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Prostitution Concerns Raised Over Belmont Massage Parlors
Posted: 10:27 pm PDT July 26, 2010Updated: 10:49 pm PDT July 26, 2010
BELMONT, Calif. — Concerns about prostitution have infiltrated the quiet peninsula city of Belmont as the city manager raised questions about massage parlor employees in the wake of a state group discrediting a number of schools that provide training for massage licenses.
Belmont has ten massage establishments and 47 registered massage therapists. Police said 37 of those therapists have gone to massage schools or received training that a state group has deemed illegitimate.
So Belmont wants a one year moratorium on any new massage permits while the current massage establishments are re-checked.
Susan Fleming, who works at the Relaxation Center, said she has been a Belmont massage therapist for 17 years and under the guidelines of a new state law has been certified by the California Massage Therapy Council.
P.M. Bay Area Buzz: In Belmont, 80 percent of massage therapists suspected of prostitution
By George KellyContra Costa Times
Posted: 07/26/2010 04:44:18 PM PDT
Here are the hot stories in the Bay Area for Monday, July 26, 2010:
One dead, two wounded during violent night in Antioch
Overnight shootings early Monday left one man dead and two others wounded, and scant clues about suspects, police said.
One of the attacks, at a minimart, injured a store clerk who is expected to recover. Another victim of the night’s violence told police that he was struck near the site where a man was killed, but so far they have not connected any of the shootings.
The first shooting was reported about 12:15 a.m. in the 2200 block of Banyan Way, where officers responded to a call of a fight that led to gunfire, police said. They found 20-year-old Antioch resident Hueashtian Hudson lying in the street with gunshot wounds, and learned that a white four-door Buick or Cadillac drove up and opened fire as he stood along the street.
…
In Belmont, 80 percent of massage therapists suspected of prostitution
Running through the Mission was fun. Since the event is on a Sunday morning, 16th Street was desolate. The highlight was running the intersection of 16th and Mission, and being cheered by drug dealers, prostitutes, and police officers!
Halleran said investigations of massage parlors are labor intensive and, in recent years, police have suspended operations of a few for code violations but made no arrests.
The City Council on Tuesday will consider adopting an urgency ordinance to place a moratorium on any new massage practitioners for the following 45 days. The council would vote on Aug. 10 extend the ban through July 2011.
“I guess I was surprised that it was that blatant,” said City Councilman Dave Warden.
…
It is unclear whether the problem is especially rampant in Belmont, where there are 10 massage parlors, or if the city is merely alone in researching its massage therapists. No other cities in San Mateo County have approved similar moratoriums in recent weeks.
In San Mateo and Burlingame, at least, no inventories of those cities’ massage parlors have been conducted, officials said.
Where does one begin with this bad apple? He was drafted by the Titans in 2005 with the 6th overall pick. And after just two seasons with the team, he had worn out his welcome. Titans GM Floyd Reese was quoted as saying he had spent “countless hours” trying to set Jones straight but that Jones had been “nothing but a disaster off the field.” That conduct included ten separate indcidents in which he was questioned by police. The last being the infamous “Make it rain” incident in which he got in a fight at a Vegas strip club that ended with a shooting that left a bouncer forever paralyzed. Goodell suspended him for an entire year from the NFL. During his suspension he made many stupid public appearances and statements that led to the commissioner denying his initial application for reinstatement. He would be traded to the Cowboys soon after. Jerry Jones assigned “Pac Man” a security detail to try and make sure …
See the full article from “Thoughts from the Dark Side (blog)”
Why it’s worth a visit: Also referred to as the Golden Gate National Cemetery, the Presidio’s veteran graveyard became the first national burial ground on the West Coast in 1884. It has grown into a haunting monument to the country’s war dead. Like Arlington, much of San Francisco’s military graveyard comprises row after row of nearly identical white domed tablet tombstones. The wide array of military heroes, the geometrical patterns created by the rows of grave markers and views of the Golden Gate Bridge peeking out from behind the trees make the cemetery a perfect location for war history buffs, photography fans or even those just looking for a stunning view.
The grave:
– Sarah Bowman (1813-1866): The cemetery houses the remains of many famed soldiers, including a large number of American servicemen killed in the Pacific Theater. However, one anomaly worth checking out is the grave of Sarah Bowman. Bowman was over 6 feet tall and accompanied Zachary Taylor’s troops in the Mexican War, during which time she cared for wounded troops. She eventually opened a notorious brothel in Texas and later, a boardinghouse. For those interested in the history of powerful women, Sarah Bowman’s grave is a must-see.
The cameras will feed live images to a computer screen in the dispatch area at the police station. Dispatchers will be able to manipulate the cameras and zoom in if they see something suspicious. The police department has drafted a policy to regulate the use of the cameras that includes keeping the tapes for 10 days and ensuring that the cameras only monitor public areas where there is no expectation of privacy.
Law enforcement agencies say cameras help them solve crimes. But a 2009 study of the effectiveness of 71 surveillance cameras
installed in high-crime areas in San Francisco found mixed results.
The study, published by the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the UC Berkeley School of Law, found that the cameras did not have an effect on homicides, drug dealing, prostitution or vandalism.
There was a tradition in the African-American community of Muslims being people of service and a lot of that is attributed to the Nation of Islam… Muslims were coming into the community to clean it up, uplift it up. To get people away from alcohol and pork, and to bring people fish, cleaning up drug addicts, reforming prostitutes, that was the perception of a Muslim, a Muslim as someone who was standing up for the rights of the community, epitomized by Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, who became the people’s champion. And now when you have Muslims coming in contributing to tearing down the community … most of the murders that occur in Oakland occur in the immediate vicinity of liquor stores. And in addition to alcohol you have the pornography, you have the drug paraphernalia that is being sold, you even have drugs being sold out of a lot of these shops. So, to me it’s inexcusable.13
See the full article from “CounterPunch”
The 30-second video, “Innocent Until Proven Guilty,” was created pro bono by Tom Donald Films for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. The PSA is part of a national campaign launched by the San Francisco Public Defender’s office to remind people of their constitutional right of presumed innocence.
Jeff Adachi introduces “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”:
“People should be judged by character, not color,” San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said. “In this PSA we are trying to get people to reflect about their own possible biases and racial profiling. It’s a reminder that nationality, race or sexual orientation doesn’t matter – everyone has a right to be judged individually.”
Watch “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”:
Adachi decided to launch the campaign, a series of high-profile studies and news reports, including:
• An analysis of arrest data in San Francisco’s prostitution stings, SF Weekly’s “Stung,” published June 16, 2010, found that Latino men may be unfairly targeted and that some men are being cited without agreeing to sex.
… You say we want to share the responsibility of integrating a social services safety net in all our diverse neighborhoods. They say that’s great. Then, you actually do it and they say that’s unconscionable. Who are these people? Well these are people like you and me,” he says.
The project’s opponents say they feel unfairly portrayed and just want more information.
“This isn’t just a ‘not in my backyard.’ This is, ‘If it’s coming to this city, this neighborhood, we want to make it the best program, the most avant garde,’” says Patricia Vaughey with Marina-Cow Hollow Neigbors.
Michaela Alioto Pier is the district supervisor and she is opposed, saying the apartment building will not be completely accessible for the disabled and is near trouble spots on Lombard Street.
“The fact that it’s close to some real hotspots where we see a lot of prostitution, drug dealing,” she says. “We should do it right, we should do it appropriately and we should do it with community support.”
See the full article from “KGO-TV”
