Comments on: Is Craigslist the world's biggest bordello?

A San Francisco sex worker says Craigslist is vital to her industry. Cook County says Craigslist's erotic services section is a nuisance to the community.

[WindowsSucks]

Craigslist is great. I've got my couch off it, work off it, roommates off it. I've a friend who gets threesome partners off it. There're psychos on there, just like there are at work, at the family reunion, in the classroom. Overall, everyone's happy.

It's irrational that ANYONE would sue craigslist for what USERS post! There was a time when some guys said something about free speech--wait, didn't they write it down along with something about freedom in some document? In any case, craigslist is an open board where PEOPLE can post all sorts of things so why is the site getting sued? And if I were to guess the sheriff is using tax payer's money to sue.

I've read countless books, articles, blogs and so on about/for/by sex workers and there's a consensus: legalization of sex work is the only way to go. Prostitution is the oldest profession and will forever exist. The only way to stop the horrendous violence sex professionals face is to legalize the profession and give these people rights.

Hooker, *****, whatever you want to call these people, they are hard working people who deserve no less than anyone else who does an honest job for a living: they provide a service in exchange for a fee. They're not living off welfare, they're not begging at anyone's door step. They're working.

There are SO many other problems that need attention, especially in this crisis. Maybe the news haven't gotten to Chicago yet but the country is in shams. How about suing the Wall St. arses who effed up everything? Why doesn't Mr. Dart get some balls to do that? Better yet, why doesn't he and other authorities get some balls to go after the traffickers who steal people (even little girls and little boys) to sell them into sex slavery?

[cmstratton]

Ok now I'm not against consentual prostitution to begin with. But by suing Craiglist, Dart is only trying to make a name for himself by launching a very newsworthy campaign. Craigslist is no more responsible than a hotel owner who has a hooker rent a room for the night.

Heck, why not sue the government while he's at it? They own the streets that the prostitutes use to work their trade. Shouldn't they be held responsible for allowing hookers to use their streets?

[kannuc]

legalize prostitution and drugs and then tax it, it might help us of the current mess

[WindowsSucks]

Thank you! Kudos, kudos, kudos.

[Smith37549]

I agree. Neither one of these problems is EVER going to go away and unlike murder, theft, rape, etc (which are also never going to go away) would really be relatively victimless, if regulated properly. Spending tax money to "fight the war on drugs" or stop prostitution is pointless. Use these things as tools to help dig us out of this hole that we are in.

[jkpcguru11]

What a ridiculous lawsuit. Instead fighting hard on the streets, they decide to take the easy way out. If they shut down this part of the site I'm wiling to bet they will see something called Unintended Consequences! Where there's a will there'd a way. Another site will just become popular for this type of demand. All they will have succeeded in doing is fracture the demand and make it go back to the old way or go new ways. If they were smart they would leave craigslist alone and continue using it to catch who they need to catch.

[fitnessforyoutoo]

You can get a pre paid phone and credit card paid in cash so that rule will only stop the dumb sex workers.

[hassan_bin_sober]

The only ones outraged are the religious right. They should all be exterminated anyway, their a waste of flesh! If it weren't for Religious ninnys prostitution wouldn't be a problem. JUST LIKE THE WAR ON DOPE, it's just another failed prohibitionist policy. You have murderers, burglars, rapists, etc. etc. etc.running the streets; AND the resources are wasted chasing after prosecuting VICTIMLESS CRIMES! I would think prostitutes would be a s safer bet than having sex with some dumb ass teenager who may harbor a wide selection of STD's some of which most likely don't even have names yet. America needs to get off it's provincial moral high horse and get with the 21st century. SEX AND DOPE WILL NEVER GO AWAY! AMERICA IS A NATION OF IDIOTS!

[fjferrell]

For better or for worse, Craigslist has become a cyberspace nightmare. Many news stories, of late, have shown Craigslist to be the catalyst for crimes to occur by users of all ages. What was once a great idea and cyber entity for people to use, communicate, and reference seems to have gone amok!

