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Amazon and Microsoft Directors Charged in Prostitution Sting (kiro7.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A director from Microsoft and a former Amazon director have been charged with promoting prostitution after an investigation into Seattle-area sex trafficking, according to a local news report. Investigators say the director of worldwide health for Microsoft submitted over 70 reviews of prostitutes that he had allegedly hired since April 2012, according to the report, while the director of software development at Amazon, who worked on Fire TV, "allegedly hired prostitutes at least 29 times through The Review Board and TheLeague.Net, according to court documents." Both men have pleaded not guilty and are free on $75,000 bail, part of a group of 19 people now facing criminal charges. "These defendants, we allege, were absolutely devoted to the commercial sexual exploitation of vulnerable, powerless immigrant women," King County Prosecutors said in January, adding that the women, who were forced into prostitution to pay off debts to organized crime bosses in Asia, are not being charged.
Last January a Seattle newspaper reported that one alleged brothel owner "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."
Last January a Seattle newspaper reported that one alleged brothel owner "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."
Everyone knows Amazon and Microsoft are in bed together to screw over consumers.
It sounds like these guys committed "patronizing a prostitute", which is a misdemeanor:
http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/defa...
They've been charged with "promoting prostitution"( being a pimp), which a felony:
http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/defa...
Is by the prosecutor and the police. In countries where prostitution is legal, women selecting this as their choice of work of their own free will are the norm and exceptions are so rare that they make the papers. Also, "pimps" basically do not exist. Hence what is going on here is a deranged war on women that find selling sex for money gives them a sound economic basis and on men that are willing to buy that service. All the "trafficking" nonsense and "helpless" bullshit is just the same vile lies used to justify locking up as many people as possible (and most certainly those "rescued" face the same fate and will have the money they earned stolen in addition) over what in any sane country is a matter of a service rendered between consenting adults. The very kind of language used by the "authorities" already shows what this really is.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
To be fair, the Amazon employee was a Prime Now customer and had gotten so used to getting what he wanted in two hours that pumping drinks in to a girl all night in a bar (let alone the traditional three-dates before sex route) was just too damn slow.
The prostitutes may be victims of sex trafficking but, the people being charged had nothing to do with that if it did take place. They should be going after the traffickers who brought them to this country if they were brought here either illegally or against their will or if they extorted them. Going after these guys is just the prosecutor trying to get his name in the paper, not trying to actually go after criminals.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
What's the use of having all the money in the world if you can't use it to purchase some world class vagina every once in a while?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"Can anyone provide any real evidence to disprove these facts?"
I can't disprove that your head is a giant cabbage either, but in this case that would be a pretty good guess.
Something not mentioned in the post. Here's a much better article: http://www.seattletimes.com/se...
So they arrested the clients and let the webmaster unmolested?
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Yes. Unfortunately, most of the recent bills passed to fight actual slavery (including sex slavery) have been used to fight sex work instead.
With legalized prostitution, it is much easier to help actual trafficking victims escape. This is the real harm of conflating trafficking/slavery with sex work.
As this article titles: The War on Sex Trafficking Is the New War on Drugs. And the results will be just as disastrous, for "perpetrators" and "victims" alike.
http://reason.com/archives/201...
These comments are mine; I do not speak for my employer.
Why would anyone running a prostitution reviews site host it in the USA? Aren't there any number of countries with reasonably fast internet service where it's legal?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
"[he] previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized." I wonder what the government could do to make him and people like him stop (or move out of) prostitution.
It only takes one bullet, or if you're cheap, one baseball bat. Or if you're really cheap, one father of a girl who was forced into it.
Do you have evidence outside that that would be her political stance (not personal) on the topic.
Hillary is too much of a political sell out fe be a Feminazi.
Beside in the United States prostitution laws are controlled by each individual state. For the most part doesn't have much political action asking such rules to be pushed on a national level.
Besides her stance on women's rights has been towards less regulation on what a woman can do because they are a woman not more.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
one alleged brothel owner "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."
So following simple logic, if you wanted get get him out of exploiting prostitution...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A lot of prostitutes are exploited - by their employers. It's an underground industry, so they can't go to the police for help - if their pimp threatens them with violence, or withholds pay, or assaults them, there's nothing much they can do - certainly can't go to the police. Legalisation would make it a lot easier to maintain safe working conditions.
I wouldn't say *no* women are, but I believe the trafficking situation is greatly exaggerated. It's basic economics - an operation like that has to be expensive. You've got to find suitable women, trap them with a suitable scam, arrange travel, arrange accommodation, and keep them under constant guard - and you have to do that for a long enough time that they can be properly broken, otherwise they are going to be whispering to every customer to call the police. It's going to be expensive and it's going to be high-risk, and they won't command the highest prices anyway, plus you'd need a whole criminal gang to organise the travel and maintain guard. In places where there is a chronic shortage of prostitutes you could make money off that - but the US has plenty of women desperate for money. Surely it would be much safer to simply hire someone local? They'd demand a higher proportion of the takings, but one person could manage a lot more prostitutes and the risk of police detection is much lower.
