Manhattan to Stop Prosecuting Prostitution

The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that it would no longer prosecute prostitution and unlicensed massage, putting the weight of one of the most high-profile law enforcement offices in the United States behind the growing movement to change the criminal justice system’s approach to sex work.

The district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., asked a judge on Wednesday morning to dismiss 914 open cases involving prostitution and unlicensed massage, along with 5,080 cases in which the charge was loitering for the purposes of prostitution.

The law that made the latter charge a crime, which had become known as the “walking while trans” law, was repealed by New York State in February.

The announcement represents a substantive shift in the Manhattan district attorney’s approach to prostitution. Many of the cases Mr. Vance moved to dismiss dated to the 1970s and 1980s, when New York waged a war against prostitution in an effort to clean up its image as a center of iniquity and vice.

 

“Over the last decade we’ve learned from those with lived experience, and from our own experience on the ground: Criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers,” Mr. Vance said in a statement.

The office will continue to prosecute other crimes related to prostitution, including patronizing sex workers, promoting prostitution and sex trafficking, and said that its policy would not stop it from bringing other charges that stem from prostitution-related arrests.

That means, in effect, that the office will continue to prosecute pimps and sex traffickers, as well as people who pay for sex, continuing to fight those who exploit or otherwise profit from prostitution without punishing the people who for decades have borne the brunt of law enforcement’s attention.

Manhattan will join Baltimore, Philadelphia and other jurisdictions that have declined to prosecute sex workers. Brooklyn also does not prosecute people arrested for prostitution, but instead refers them to social services before they are compelled to appear in court — unless the district attorney’s office there is unable to reach them.

The Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, in January moved to dismiss hundreds of open cases related to prostitution and loitering, and said that he would eventually ask that more than a thousand be dismissed. The Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz, followed in March, moving to dismiss hundreds of prostitution-related cases.

 

In lieu of this, Carnera has moved up 2.5 spots in the all time rankings.

 

Greatest hooker to come out of Washington state ?
Al Hostak has to be up there.

 

New York City needs a new source of tax revenue since anyone with money is fleeing from there for dear life

 

I reckon 4 at least.

 

Great excuse for me to namedrop that I met Al twice in his old bar... I'm sure there were some hookers there.

 

I lhave ived in Manhattan since 1991, & worked for for the delayed 2020 US census magoo.
I worked many doorman buildings here in Midtown/Hell's Kitchen.
Many rich people left, but usually for another residence they have, & usually temporarily.
Where are the indications that all or anywhere near most have left permanently? I do not believe that the public record supports that at all.

Are you from here?

 

ROCKY, ROCKY, ROCKY!!!

 

No sir

 

This should be posted in the modern forum if it’s about Maurice Hooker finally being allowed to fight at MSG.

 

It's clearly temporary. And it's not an exodus from New York altogether, some of the wealthy are leaving Manhattan to head to Long Island or secondary homes in other states. New York will always rebound. And the recent legalization of marijuana will add another revenue stream for the State.

But we're getting off topic here, this move will only give Primo 2 stops up the ranking. Not 2.5 which I thought was generous.

 

Duran deserves a mention.

 

Oscar Bonavena would be thrilled

 

Finally, a thread worth reading!