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If voters approve the measure, the SFPD would be prohibited—in the absence of any other crime they might be perpetrating, and regardless of whether they are indoors (in a club or massage parlor, for example) or outdoors (on the street, in a park)—from arresting people simply for asking for, or offering, sex in exchange for money. It's somewhat akin to the “blind eye” attitude city police have been directed to take, since the late 1970s, to the recreational use of marijuana. In other words, you can smoke a joint on the street and be safe from arrest, unless you’re robbing a bank. With the unlikelihood that prostitution laws will ever be stricken from the books, this proposed measure takes advantage of the “home rule” provision in California's charter, which states that counties may enact laws that exclusively apply to residents within their borders.
Another clause in the measure mandates that police be required to investigate crimes such as rape and robbery, regardless of the status of the victim as a sex worker. Again, it can be compared to being robbed or assaulted while you’re smoking a joint. The police must still pursue your assailant.
Prosecution of victimless crimes such as prostitution costs the city millions of taxpayer dollars per year. Says local activist Starchild (who was acquitted of prostitution charges late last autumn, after a trial that lasted two years), “San Francisco taxpayers don’t want their money being spent to promote outdated Puritan morality, especially in a time of tight budgets.”
For Starchild, the ESPU and the city’s other sex-positive activists, this is only another stage in their attempts to implement the recommendations of the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution in their final report in 1996. As of this June, organizers are more than two-thirds of the way toward collecting the 7,168 signatures of registered city voters needed to put this measure on the ballot, and volunteers armed with petition clipboards have been tirelessly blanketing the city. As the ESPU and other ballot supporters see it, it’s less a “free expression” issue than a stand for human rights.
“Sex workers don’t have the right to negotiate for labor and safe work conditions,” says Maxine Doogan of the ESPU. “Why should city employees be able to profit off of someone else's labor?” Adds Robyn Few of the Sex Workers Outreach Project. “When you have a criminal record it’s harder to pursue other careers to exit the sex industry.”
Predictably, organizations whose primary mission is to unequivocally combat prostitution, such as the SAGE (Standing Against Global Exploitation) Project, are against the measure. However, it is the SAGE Project that founded and administers the controversial—and lucrative—First Offender Prostitution Program, or “Johns School”. The FOPP has garnered so far over $11 million in government funding, but also over $168,000 in fees paid by arrested, first-time prostitutes’ clients who choose to attend a “consciousness-raising” class costing $500, rather than face criminal trial and possible conviction. Although the fee money is not, technically, taxpayer money, and is meant to be split three ways between SAGE, the SFPD and the office of the district attorney, the amount of money in SAGE’s custodianship has raised questions from Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who recently accused the program of potentially mismanaging city funds. This past March the city’s Board of Supervisors voted to have the independent Office of the Budget Analyst audit the program.
“The FOPP should be scrapped entirely,” firmly declares Starchild, who is also a Libertarian who sits on the steering committee of the San Francisco Taxpayers Union. The FOPP has also been the subject of derision as “shame-based propaganda” by progressive advocates, who see the classes as needless and punitive, rather than community-building.
The psychological and physical health of a community relies on the enforcement of laws against crimes on property and person‹crimes with victims. Whether or not pursuing the “victimless” crime of prostitution will continue to drain San Francisco's resources, the voters in November should give us their answer.
Under the screen name Simona Wing, Cantara Christopher performed in the films of Gerard Damiano, Bob Voss and Bob Chinn during the “Golden Age” of porn in the 1970s.
Originally published in Spread Magazine