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Editorial: Legalize prostitution for sake of
women
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The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner
Oct 26, 2006 5:00 AM (9 days ago)
Current rank: # 2,634 of 5,291 articles
BALTIMORE - No one
would tell a daughter to aspire to be a prostitute.
It’s a horrible profession, demeaning and often dangerous.
Some women’s studies theorists say prostitution — like
pornography — liberates women from traditional gender roles
and gives them power over their sexuality. That’s nonsense, of
course. But so is locking women up — and it’s mainly women
who go to jail — for the crime.
Brandy Britton, the former University of Maryland, Baltimore
County assistant professor charged with prostitution is one of
the most recent examples of why its a waste of taxpayer dollars
to pursue practitioners of the oldest profession.
The 43-year-old is accused of trading sex for money out of
her Ellicott City home. When police raided it in January, they
confiscated 150 condoms and bottles of lubricating lotion and
records that tied her to a Web site that officials said
solicited prostitution. She went to trial earlier this week in
Howard County Circuit Court to face four charges of
prostitution.
If police think locking her up will be a deterrent to others,
they ought to think again. Typing in “escort Baltimore” into
the Google search engine retrieves 598,000 responses.
There is neither the money nor the manpower to track down all
the local sex workers. Last year, police officers across the
state arrested more people for prostitution (1,898) than for
forcible rape (418) and other sex offenses (1,312) combined. We
wonder how many of the same people will be rearrested this year?
Perhaps a better use of police resources would be to shame
those who solicit their services. Shame has helped to find those
who do not pay child support, so why couldn’t it help to stop
men from frequenting prostitutes? Why not post the names and
photos of those arrested and charged with prostitution online
and print their names in the local newspapers?
If history can serve as a guide, shame will not stop the
profession. Because of that, the better solution would be to
legalize prostitution as in parts of Nevada and the Netherlands
— and tax the proceeds like any other business. That way the
government could use the money to pay for programs to help women
find a path out of it.
Consequences of legislative folly
Maryland legislators have shown they think they can strongarm
business without consequences. The decision by FPL Group Inc.
and Constellation Energy Group Inc. not to merge proves them
wrong — again.
“As we considered the situation in Maryland, we determined
the risks and uncertainties were too significant to overcome,”
said Mayo Shattuck III, Constellation’s chief executive
officer.
The decision means consumers could lose $214 million in rate
reductions promised by Constellation as part of a plan to win
approval for the merger from the state.
That does not count the $386 million in rate cuts — part of
June legislation that set electricity rates lower than they
would have been had they reflected market prices — that could
be subject to legal challenge. The June legislation followed a
1999 law to cap electricity prices for six years at pre-1993
levels.
In an attempt to prove themselves consumer watchdogs, state
legislators once again showed themselves incompetent at judging
the market — and helping their constituents lower their
electricity rates.
The dissolution of the merger must serve as a reminder to
them about what happens when they dictate to businesses how to
run their operations. Who knows if the “risks and
uncertainties” might also make Constellation rethink its
commitment to staying in Maryland?
One would think the legislative majority could entertain
themselves sufficiently with bungling state operations that they
wouldn’t have time to demonstrate their lack of depth in
business analysis.
Original link: http://www.examiner.com/a-363221~Editorial__Legalize_prostitution_for_sake_of_women.html
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