City considers new way to deter prostitution (also interesting info about the ba
samsung1
Ohio
A proposal by City Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos to create prostitution-free corridors in San Antonio seemed silly at first blush.
Prostitution, after all, is illegal in the state of Texas. And making one or two parts of town prostitution-free begged an obvious question: Where would it be acceptable? Besides, by logical extension, couldn't you make the entire city a prostitution-free zone, hoping that hookers would take their talents over to, say, Schertz?
But Ramos' proposal, the latest in a series of efforts to grapple with a longstanding problem along Roosevelt Avenue and South Presa Street, might put a modest dent in illicit crime — though not necessarily through City Council action.
Prompted by the conversation Ramos started, District Attorney Susan Reed already has taken action.
Ramos, whose council district includes the Roosevelt corridor near Mission San José, has tried to solve this problem before. In 2008, she pushed for a city ordinance that banned hotels and motels from offering hourly rates. The real targets were the seedier flophouses along Roosevelt.
The ban didn't help much, possibly because of good old-fashioned American ingenuity. A few motels were cited, but then offenders started renting rooms for the night and making them available for shorter interludes — a sort of crude sub-leasing system.
After hearing about efforts in other cities to target certain areas as prostitution-free corridors, Ramos asked if something similar could be done here.
At a meeting of the council's governance committee this week, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told its members he'd explored the possibilities with Reed and her staff.
The civil injunctions law enforcement officers use to combat gang activity wouldn't work for legal reasons, he said. The law targets organized criminal activity involving three or more people. Generally speaking, he said, “prostitutes work alone.â€
But McManus suggested a more viable alternative: asking judges to order those convicted of prostitution and related crimes to steer clear of the area where they'd been arrested as a “condition of release.†Over time, McManus said, that could have an impact on areas such as the Roosevelt and South Presa corridors, where 71 of the city's 257 prostitution arrests this year have taken place.
05/21/2010
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politic…
Prostitution, after all, is illegal in the state of Texas. And making one or two parts of town prostitution-free begged an obvious question: Where would it be acceptable? Besides, by logical extension, couldn't you make the entire city a prostitution-free zone, hoping that hookers would take their talents over to, say, Schertz?
But Ramos' proposal, the latest in a series of efforts to grapple with a longstanding problem along Roosevelt Avenue and South Presa Street, might put a modest dent in illicit crime — though not necessarily through City Council action.
Prompted by the conversation Ramos started, District Attorney Susan Reed already has taken action.
Ramos, whose council district includes the Roosevelt corridor near Mission San José, has tried to solve this problem before. In 2008, she pushed for a city ordinance that banned hotels and motels from offering hourly rates. The real targets were the seedier flophouses along Roosevelt.
The ban didn't help much, possibly because of good old-fashioned American ingenuity. A few motels were cited, but then offenders started renting rooms for the night and making them available for shorter interludes — a sort of crude sub-leasing system.
After hearing about efforts in other cities to target certain areas as prostitution-free corridors, Ramos asked if something similar could be done here.
At a meeting of the council's governance committee this week, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told its members he'd explored the possibilities with Reed and her staff.
The civil injunctions law enforcement officers use to combat gang activity wouldn't work for legal reasons, he said. The law targets organized criminal activity involving three or more people. Generally speaking, he said, “prostitutes work alone.â€
But McManus suggested a more viable alternative: asking judges to order those convicted of prostitution and related crimes to steer clear of the area where they'd been arrested as a “condition of release.†Over time, McManus said, that could have an impact on areas such as the Roosevelt and South Presa corridors, where 71 of the city's 257 prostitution arrests this year have taken place.
05/21/2010
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politic…
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