Post: #1

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Bay-...579285.php

A Bay Area-based website that for years catered to prostitutes and johns was seized Wednesday by federal investigators, who arrested a man and a woman accused of running it.

The website, myredbook.com, allowed sex workers to advertise their services for free and customers to rank their experiences. It purported to offer escorts, dancers and other adult entertainment.

Eric Omuro, 53, of Mountain View and Annmarie Lanoce, 40, of Rocklin (Placer County), were arrested Wednesday after being indicted a day earlier by a federal grand jury on charges of using the mail and the Internet to facilitate prostitution.

Omuro was also charged with 24 counts of money laundering in connection with alleged transfers of the website's revenue into bank accounts. Federal authorities are seeking to seize $5.4 million in cash and property from Omuro and Lanoce, the alleged windfall from the operation since April 2010.

It is unknown why authorities took action after the site operated for years. CNN reported that the bust was related to a national crackdown on sex trafficking this month that authorities said led to the rescue of 168 children and the arrest of 281 pimps.

The seizure of myredbook.com and its sister site, sfredbook.com, was met with mixed reactions.

Some law enforcement officials hailed the move as a victory against sex trafficking. But many sex workers who used the site said it was critical for their income and safety, and that authorities should not be focusing on acts between consenting adults.

Organizers with the Bay Area chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project warned sex workers on their website about the seizure, and were planning a community meeting.

"Today we lost extensive online forums for a community of sex workers to keep each other safe, screen clients, and blacklist predators," said Patricia West, a representative of the group. "While we are certainly concerned with the issue of sex trafficking, this misguided effort only pushes the most marginalized of us further into the underground."

Bay Area police officers have often utilized the site to sting alleged pimps and prostitutes. Last year, undercover officers in Fairfield contacted an alleged prostitute on the website to set up a date with her - a meeting that led to the arrest of her and her pimp.

"In my experience prosecuting these types of cases, the site is associated with the setting up of dates that often involve women who are being exploited or are victims of human trafficking," said Al Serrato, an assistant district attorney in San Mateo County. "I view it as a positive development that the federal authorities were able to take such strong action against it."

Post: #2

Geez...
I can see both sides of this issue.
In canada the laws regarding this are alot more open because the act of selling sex for money is not illegal.

Post: #3

The reason we should support these sex workers is because after the government is done with them, they come for us.

The government has found a way to crack down on sex-for-pay by fudging numbers on the sex trafficking myth and claiming it's "for the good of the children." Even leftie publications like the Village Voice have exposed the sex trafficking numbers as BS (Google it).

If this concept works, what do they do next? Expand the definition of rape further? Give you mandatory jail time for street harassment? Make statutory rape laws more stringent? They need to do something to justify getting that budget money, and odds are it will involve putting men behind bars. The business of American isn't business, as the old quote went, it's imprisonment.

Although I agree the government should get kids out of the sex trade, the constant stories about "stings," busts for online activities, and things like this make me think it's all just an excuse to expand the police state.

Maybe this is the real reason we despise feminism: the constant calls for authorities to oversee the minutiae of men's lives. This is how it starts.

Post: #4

The USA truly is becoming a sex prison for men. It is amazing watching the desperate men in the USA beat each other up (both figuratively and literally) all to please some fat, unfeminine, disgusting woman.

Can't buy a prostitute, it is against the law except in a few counties in Nevada.
Strip clubs in some places will not allow the women to get naked.
Hook up with a woman and do nothing wrong and she regrets it, you face life in prison.

There really is no point of living your life in the USA if you can afford to get out.

Post: #5

Quote:Federal authorities are seeking to seize $5.4 million in cash and property from Omuro and Lanoce, the alleged windfall from the operation since April 2010.

Wow that site was making over $1 million a year.

Post: #6

This is odd, because this site had a lot of "sex-positive" sex workers - bay area poly types who said they found the work empowering, and that websites like this made their work safer, they didn't have to go through a pimp, and basically allowed them to be self-employed women.

I'll be curious if the kink and poly communities in SF come out in support of them. I'd love to see the feminist machine take on the police state. It'd be a fight worth seeing.

Post: #7

(06-27-2014 07:41 AM)runsonmagic Wrote:  I'll be curious if the kink and poly communities in SF come out in support of them. I'd love to see the feminist machine take on the police state. It'd be a fight worth seeing.

Aggressively militarised police vs. Aggressively masculinised feminists

The ultimate grudge match.

"I'd hate myself if I had that kind of attitude, if I were that weak." - Arnold

Post: #8

(06-27-2014 06:08 AM)username Wrote:  

Quote:Federal authorities are seeking to seize $5.4 million in cash and property from Omuro and Lanoce, the alleged windfall from the operation since April 2010.

Wow that site was making over $1 million a year.

I didn't even think about this before, but it occurred to me this probably has less to do with morals and more to do with money.

The government wanted a piece of the action, and the way they got it was to "seize" the assets. They do this with suspected drug dealers too (i.e. anyone they don't like who has cash on hand when they get arrested).

Years ago we had the mafia as shakedown artists; now it's the government.

This is also a good place to mention the Feds spent decades strong-arming small time number-runners and gamblers out of action because it was "immoral." Then they let the states run their own lotteries and, eventually, casinos.

So much for their "morality." It suddenly becomes moral when it's the gov't making the money. Now that they've got a piece of MyRedbook's action, they'll probably lay off them. Charges might be dropped; money won't be returned. They never return the money.