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Los Angeles City Council is considering sending "Dear John" letters to the registrants of cars seen in an area of San Fernando described as having a "thriving street prostitution problem". The plan would use automated license plate readers to identify vehicles that stopped in the area. Council member Nury Martinez claims "If you aren't soliciting, you have no reason to worry about finding one of these letters in your mailbox. But if you are, these letters will discourage you from returning."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/12/01/the-age-of-pre-crime-has-arrived/
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The Age of ‘Pre-Crime’ has Arrived
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
The clothes have no emperor.
-- C. A. R. Hoare, commenting on ADA.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday December 03 2015, @06:57AM
You would say that. Infectious disease and human trafficking are pretty compelling reasons for it to be illegal.
No, because the fundamental right to control your own body is more important than petty safety concerns. Don't want diseases? Be careful about who you sleep with. Of course, even if there was no way to do that, I would still be against outlawing prostitution.
As for human trafficking, you're just insane. That's like saying we should ban Bittorrent software because it could be used to infringe upon copyrights. Advocating the ban of something merely because it could be abused makes you even more of an authoritarian. Ban sex trafficking, not prostitution. Hard to enforce? Too bad. We don't (or rather, shouldn't) make random things illegal simply to make the job of law enforcement easier.
Furthermore, some people suggest making it legal but regulating it (mandating protection, checking for diseases, etc.). Most of your specific issues with it should disappear at that point.
It's pretty damn hard to ensure that people are actually choosing to be prostitutes and not being coerced.
Man, properly enforcing the law sure is hard. Might as well just throw everyone in prison. Man, catching bad guys is so difficult. Might as well just give police the ability to bust into any house at any time and conduct searches; they might catch some bad guys, so it's worth it. Fuck freedom.
At some point most people grow up and realize that freedom isn't unlimited
Translation: "At some point, most people become authoritarians like me." No one said anything about unlimited freedom, but the fundamental right to control your own body is such an important and basic right that it's simply reprehensible to infringe upon it.
I don't care what "most people" support or reject, because popularity is irrelevant to me, at least in the sense that it won't cause me to alter my beliefs.
and that there are costs associated with civilization.
You made this assertion, but you have provided no evidence that civilization would magically collapse if we legalized prostitution.
And did you know that lots of people also support unconstitutional democracy-destroying mass surveillance? Maybe they would say the same thing as you, and suggest that most people grow up to accept their point of view and realize that it's a cost associated with civilization.
I'm sure that Somalia is available for people like you that want freedom
I'm sure North Korea would be the perfect country for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2015, @09:17AM
Actually we should ban writing. There are so many bad things you can do with that technique it is not funny.
Writing promotes crime. You can write blackmail letters. You can defraud someone using written lies, even if you are exceptionally bad at lying face-to-face.
Writing supports terrorists. Terrorists can use writing to communicate and organize attacks. Writing can be used to produce and distribute descriptions on how to build bombs.
Writing harms the children. People can write child porn stories. Or simply stuff that's inappropriate for children.
Writing also can assist in sending state secrets to unauthorized parties. It therefore clearly threatens national security.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2015, @09:20AM
Well, Germany did legalize prostitution, and it doesn't seem to have collapsed.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday December 03 2015, @06:35PM
You're a troll or a psychopath. Or perhaps mentally ill, but this dribble is what I've come to expect from you. Not one valid argument in the lot, most of them addressing things that I didn't say.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday December 03 2015, @10:00PM
Or perhaps mentally ill
Isn't a psychopath (which you mentioned as a possibility) considered mentally ill?
Not one valid argument in the lot
Strange. That's what I'd say about you.
most of them addressing things that I didn't say.
"You would say that. Infectious disease and human trafficking are pretty compelling reasons for it to be illegal."
My response to this was perfectly comprehensible. I rejected the notion that they are compelling reasons for it to be illegal, that the "human trafficking" bit suggests that we should ban something merely because it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, and that some people support legalizing prostitution but regulating it in such a way that it greatly reduces the chances of either of your scenarios occurring. I don't see the problem here.
"It's pretty damn hard to ensure that people are actually choosing to be prostitutes and not being coerced."
I responded the way I did because it suggests that it is justifiable to ban something merely because it makes the law harder to enforce or because it could be abused.
"At some point most people grow up and realize that freedom isn't unlimited"
Now, here's where you seem to imply something about me that just isn't true: That I support unlimited freedom.
"and that there are costs associated with civilization."
Meaning what? There is no reason that it is necessarily to make prostitution illegal in order to have civilization. Why would that be a necessity or a cost that we must accept, especially considering that it is legal in some places?
If those don't address what you said, then you must be using a different language than me that looks exactly the same as English.