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Los Angeles Flirts With Pre-Crime (washingtonpost.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the what's-a-nice-town-like-you-doing-with-a-law-like-this dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The city of Los Angeles is considering a new plan to fight prostitution: sending letters to men who solicit prostitutes in the hopes that the letters are seen by family members. Why not just arrest them while they're doing it? Because these letters aren't being sent to the houses of men who were convicted, or even arrested. Instead, automated license plate readers would scan the cars driving down streets known to have a prostitution problem, and the letters would be sent to the address associated with those vehicles. An article about the plan says, "There isn't 'potential' for abuse here, this is a legislated abuse of technology that is already controversial when it's used by police for the purpose of seeking stolen vehicles, tracking down fugitives and solving specific crimes."

9 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. It reminds me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It reminds me of when I visited a friend in hospital, then as I walked back to where I had parked past an abandoned strip club a woman driving past yelled angrily at me "I hope you had a good time". False positives like that are bound to happen.

    1. Re:It reminds me by slazzy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      On "black friday" I had someone yell at me for parking in a handicap parking spot, until I pointed the the sign that actually said for parents with small children only (of which I had my two small children in the car... false positives are guaranteed to happen.

      --
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    2. Re:It reminds me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It reminds me of when I visited a friend in hospital, then as I walked back to where I had parked past an abandoned strip club a woman driving past yelled angrily at me "I hope you had a good time". False positives like that are bound to happen.

      As a high school senior I was once visiting a building that had a bunch of picketers outside, a building with a medical clinic that provided STD screenings and abortions. When a pair of "grandmotherly" ladies with concerned looks approached me and asked if I was visiting the clinic on such and such a floor I truthfully answered that I was visiting the Marine Corp recruiter on a different floor. Their concerned looks turned into expressions of joy and love and they said "that's wonderful". When I responded to their reactions with "so its perfectly OK to kill once the other person is born?", their reactions changed to a bit hostile. I think they would have been less hostile had I said I'm meeting my girlfriend for her abortion. The hypocrisy of their "all life is sacred" argument annoyed me. I would have been polite had they offered me some bible versus to read before going in, made some sort of anti-war comment in keeping with their "all life is sacred" notion. Such comments would have been consistent with their beliefs.

    3. Re:It reminds me by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I know someone whose wife was pregnant. The pregnancy went horribly wrong and the fetus had zero chance of survival (congenital deformities as well as no bladder or kidneys). They had to make a choice I wouldn't wish on anyone: Have an abortion or carry it to term and give birth to a dead baby. The latter would also have put his wife in danger also so they decided on the abortion.

      On their way into the clinic, they were accosted by pro-life demonstrators who verbally abused them for "murdering their baby." Here's a couple who is making a horrible decision after being through a horrible situation and these people just walk up with no knowledge of the situation and pile more abuse on. When his wife was taken in for the procedure (he wasn't allowed in), he decided he had enough and confronted them. He even videoed it and posted it to YouTube as well as blogged about it.

      Regardless of your views, preying on people at their weakest (physically or psychologically) is just wrong. If you want to oppose abortion in the political arena, go right ahead (but don't be surprised if you're opposed by those who want abortion to remain an option). However, don't just assume you know the whole tale and then assume you know what's right for the person you're accosting. Some people need to re-learn the grade school lesson about what happens when you "assume."

      (NOTE: I'm using the general "you" here. Not referring to anyone in particular here.)

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    4. Re:It reminds me by climb_no_fear · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unfortunately true similar tale:

      A friend of mine got pregnant, unplanned but she was old enough to be happy anyway and say what the hell, I'll be a single mom.

      She went for her checkups and scans and the doctor found a cyst in her uterus. The observed it for a couple of weeks and it was growing like crazy. Doctor told her it would kill her long before the baby could be born if she didn't have it removed (which meant removing her uterus and, of course, the fetus).

      She was naturally distraught but after a couple of days made the only sensible decision she could and went back to the doctor at that hospital.

      He told her with a horrified look and told her that they don't do "that sort of procedure" at this hospital.

      She went to a nearby city and had to re-explain everything, have records transferred, etc, in order to save her own life...

  2. Easy fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Find scanner id politicians license plates put fake plates on car drive by scanner. Law repealed. Problem solved.

  3. Re:Why is prostitution illegal in the first place? by Bovius · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Two reasons:

    1. The expected moral indignation of those in our population who believe prostitution is just bad. I don't think there's much constructive discussion to be had here one way or the other.

    2. Prostitution is *heavily* associated with human trafficking, along with other behaviors that boil down to a girl being forced to sell her body, rather than wanting to. This is the reason that really matters.

  4. Solution by MobyDisk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. Copy legislator's license plates.
    2. Place phony plates on cars near streets known to have a prostitution problem.
    3. Hilarity ensues as Los Angeles legislators get prostitution warning letters.

  5. Re:Wow, thanks Los Angelos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Plate readers have been used before to blackmail the addresses of people visiting gay bars - it's just that back in 1998 this was considered illegal

    "In 1998, a Washington, D.C. police officer “pleaded guilty to extortion after looking up the plates of vehicles near a gay bar and blackmailing the vehicle owners.”

    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/los-angeles-cops-should-release-automatic-license-plate-reader-records-eff-aclu