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Oklahoma Video Vigilante Uses Drone To Wage War Against Prostitutes and Johns (bbc.com)
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.
But, like the war on drugs, the prohibition favors the entrenched interests.
Silence is a state of mime.
Most prostitutes these days are virtually, or literally, slaves.
Not true. Most prostitutes work because they need the money, and are not otherwise coerced.
They are often kidnapped or trafficked into the US.
False. Only a near-zero number of sex workers are "trafficked" into the US. "Sex trafficking" is mostly hysteria used by law enforcement to justify bloated budgets. It is nearly non-existent in America.
They are then beaten into submission by their pimps
Wrong again. Prostitutes with pimps are less likely to be victims of violence. They also make more money, even after paying their pimp, than women working solo. Some groups of prostitutes will team up and hire a pimp, boosting both their safety and income. Source: SuperFreakonomics.
Coercion, violence, trafficking, etc. are not reasons to make prostitution illegal. They are the result of making it illegal.
Most (not all, as in severe rape and snuff kink and underage) human trafficking will go away if prostitution were legal.
No, that's not substantiated. It's actually the opposite.
https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/
It's a collective action problem. To get prostitution legalized requires gross injustice that can't be ignored. A little bit of injustice can be easily stomached. This activist is making the problem uncomfortable enough to motivate a change in policy.
Next time you hear about a cop going to prison for rape: think of all the prostitutes who got picked up for solicitation and let off in exchange for some quid pro quo.
The way things are leaves prostitutes vulnerable. A lack of discretion in enforcement is exactly what is necessary for the greater good. Not much consolation for the individuals that play the matyrs, but I was never concerned with their welfare in the first place. I'm indifferent enough with their plight to express a rational detached opinion on how this will have to play out for people to care.
There is no fucking way someone could fly this many drones, over this much municipal area, coming this close, to this many vehicles and property, and take this much video, of pornographic/voyeristic nature, and upload it to the internet (with ads?) without breaking enough laws to have them playing poker with Bernie Madoff for the rest of his days at least.
This guy is a whackjob with fetish for stalking hookers with drones. He's the poster child for everything that's wrong with the drone "community", and one of the reasons drone owners will all be tarred as creeps and assholes within the next ten years.
Take your aerial shots while you can. The drone party will be over soon.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Vigilantism is when people take the law into their own hands and try to punish people themselves. All this guy is doing is gathering evidence and turning it over to the police. That's not illegal.
Seeking out criminal actions is, indeed, illegal in most states. Depending on the state, neighborhood watches, for example, can patrol an area, but not look for crime. And PIs can be restricted to having to abort investigations and report to the police if they have reasonable belief that there is a crime, without being allowed to gather evidence of it.
And there's little doubt that a private individual who actively goes looking for crime with the intent of getting people punished is indeed doing vigilantism, acting in the capacity of law enforcement without the authority.
Bankers broke US' economy throwing into misery hundreds of thousands, but he thought he'll make justice by putting in jail people who actually work for their money, people who actually provide a useful service to the community?
Americans' moral compass is just whack.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
You can provide some references beyond hysterical news stories? My guess that there is some of this, but far more is drug addiction related. As well, if you read Dan Savage, you probably know that there are willing "sex workers" as well.
I live in a place where prostitution is legal. I'm a regular customer (it's quite normal here) and you'd be surprised how normal a lot of these women are. Uni students paying their way through school, Divorcees paying the mortgage, young girls earning extra money for a big holiday overseas etc.