You do not have to be a techno genius to realize there are serious risks involved when using Craigslist. The first time I was on Craigslist I was zapped with a Trojan Horse virus that nearly wiped out my system by attacking nearly all my security firewalls. I was looking for some fine antique china listings for my wife. Needless to say, I don't use the 'list unless I am on a powerfully protected data system.

Users BEWARE!!!

[Wickedashtray]

if you got "zapped" by a trojan then you are an idiot. You only get such things by clicking on a link. Craigs runs a very clean site in terms of spam, downloads etc. Craigslist isn't the "problem". Its the people who use it. I have no virus or trojan protection and I'm on CL daily. Never had an issue. Odds are you got it somewhere else or you just clicked on a link somebody put up CL. It didn't come from craigs.

Take responsibility for your own lack of knowledge rather than blame it on a site

[vlgallas]

I'll second the first response! I'm often searching for one thing or another on CL and can't imagine how you could end up with such a problem. Just makes no sense unless it had to do with a link that you clicked on.

[sadchild]

apparently craig has a strong pimp hand

[CherylMASS]

Last week I did a search for "craigs list feedback" so I could warn others of a Craigs List scammer. What I came upon was a Craigs List feedback forum for escort services! I never thought of CL being used for that purpose...nieve I guess. Now it's all over the news. I finally did find a CL feedback site, Craigslist Feedback .Net . No escort feedback on that site as far as I could see.

[Dr_Zinj]

It is the height of stupidity for the United States to have laws against the transacting of services for pay between consenting adults that does not cause unwanted harm to the participants; especially when it is entirely permissible to perform the act without payment.

The people who propose, pass, enforce, and prosecute laws like this are all sociopaths who gain pleasure by their control over other people's actions. They are the ones fighting against the sexual revolution, the ones who want to make sex a filthy dispicable act, the ones who want to make people ashamed of themselves.

The reason why organized crime is into prostitution is because there is a lot of money to be made at it. The reason why a lot of money can be made at it is because the fees charged have to offset the risk costs.
Remove the risk, and the prices will drop like a rock to normal market levels.
The reason why pimps can abuse their prostitutes is because there is no way for them to report it without retaliation by both the pimps and the government.

Legalize it, provide training for it, require frequent, periodic physicals and recertification for it, and tax the earnings as regular income and ear mark those taxes for the program itself.

Go after the people who want to engage in slavery, or abuse children, or assault people; but leave the rest alone.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Oh, that's funny.

[ucjb]

I wonder if there are any unsolved crimes in Cook county. Yes there are plenty of murderers and rapists and child molesters on the loose in Cook county.

http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/sheriffs_police/ccspd_mostwanted.html

Mr. Dart how about going after these criminals instead of worrying about something you can't stop, leave them women alone..

[amerhome]

Anyone who thinks that Craigslist is the world's biggest bordello has never been to an annual meeting of the mortgage bankers association or watched congressional debates on Cspan.

[Heebee Jeebies]

People should be allowed to do what they want with their bodies. The government doesn't own us. They should however tax sexual services and people should be required to be checked out after each sexual encounter and this needs to be at their expense not the tax payers.

In this economy people should be allowed to make ends meet!

Robert

[jacksons98]

I'm against prostitution especially when it involves minors, but it looks to me like Craigslist is actually making it easier for the police to enforce the laws. Our government gets an F for common sense.

[RavingEniac]

One drawback of CL's "commercial" postings is that here and there, there may be noncommercial personal ads, a person ISO some sort of real relationship. It would be nice to separate the commercial sex posters from the ones from people searching for noncommercial relationships of whatever sort.

But it's kinda crazy that cops and judges and legislatures have so much hatred for activity that makes people happy. The lawmen are mostly cowering in fear of the preachers and their ignorant flocks who try to impose their version of Taliban morality. That morality actually was a target of protest by their messiah Jesus. I think that he was half-kooky, but somewhat saner than the serious kooks of his day who would stone a woman for having a fling. Jesus had some incentive for this---his own mother was at risk of being stoned or ostracized. The bible thumpers ignore this though.