I've seen lots of scary statistics telling of the tens of thousands of women forced into prostitution each year in the US - but I've also seen a lot of criticism of the manner in which these statistics are gathered, and the wildly varying estimates by different organisations appear suspicious. I see a moral panic in progress: The problem exists, but the scale is far less than widely believed.
Read a little closer. These aren't women who chose to be prostitutes rather than being dental hygienists or auto mechanics. They were coerced or forced into prostitution to pay off debts to organized crime bosses. Debts that may have not have even been their own but of their family members. They were neither safe nor secure and it's doubtful they were allowed to keep much of the money.
How much were the Amazon and Microsoft directors aware of this exploitation? Don't know, but apparently the prosecutors think they knew these women didn't have many other options.
"Looks like the submitter is trying to market the prosecution too with words like "vulnerable...exploited...". If they have sex and receive money, how is that worse than having sex and getting gifts? It's not worse, and if she needs the money you're doing her a favor by giving her money.
[...]
As for "previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized."... again marketing a baddie who is bad to the core. It has nothing to do with the claim against these men.
[...]
There's nothing wrong with prostitution"
Not too smart, are you?
No. What is read between lines is not what you got but this: Bad guys are bad guys but, since marijuana was legalized bad guys needed to go elsewhere. Now, the problem here is *not* prostitution, which is basically another crime without victims, but the fact that, being illegal, it attracts bad guys that exploit people, which *is* the real crime. So if we legalized prostitution just like we did with marijuana the bad guy will need to go -again, elsewhere.
> The prostitutes may be victims of sex trafficking but, the people being charged had nothing to do with that if it did take place
The traffickers should be charged, of course. But the condition of these victims of sex trafficking as frightened, often brutalized, under-age, underpaid, slaves of their traffickers is not normally any surprise to the clients.
I started to read the links you sent.
The first one. Not bad. Jeff Bezos is a fucking ass.
Second one looks like it is commentary from a local radio station, and he seems to be more intent on bitching about unions (the very thing that could fix the problem in post one) and claiming that they work they do is just make busy work, and they don't focus on getting traffic to flow freely. His bitches here was a noise barrier wall to protect a neighborhood from freeway noise and animal over/underpasses. Honestly I am in favor of both of these things, and it sounds like he just wants to bitch.
Third one looks to be a forum of Seattle haters for Seattle haters. Of which the first post is bitching about not enough women in the city and how he cant get any of their attention cause they are always looking at their phones.
You went down hill fast here buddy.
Why is prostitution illegal at all?
One of the most common lines is "prostitution exploits women" -- if that's the case, then why are prostitutes arrested? Wouldn't they then be the victims? At least in the EU that seems to be emerging model, with Sweden and now France making accepting money for sex not illegal, but paying money for sex illegal. But that's very recent, and not generally reflective of long standing practices and criminal law.
A more enduring answer seems to be that it's merely reflective of anti-sex morality, the same mindset that used to criminalize pornography, birth control and made sodomy and adultery actual crimes. Although most all of those things have mostly stopped being illegal, as society on balance has become accepting of sex as recreation -- sodomy and adultery laws have mostly been overturned or aren't enforced anymore, singles bars, Craigslist/Tinder/Grindr, etc. And also, in not the not so distant past, society was more tolerant of prostitution -- brothels operated more openly -- despite a generally stronger social prohibition on sex outside of marriage.
I think prostitution remains illegal -- with the public justification shifting in spite of general acceptance of sex outside of wedlock -- because women don't like prostitution. Despite the general changes in attitude about sex outside of marriage, women still see sexuality as a significant bargaining chip in social relations with men. Legalized prostitution thus represents a threat to women's bargaining status in relationships.
If men can buy sex whenever they want it for only money, women lose a significant bargaining advantage in relationships with men. Their sexuality no longer represents a scarce good or service and they can no longer structure their relationship demands around controlling access to sex. Which seems really ironic, since women often loudly decry being seen as "sex objects" and want to be valued for their intelligence or other personality traits, yet it seems as in spite of that, women continue to see their sexuality as primary tool in attracting and maintaining mail interest in relationships.
You would think that *women* would want prostitution legal, though, because it would in theory act as a kind of filter for men they wish to engage in more substantive relationships with. It would, in theory, make the pool of men they encounter to more likely be interested in non-sexual aspects of a relationship, reducing the effort needed to filter men who falsify their intentions in order to gain sex.
You missed the point. The point is that there is an enormous depth of dislike for what Seattle has become. Only a few of those commenting are being completely logical. If they were logical, they would move away from Seattle.
