unions to lobby to get prostitution legalized in this state. we should try to get the porn industry to lobby. We should ask all the labor unions and gay rights groups in Massachusetts to tell them to get thier members to write letters and mail them to our state represenatives and state senators to tell them to decriminalize prostitution in our state.

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  5. This incompetents is not a surprise at all.
    Here are my recent comments in front of the California Joint public safety committee on Tuesday:

    In regards to costs incurred each year, due to the new mandatory training requirements for certain law enforcement officers under prop 35,

    we sight flaws exposed in the Jaycee Duggard case where Law enforcement officers missed so many opportunities to rescue her, therefore mandated training under prop 35 will increase because enforcement officers seem to have so much trouble identify victims of any kind. This flaw in combination with law enforcement allowed to have sexual contact as a legal means to entrap to make prostitution arrests under the guise of rescuing victims will mean misdirected priorities.

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  6. Hang on...I can see you all mean well...BUT...why haven't any of you gone to ask *KATHY* if she wants intervention?

    Sounds to me very like neaqr stereotypical Asperger Syndrome, which is a social and communication disability usually with no parallel impairment in moral and intellectual capacity (whatever an overpaid and ethically disabled autism industry might like to imply for power and profit). She may well prefer sex work to the system, which doesn't really have anything meaningful to offer her anyway. There is no real working understanding if high function autism at this time.

    The only way to help Kathy is to go and ask Kathy what she wants and needs...honestly.

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    1. but if kathy is truly unable to consent, then how is able to make a choice about what she wants? and without an evaluation that determination cannot be made. if it turns out she is evaluated and can competetly make a choice, then it should be hers. but people who are disabled may not be able to make truly informed choices.

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  7. I have seen Kathy a few times. I am not trained in mental health. My guess is that she has Asperger. If you treat her considerately you can have a somewhat normal conversation.

    I believe she has normal intelligence and is able to take care of herself. Without the sex work she would not be able to earn more than minimum wage. She seems to enjoy what she is doing.

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    1. You guessed that she has Asperger yet you saw her even though you knew that men are abusing her by having unprotected anal sex with her., Your also from USA SEX GUIDE, as you have mentioned this in their forms. You knew she had issues, but you still USED HER. Really class crew at USA Sex Guide, they even review the street girls. Seems like that site attract at lot of PREDATORS.

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  8. Great blog Christina :)

    Bella - the term is actually NHI - No Humans Involved. I wrote about this way back when...lemme see..ah there it is: http://sincerelykellyjames.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/no-humans-involved/

    "No Humans Involved” (NHI) is a term that has been used by law enforcement to categorize crimes against individuals of the lowest social status such as prostitutes, drug users, gang members, vagrants, and the like, indicating that such individuals are not classified as human beings and therefore not endowed with the inalienable right to life enjoyed by the rest of society, that the murder and torture of such individuals can be overlooked because they are not human; that they are unworthy of personhood and relegated to the basic status of laboratory animals – their lives are worth nothing."

    Nice, right?

    So anyways, I just had to comment on the Kathy situation:

    First off - OMG is USA Sex Guide not the most disgusting thing you have ever read? The shock and awe eventually wore off for me and now I just become a tiny bit more jaded every time I take a read. Regardless, it's free speech, and no matter how much it disgusts me I suppose the self-proclaimed "mongers" have rights too....although personally, I certainly want nothing to do with the sort of client who has so little discretion and class as to post something like that.

    Now for the rest of it: I understand that you guys were and most likely are still concerned - and yes, those posts are definitely a little alarming - but calling the police is the wrong thing to do. The police are not our friends. Adult protective services are not our friends. Nor are they Kathy's friends; as you discovered, they do not give a flying fuck about Kathy. Ironically, they probably care even less about Kathy than the jackasses on USA Sex Guide do - that is, if caring can be measured on a scale of less than zero. Generally speaking, at least the mongers don't intend to do any lasting harm to Kathy, whereas the state, on the other hand, will assuredly treat her as a criminal, throw her in a cage, and rob her of her freedom as well as whatever small amount of agency and dignity she has left.

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    1. Kelly, we kind of figured that they wouldn't do anything, but it was great documentation that Polaris Project which gets 3 million a federal funds doesn't really investigate any of the tips. Unless it is a MINOR that they can use in the campaign against sex work. Coyote reported a case to Polaris Project + months later they still have not followed up on it. See the August 2012 post
      Will someone please tweet them and says its poor Kathy case number 64715 the one they won't go rescue. "The Polaris Project also recently created a texting feature, in part to help people who are victims of sex trafficking or slavery. People who are in trouble, or who suspect they have witnessed trafficking, can text "help" to "BEFREE" (233733).

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  9. (cont'd)

    I don't mean to make you feel badly - I know you are concerned, and I know your actions came 110% from a place of love and caring. HOWEVER - not to "beat a dead horse" (to borrow the phrasing of the ever so charming monger) - no matter how bad a situation is, calling the police will only make it worse. That is the harsh reality.

    The only instance in which I might want police or government intervention into whatever situation I were in is if there were a gun to my head...and, depending on the situation, maybe not even then. Bella is wrong. All cops are bad - if not inherently, then by association with the corrupt system which writes their paychecks.

    What sex workers like Kathy need is an available support network, not government intervention. If it were me...I would have called Kathy, identified myself as being from SWOP (or Coyote, or whatever), and addressed the situation - the posts, what they were saying, everything - maybe asked a few questions such as how she was advertising, etc - and listened to her reaction. Maybe called her back a couple times - it sounds like she likes to talk - and gotten a feeling for the situation. I would have also hit USA Sex Guide with a post such as "Hi, I'm Kelly and I'm with the Sex Workers Outreach Project. I just so happen to think that some of the posts on here concerning Kathy are not only pretty vulgar and unkind, but that they are cause for concern as well. If you truly believe that she is mentally incompetent, how on earth can you in good conscience enjoy you experiences with her? I understand that most of you are decent guys who only want to have a good time, so please don't feel as though I'm attacking you because I'm not. I just want to know if Kathy is okay and to make sure there's not some pimp in the background coercing her into doing things she doesn't want to do. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time" Leave a contact email and website addy, wait for them to talk - they will - and take it from there. The additional benefit to this is that potential and actual predators will see it and know there's someone out there keeping an eye on her.

    Believe me, I understand that the whole thing is disturbing, and I also understand the brevity of the situation. Sex workers like Kathy are at high risk every day due to marginalization, criminalization, and dehumanization. However, no matter how much we might wish it wasn't this way - government will not and cannot do a God damned thing to change it. Only we can.

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  10. I have been with kathy a few times. I belive it is a mix of a lower iq and a ptsd blanking out or motion.

    I would also have to say, even tho others have abused her. she does enjoy what she does and I enjoy being with her. you can have a normal conversation with her.

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  11. I don't see a problem here with the actions of the payahs. The worst thing any one of them did was cum on her face instead of her tits.

    The issue here with "consent" is a bogus one; she's obviously a grown women who knows what she is doing. What, pray tell, is she NOT consenting to (other than the facial). Moreover, at least a couple of the payahs are more-than-sensitive to the consent issue. She is obviously no victim.

    In the book Ragtime, there's a scene where an aging circus fat lady is hired out by the circus to pull a huge gang bang until she is literally fucked to death. That's what sex slavery and exploitation looks like, not someone who runs ads to supplement her government paycheck.

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  12. I guess you didn't read he part where they guys all said they could tell she couldn't consent but they still had unprotected anal sex with her. Yet you never saw or spoke to her and you can just tell she isn't a victim. If she can't CONSENT she is a victim.

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