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(1) As the former NY Attorney General, Spitzer oversaw the prosecution of at least two prostitution rings by the state's organized crime task force, which reports to the attorney general. I try to imagine how useless our trafficking or organized crime task forces might be if they were being led by someone who benefits from trafficking and organized crime...
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(2) Spitzer transported the prostitute from NY to DC. The feds haven't yet brought up formal charges, but he can potentially be charged under the Mann Act, which is essentially the statute US Attorneys use to more easily prosecute cases of human trafficking. It carries stiff penalties, up to 15 or so years in prison. That's big.
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(3) Most importantly, is it no surprise why the blood, sweat and tears of several New York anti-trafficking agencies, including GEMS, was all for naught when the proposed NY Safe Harbor Act failed to pass last year?
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As reported in an editorial in the New York Times, "Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York and his colleagues in the Sate Legislature got deserved kudos earlier this year for passing a law that provides aid and protection to victims who are smuggled into this country and forced to work as sex slaves. Unfortunately, the sex trafficking law did nothing to protect the growing numbers of American-born children, as young as 12 or 13, who are forced into prostitution by street pimps.
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During the last term, the Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have provided those protections. Under the Safe Harbor Act, children who are too young to legally consent to sex would no longer be charged with prostitution and would no longer be treated as criminals. The courts would instead be required to provide them with counseling, medical care and the long-term shelter they end to reclaim their lives." (NY Times 9/15/07)
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It was reported by Safe Harbor advocates that some members of the Legislature were only slightly interested in hearing the young survivor's testimony, perking up when she named off some clubs she used to work at in a manner that suggested that they were flipping through their mental rolodexes to remember if it was one of the many that they have patronized in the past. There may be a few rational arguments one can make against a bill of this nature, but I'd bet money that some to many of the nay votes had to do more with Legislators' de facto acceptance of the sex industry and their view of American children in prostitution as bad kids making a bad choice (and thus not "innocent victims" like foreign victims of trafficking), than any well thought out reasoning. It makes you wonder what Spitzer was thinking through all these deliberations. "Dang, I can't wait to get home and call 'Kristin'. This is getting real boring."
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What really burns me up is that you can educate people. You can educate them with interesting information in an interesting way. You can give them all the horrendous facts they need so that there is no denying that most of the girls involved in prostitution have a traumatic life. Many are minors, even if they don't say so. Many are getting beat and raped regularly, even if they cover their bruises with makeup and put a smile on their faces. Many don't get to keep a dollar of the money they make, even though they brag about living the glamorous life in the public eye. Granted, the high-class circuit may not be as oppressive as the street prostitution rings, but it is oppressive nonetheless. It's all a facade. We never kept that a secret from you. They really need our help, not our judgment, not our complacent acceptance of "the world's oldest profession". What burns me up is that you can make the reality of the trauma blatantly clear...and they just don't give a damn.
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Now who knows how the girls working for VIP Escorts were treated or whether there were any minors involved. It doesn't matter. When the political will is non-existent, bills fail. Period. Is it any wonder now where the will went when the Safe Harbor Act failed?
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