Both the police and the press get it wrong when it comes to identifying people charged with prostitution-related offenses.
That was evident at the end of last week in the reporting of a prostitution sting in Wayne County.
According to the authorities, a heroin-addicted woman was advertising on a website, offering to sell sex, which is illegal in New York. The police said they would not charge her if she would be bait for the arrest of those who answered her ad.
And so it was that a half a dozen men of various descriptions and hometowns were cited with the Class B misdemeanor of patronizing a prostitute. The identities of those men were released to the press by the authorities.
In Syracuse, one radio newscast reported on the sting, and broadcast the name of just one of the men -- presumably because he lived in the community served by the radio station. In Rochester, one television newscast reported on the sting, and broadcast the profession of just one of the men, and where he practiced that profession -- presumably because it was a profession of public trust and respect.
Presumably, great public shame and damage were done those two men by the fact their identities were reported and highlighted. Impact upon family and employment were potentially significant. Embarrassment to them and their relatives -- children? -- and loss of livelihood were very heavy penalties resulting from the police and press handling of this matter.
A matter which, if general practice holds, will not result in conviction or perhaps even prosecution for patronizing a prostitute. Many of these charges end up being dismissed or reduced, and at their worst are the lowest level of misdemeanors.
A huge penalty of public and personal embarrassment comes to people who have not been convicted of a crime and who stand a pretty good chance of not being convicted of a crime. It is a nuclear penalty to a petty offense.
And it accomplishes nothing for the good.
The belief that going after prostitution offenses spares communities and neighborhoods from this undeniable pestilence is not supported by the facts. I am aware of one neighborhood in Rochester that has been the target of prostitution stings for the nearly 30 years I have been in town, yet prostitution there has never been demonstrably diminished or deterred. It continues on. Just like the online prostitution they were hoping to fight in Wayne County.
So, there are no positive results, yet the same stings and the same predictable reporting go forward.
That's because the topic is sexy and seductive to both reporters and cops. It combines American appetites for both the lurid and the self-righteous.
The same injustice arises in the reporting of the names and identities of the prostitutes.
I have repeatedly seen the names and faces of middle-aged Chinese women arrested in massage parlors, with the police and the press both ignoring the fact that these women are victims of international sex trafficking -- that they are sex slaves working off an indenture in suburban America. Condemned, sadly, by both American society and earlier Chinese immigrants, these women have nothing but the cops on one side and the Snakeheads on the other.
Then there are the far-more numerous incidents of women and men driven into prostitution by horrific drug addiction. Those are people dancing on the edge of death, people in the direst need of assistance, and we put them on the evening news like they are monsters. And as soon as they are released, they will be back on the streets again, trying to satisfy their addiction's demands.
We shame people, we stigmatize people, we bring pain to their families and destroy their futures.
For the lowest-ranked crime our law proscribes, with no apparent benefit.
That makes no sense, and is beneath the dignity of both law enforcement and news media. It dances for fun in the gray area of professional ethics.
And it, like our law, ignores the fact that those who engage in either side of prostitution are deeply broken and acutely in need of help. All are acting out in dysfunction and mental disease. It is not explained by physical need or desire, or by the innocence of some economic exchange. It is a spiritual, emotional, social and mental crumbling that leaves devistation in its wake. That is true for those who pay, and for those who are paid.
And bogus stings with public shamings do nothing to stop it.
Maybe it's time we looked for a better way.