[Editor's note: Profanity deleted]

[vlgallas]

The "Bible thumpers" as you state it, are often some of the biggest participants, along with law enforcement.

[yen2ken]

five thoughts on this flap about craigslist supposedly enabling prostitution
-1- the gent who says Craigs-list is untouchable because they do not have money in the process makes sense; neither is Craigs-list facilitating pimping any more than a public library with a popular restroom or business card bulletin board would be doing something similar
-2- a better INTERNET issue for the DA may be the opposite of "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) which is the maddening practice in which vendors are permitted to ensnare .. that is, on the Internet you can say yes to a free something, pay $1.99 for shipping by credit card, and accept the "Terms".. and find your credit card, legally, being plugged for $69 per month for some service you never wanted ...NOW there's a target for the DA
-3- in fact, the whole concept of "terms of service" (ten pages of fine print) to which one must agree without receiving a copy, or providing a signature, just to receive merchandise (licenses are BS) for which one is willing to pay ... is so much more a source of dry-rot in our society, that might be the best target for an aggressive DA
-4- lastly, getting back to trafficking in human services ... and the destruction of lives that results ... start at the top, with the "human resources" department in every corporation that pushes political correctness, or diversity "to the destruction of personal freedom"...BUT back at the retail level, ...
-5- what about a DA/Prosecutor web-site where victims of prostitution (madams or johns or hustlers or even pimps poverty stricken from competing with Craigs-list) can anonymously give tips for legal prosecution of those who are really "twisting" the rest (battery to fraud)... one problem with such a site would be that .. with any detail that would make it work... such a whistle-blower site would be just as reprehensible as Craigs-list in accidentally enabling assignations... but ... it just might deal out some justice too.

[disco-legend-zeke]

The big problem with Craigslist and other free sites is just that: they are free.

Along time ago a mentor advised me, "always charge, because free attracts thieves."

Because Email is free, we have email spam.

Because social sites are free, we have facebook spam

The stories of people robbed, murdered, swindled, or otherwise abused on Craigslist is just further demonstration of this wisdom.

Want to make a zillion bucks? Craigslist but it costs a dollar. Even a trivial amount like that will keep the thieves away, hopefully making it safer for women and men alike.

Prosittution is NOT a victomless crime, it is estimated that 60% of working women are doing so as slaves. An honest marketplace, with a reasonable but non-free admission price will only make things better.

It's important to stop listening to the whining of freetards and add a little charge to keep the riffraff out.

[vlgallas]

Where do you get this 60% figure? How come, in a near decade of owning escort services, I never encountered one lady that was a "slave" and actually it was quite the opposite - they controlled their own finances and destiny? Each lady decided not to be a slave in reality.

I sure never posted on Craigslist - I closed my business in late 2001, before it existed, but why would it make a difference that I paid for my website and ads in telephone books? I don't get the connection that you are attempting to make. Anyone can create a website and plenty of people do it free. There's a company - I think it's freeescortsite.com that allows escorts to create their own. Or they can post on the many message boards and blogs for free, like bigdoggie.net, TER, or others. The same posters from Craigslist post on these boards also. Some are riffraff, and some are not.

[wnbear]

Well, I do know that 72% of statistics are made up "on the spot"...

[xz39]

This is great. We got some many melt down in finance sector & we are wasting so much time in this. Time well spent.

[Halo485]

I think its interesting that th article doesn't mention anything about the men who are hiring prostitutes. What kind of sick guy is going to pay a 14-year-old to hve sex with him? There is def. a problem with minors being prostituted. It seems like there are some really screwed up issues. Does no one even consider just how messed up people are?! And in response to several other posts...sex does not equal love. I dissaprove of the law suit but I agree there is definitely issues with the mindframe of a lot of Americans when it comes to sex. I am most disgusted that there is even a market for prostitution...are people that desperate to get laid?