"National Day of Johns Arrests" campaign by the numbers:

[lyn.xes]

Nearly 600 suspects arrested in national solicitation sting

"During this latest operation another 23 suspects were arrested and charged with pimping, sex trafficking or promoting prostitution. Many suspects were arrested after answering online classified ads. Dart says part of the reason for the program is to highlight the role the websites play in prostitution.

"National Day of Johns Arrests" campaign by the numbers:
23 sex trafficking/pimping arrests
570 sex solicitation arrests (johns)
$341,330 in minimum fines
408 johns arrested as a result of fake Backpage.com ads
40 johns arrested as a result of fake Craigslist ads
221 cars towed/forfeited from johns
18 weapons seized from johns
4 narcotics charges for johns
83 victims recovered
54 adults
29 juveniles"


http://abc7chicago.com/news/nearly-6...-sting/501165/

[Old-T]

So let's do a little arithmetic:

570 men arrested.

3% had weapons--and some of these may well have been legal

Less than 1% had drugs

Somehow this does not square with the typical lies of "prostitution is intrinsically linked to drugs and violence".

Also nice of the story to essentially hint that pimps, traffickers, and clients are indistinguishable.

Good to know honesty is alive and well.

[Camille Fox]

What in the world do they mean by "83 victims recovered"?? I have an idea what they mean, but to call providers "victims" is some serious attempt at furthering a semi-manufactured human trafficking issue... I really wonder how many providers are really "victims".

[FoulRon]

The article I read was trying to tie them all the the Super Bowl in Phoenix, i.e., trying to draw the corollary that the game causes/increases trafficking. About two paragraphs in, though, they admitted that the number of Phoenix area arrests was actually < 10% of the total. Most were NY/Chicago area. They probably would have had the same number of arrests if they'd run this sweep during the 4th of July weekend, or any other for that matter.

But congrats to them for liberating the kids and others actually being trafficked and arresting the pimps. Now if only pimping carried some real penalties.

[Carolina Girl Holly]

I have passed along a saying I heard to many "one crime at a time"