Can you find other web sites and articles about people who dislike their city? I'd like to see them.
Consider the U.S. metropolitan area centered on Portland, Oregon:
Portland has become unlivable. There are traffic jams all day. The air is poisonous. Things About Portland That Suck
Intel has been emitting fluoride for years without state knowledge, permit. Quote: "When Intel applied for D1X approval, the company considered its fluoride emissions insignificant and did not include those. It was only when the company applied for the new DEQ permit required by greenhouse gas regulations that it requested a 6.4-tons-per-year fluoride emission limit. " 6.4-tons-per-year!!!
Oregon warns home gardeners, Portland leaders lash out at state pollution response. Quote: "Regulators have known for years that Portland has high levels of the heavy metal cadmium in the air, but didn't know until 2015 what the likely sources were." Another quote: "The department's own air monitoring found arsenic levels were 159 times higher than the state's safety goal in Southeast Portland and cadmium levels were 49 times higher."
Portland pollution: How does it affect you? Quote: "Tests detected cadmium and arsenic near Bullseye Glass in Southeast Portland and Uroboros Glass in North Portland. Superheating the metals, which are used to add color to glass, can send small particles up smokestacks and into surrounding air." The next paragraph: "The state also found that another carcinogen, hexavalent chromium, was used by the two plants."
Portland, Oregon is no longer a livable city in other ways. Portland city management is allowing the construction of large buildings with no parking! One story: New Portland apartment buildings with no parking have neighbors worried about congested streets.
What more do you want of me?
We the jury would prefer you stop supporting slave labor.
Women found breaking the law said it so it must be true...What would you do if an "organized crime boss" demanded something from you? This isn't Juarez, America has the rule of law
Despite having the "rule of law", organized crime still exists in the US and manages to blackmail, bully, and coerce people into doing all kinds of things. But again if you read the article, you'll find that these are Asian crime bosses and presumably the prostitutes are brought here from Asia. Not hard to imagine that crossing their pimps could lead to severe consequences for the prostitutes themselves or for their family back home.
I'm sure one reason they don't go to the authorities is one you just implied, - they're just whores, who is going to believe them? I'd bet their pimps drill that one into them.
We the jury would prefer you stop supporting slave labor.
So, wait, paying someone to do a job is slave labor, while not paying someone to do the same job is ... OK?
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
That's not really true. Here in Vancouver we have a problem with illegal trafficking in restaurant workers, a perfectly legal business. Due to having the lowest minimum wage and highest cost of living in the country, restaurants (and other minimum wage businesses) lobby to get labour under the foreign worker program (similar to H1Bs) rather then paying enough to attract local labour.
Often the workers are coerced into illegally paying for their temporary visa, perhaps $10,000, and then basically enslaved as they can't pay off the debt on minimum wage minus living costs that are forced on them, eg being forced to pay large rents. They are also commonly put to work in a different location then their visa allows and then threatened with deportation if they don't do what their bosses demand or complain to the authorities about abuse.
As long as illegal trafficking means cost savings, it'll happen whether a business is legal or not, and many businesses will pay the minimum possible rather then raising wages to get needed labour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
More about Amazon: Inside Amazon's Warehouse
Quoting: "On June 2, a warehouse employee contacted OSHA to report the heat index hit 102 degrees in the warehouse and 15 workers collapsed. The employee also complained that workers who had to go home due to heat symptoms received disciplinary points."
Another quote: "When the heat index ranges from 100 to 114 degrees, Amazon 'typically' gives hourly breaks of at least five minutes and shifts heavier work to cooler times of the day, Forney said."
"On July 25, a security guard at the Amazon warehouse called OSHA and said the temperature exceeded 110 degrees. The guard reported seeing two pregnant women taken to nurses and that Amazon would not open garage doors to help air circulation."
"One employee said it's now like 'working in a convection oven while blow-drying your hair.' They said they received extra break time when it was hot, but production rates were not reduced.
"Ambulances responded to multiple medical assistance calls at the Amazon warehouse during hot days in May. So Amazon paid Cetronia Ambulance Corps to have ambulances and paramedics stationed at its two adjacent warehouses during five days of excessive heat in June and July."
"Another 15 people were transported from the Amazon warehouse to hospitals for further treatment, according to Cetronia, but none was in critical condition."
Amazon's response seems to me to be sophisticated lying. The response avoided all the issues:
' "The safety and welfare of our employees is our No. 1 priority at Amazon, and as the general manager, I take that responsibility seriously," Mortimer said. "We go to great lengths to ensure a safe work environment, with activities that include free water, snacks, extra fans and cooled air during the summer. I am grateful to work with such a fantastic group of employees from our community, and we partner with them every day to make sure our facility is a great place to work." '