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Oklahoma Video Vigilante Uses Drone To Wage War Against Prostitutes and Johns (bbc.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the fly-by-night-flyby dept.

HughPickens.com writes: Chris Baraniuk writes at BBC that Brian Bates, known in Oklahoma as the "Video Vigilante," is taking credit for Amanda Zolicoffer's conviction on a lewdness charge after being caught on Bates' drone mounted camera in a sex act in a parked vehicle last year. Zolicoffer was sentenced to a year in state prison for the misdemeanor while the case against her alleged client, who was released following arrest in December, is still pending. "I'm sort of known in the Oklahoma City area," says Bates . "For the last 20 years I've used a video camera to document street-level and forced prostitution, and human trafficking." Bates runs a website where he publishes videos of alleged sex workers and their clients. "I am openly referred to as a video vigilante, I don't really shy away from that," says Bates adding that the two individuals were inside a vehicle and the incident occurred away from other members of the public. The drone dropped to within a few feet of the vehicle where it filmed a 75 year old in the front seat of the white pickup truck. The duo separated after Zolicoffer, who was identified by her tattoo saying "Baby Gangster," saw the drone hovering overhead.

8 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Going voyeur... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... to force your morality unto everyone else. Of course he's proud of his "successes."

    1. Re:Going voyeur... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      By putting them in the American prison system? Shooting them and their dependents in the head would be doing more for the prostitutes than this self-righteous twit is.

    2. Re:Going voyeur... by dbIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not really all of the different to taking upskirt photos with a hidden camera on a staircase and then charging those with no underwear with indecency.
      This is one of those laws designed to reduce offence to people and going around taking a close look at those a long way away from others who could take offence is a bit pointless and nasty.

    3. Re:Going voyeur... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This might shock you, but outlawing prostitution actually makes a lot of sense. A non-trivial portion of prostitutes are not willing.

      That's a separate crime that has nothing to do with the sex work. Human trafficking and slavery are already illegal. No reason to make consensual sex workers criminals too.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:Going voyeur... by wvmarle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Did you even read TFS? Because you apparently missed this part:

      Bates runs a website where he publishes videos of alleged sex workers and their clients. "I am openly referred to as a video vigilante, I don't really shy away from that," says Bates

      So he's not just turning over evidence to the police, he's actively publishing it, presumably to name and shame people he thinks are involved in an illegal act of prostitution. He doesn't investigate whether it's actually prostitution, or whether it's just a loving couple. Then he happily agrees to being a vigilante himself.

    5. Re:Going voyeur... by CaptainDork · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This.

      This motherfucker wants one thing: Attention.

      He'll get it by way of violence or litigation.

      People have expectations of privacy. How many videos does he have of people NOT having sex in a vehicle?

      A victim's lawyer is going to file for discovery and get every piece of fucking technology under this asshole's control and lock him up for every minor he's peeked at.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    6. Re:Going voyeur... by sydbarrett74 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      +1

      Wish I had mod points. In areas where they have made prostitution legal or at least decriminalised it, statistics have shown lower rates of domestic abuse, violent crime, and STD's. Plus, they enjoy an increase in tax revenue because a formerly illicit occupation can have its workers brought into the mainstream economy to pay taxes. The degree to which some people are so concerned about others' genitals is most irrational.

      Concerning your enlightened comment about conflating prostitution and sex trafficking, the same logical fallacy is committed with regards to homosexuality and paedophilia. In the minds of many, someone who is gay must be a raving child molestor who has designs on their young kids. The vast majority of homosexuals are of course as equally horrified by child molestation as most heterosexuals are, but moralists can't be bothered with facts and logic. And I suspect that moralism is an example of psychological overcompensation to mask some repressed tendency in the one passing judgement on others.

      --
      'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
  2. Re:Not so much about morality by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most prostitutes these days are virtually, or literally, slaves. They are often kidnapped or trafficked into the US.

    Tony, that's just not true.

    http://www.alternet.org/story/...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.