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An advertisement placed in a California newspaper said Craiglist’s adult services section is “the choice of traffickers” in sex with underage girls.
The half-page ad, addressed to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark in Wednesday’s San Francisco Chronicle, calls for Craigslist to discontinue its adult services section, which generated $36 million in revenues this year, and included the experiences of two teenage girls who said they were forced into prostitution via Craigslist, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.
Craigslist Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster said his company is the only one that tries to curtail prostitution, using methods such as reviewing every ad, asking users to report suspicious activity and supporting law enforcement sweeps and stings.
“We’d like to do even more, and my door remains open to experts from advocacy groups and law enforcement with ideas on how we can improve,” Buckmaster said.
MC, now 17, said she was forced into prostitution when she was 11. “All day, me and other girls sat with our laptops, posting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist,” she wrote. “He (her pimp) made $1,500 a night selling my body, dragging me to Los Angeles, Houston, Little Rock and one trip to Las Vegas in the trunk of a car.”
Saada Saar said the ad was an appeal to Newmark’s conscience. “We thought it was important to do it in Craig’s hometown,” she said.
Response to pressure
Last year, Craigslist, responding to pressure from law enforcement, launched a crackdown on prostitution ads, saying staff would review ads before allowing them on the site.
But Monday, the Schapiro Group, an independent research firm in Atlanta, released the results of a two-month study done last fall, after the review process started. The firm bought ads in Craigslist’s metro Atlanta area promising “escort services” with young women, with an average of 1 in 4 gaining approval from Craigslist reviewers, said Alex Trouteaud, the firm’s lead researcher.
Since 1995, the year of her transformation, Christine Watkins has attended Holy Spirit Parish/Newman Center in Berkeley, going through the RCIA program there. For a few intervening years, she was a member of St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco. She now attends Newman Hall as well as St. Joseph Basilica Parish in Alameda, where she serves as coordinator for the After the Choice post-abortion healing program for the Oakland diocese as well as Rachel’s Vineyard site coordinator for Oakland and San Francisco. Her husband, John Watkins, is coordinator of Life and Justice for the Oakland diocese. They have two sons, Christian, 5, and John 1.
Besides her own story, Watkins writes of conversion episodes in the lives of five other people: Angela, a former angry stripper; Michael, a heroin addict; Poppa Jaime, a man who rescues children living in the sewers of Colombia; Goran, a homeless drug addict, and her husband John, “a sad, lonely young man,” before his healing.
Bayview Festival – Rub one out for sex ed that actually teaches kids something at this out in the open celebration of self love. 2-11pm, $25 for voyeurs. Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 Mission, SF. (415) 255-1155, www.masturbate-a-thon.com Carnaval Grand Parade – A flash of feather, a slew of sequins; Carnaval 2010 takes over the Mission. 10am, free. starts at 24th St. and Bryant, SF. www.carnaval.com
San Ramon Art and Wind Fest – Learn how to make a kite, paint a kite, fly a kite with other breeze enthusiasts at this food, drink, and craft fest. 10-5pm (also Sun/30), free. San Ramon Central Park, 12501 Alcosta, San Ramon. www.ci.san-ramon.ca.us The Very Best – A Malawian vocalist and London production duo Radioclit team up for pop music reimagined to express the thoughts of Africa. 8pm, $18. The Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF. www.independentsf.com
Whore-A-Palooza – Part of this year’s Sex Worker Fest, El Rio pulls out all the stops with a pro-am stripper contest, and sex worker movie screenings on the porch. 7pm-2am, free. El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF. (415) 287-3114, www.sexworkerfest.com
… But first, some important business that not even Jack Bauer, or, for that matter, Barbara Boxer, would ever attempt … Chuck must successfully mow his lawn … and then patch his leaky roof.”
What makes this video funny and not, um, torture? The goofy photos of DeVore on his roof and pushing his lawn mower.
Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina demonstrated an appreciation for the absurd when she OKd the “Demon Sheep” video, an instant classic. But long before that, when she was an up-and-coming senior executive at Lucent Technologies, she displayed what can only be considered a ribald streak a mile wide. That, it would seem, was a necessary survival skill in the male-dominated business world. In her 2006 memoir “Tough Choices,” she recounts having to take a meeting in a strip club, being called “our token bimbo” and fending off rumors that she traded sexual favors for promotions.
Newsom Will Take Sidewalk Law to Voters | Facing stiff opposition from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mayor Gavin Newsom will ask voters to weigh in on his proposal to ban sitting down on sidewalks during certain hours. The so-called sit/lie law is scheduled to be heard before the board’s Public Safety Committee on Monday; San Francisco voters can expect to see it on the November ballot. Advocates for prostitutes and the homeless oppose the law. While proponents say it will be used to focus on aggressive behavior by some sidewalk dwellers, others see the law as an attack on the city’s most vulnerable, prohibiting them from sitting or lying down on the sidewalk from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. “It is extremely hard to stay moving your whole waking day,” Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, told The New York Times. [The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times]
… When tourists examine the coin, they’ll see the iconography of what brought them to West Marin in the first place,” Kirschman said. “There’s a cow, the product of our ranchers; a lot of vegetables, the produce of our farmers; our lighthouse, an Indian arrowhead based on one Keith got from the museum and an elk.”
In addition to what Kirschman calls a West Marin motto – “Strength in Community” – the coins bear the legend “Good For Trade in Coastal Marin.” It’s that phrase that distinguishes the tokens from legal tender, and helps to make their use and exchange permissible, Hansen said.
“Trade tokens are as American as apple pie,” Kirschman said. “There have been thousands of them, and some are highly specialized – good only at a particular brothel in Louisiana or a single town. Some are worth hundreds as collectors’ items.”
Suspect pleads guilty in San Rafael massage parlor heist
Posted: 05/08/2010 08:29:07 PM PDT
An East Bay man has admitted his role in a kidnapping and robbery at a San Rafael massage parlor, leaving his co-defendent on the hook for a possible life sentence.
Douglas Allan Patterson, 33, of Hayward took a plea deal last week that would limit his sentence to three years. In exchange, he agreed to testify against the other suspect, Joseph Jerome Flowers, 37, of Oakland.
Both Patterson and Flowers were facing potential life sentences on charges of kidnapping, commercial burglary and three counts of robbery. Under the plea bargain, Patterson pleaded guilty to commercial burglary and being an accessory to a robbery.
“I think it’s a tremendous injustice when the government can favor one co-defendant over the other when both are equally culpable,” said Flowers’ defense attorney, Jon Rankin.
Tampa, Florida — The huge lines around the pain clinic aren’t anything out of the ordinary, but according to authorities, it is a daily occurrence that police say is becoming as bad as the crack cocaine epidemic in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Tampa Deputy Police Chief Mark Hamlin says now they are seeing the same effect as back then. Hamlin says these people are addicted to drugs and they commit crimes including robbery, burglary and prostitution to get those drugs.
While the problem has spiraled out of control, heartbroken parents of prescription drug abusers say the pills are easy to get. Dan Rodda’s 28-year-old son died after a doctor prescribed huge amounts of pain pills following a motorcycle accident.
He says it is not the doctor’s fault his son got addicted to pain killers, but does say his son “had the gun, and the doctor gave him the bullets.”
See the full article from “10 Connects”
Gawkers hoping to spot women decked out in Frederick’s of Hollywood gear were likely disappointed with today’s noontime prostitutes protest.
Perhaps 20 casually dressed demonstrators gathered at Polk and Sutter to decry the city’s proposed sit/lie ordinance, which they claimed would imperil the careers of decent, hard-working prostitutes. It was unclear how many of the protesters were prostitutes and how many were media or simply hangers-on; this may have been the San Francisco specialty of an event attracting more coverage than participants. Frank Chu was there, too:
Ubiquitous man on the street (literally) Starchild was there, too. The male escort/perennial no-hope Libertarian political candidate was there fleshing out the escort portion of his resume. He noted that “sex is fun,” and went on to note that sit/lie ordinances are not.
