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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.

13 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This drone operator was not breaking any laws.

      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.

    4. Re:Going voyeur... by arth1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

    5. 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.
    6. 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.

    7. 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.
    8. 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:nothing better to do, huh by wbr1 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    A thousand times this. Most (not all, as in severe rape and snuff kink and underage) human trafficking will go away if prostitution were legal. However, street level prostitution happens in plain view, the others do not. They are just added by someone for PR purposes.. "look at this guy doing good against teen prostitute traffickers..." When in reality all he has caught are likely some drug addicts feeding their addiction.

    But, like the war on drugs, the prohibition favors the entrenched interests.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  3. 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.
  4. Re:Not so much about morality by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion