“Hey, we’re watching”

The Asheville Police Department has launched an effort to disseminate names and photos of individuals arrested on prostitution charges, according to a press release sent out this morning. The photos, names, cities of residence and charges of prostitutes and those charged with soliciting prostitution will now appear online in a police blotter, which was just created. The information will also air on the Asheville Channel Bulletin Board (Charter cable channel 11).

The move comes after five undercover prostitution sting operations conducted Jan. 12 through Feb. 1, which resulted in 34 arrests, according to APD Officer Steve Riddle. The individuals displayed on the Web site were charged during the sting operation, he said, but are still awaiting trial. Prostitution, a Class I misdemeanor, often results in court costs and a fine, according to Riddle, and releasing the photos and information to the public is meant to be a deterrent.

“People say prostitution is a victimless crime, but I don’t think that’s true,” he told Xpress. “Number one, we have this prostitution activity in residential neighborhoods. And a lot of these girls have diseases like Hepatitis and HIV, and these guys are taking it home to their families.”

According to the APD press release, prostitution is linked with drug activity and “associated crimes, such as disorderly conduct, increased noise and traffic and the loss of business to merchants.” Women who engage in prostitution, the release states, are often addicted to drugs and suffer both mental and physical violence.

Asked whether broadcasting prostitute’s names and faces might open the door to more physical violence directed toward them, Riddle replied, “No, I don’t think there’s a concern there.”

The release also noted that police have started sending cards to the owners of vehicles that were spotted cruising in areas known for high prostitution and drug activity. “If we observe a vehicle in a prostitution area or a drug area or public housing area … ‘doing the loop,’ as we call it, we send a card to the registered owner. It says, your vehicle was observed in a high crime area. It’s basically to let them know that, hey, we’re watching,” says Riddle.

Riddle says he does not know of plans to disseminate personal information about individuals charged for crimes other than prostitution in the online police blotter.

— Rebecca Bowe, contributing editor

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57 thoughts on ““Hey, we’re watching”

  1. jahshwa

    Prostitution is not a crime. It’s a service. The reason it is associated with drugs and STD’s is because this society has made it taboo and driven it underground by judging it as a crime. In the words of Doug Stanhope (youtube him)… “If God wanted prostitution to be legal, he would have given a woman free will and a vagina.”

    It’s difficult to get the new police to solve crimes or to much more than fill out reports for your insurance company, and hassle people who are trying to have a good time. I have a friend in the sex industry, and trust me. Those guys with wives are extremely careful not to bring something home to their kids. The whole construct is based on moralist ignorance, and it allows someone with a big ego and an authority complex to push their way into the private affairs of the general public. One day, it could be you.

  2. Nam Vet

    Prostitution is still illegal. As is pot smoking, and God knows what else you may wish was legal. If you want something legalized, then work to get it legalized. Otherwise close your piehole and follow the law.

  3. jahshwa

    Hey watch out, buddy! I’m not sure about the legality of naughty puns. It seems certain people are offended, and this has caused a significant rise in blood pressure, leading to lowered quality of life, higher risk of heart attack and even death!

    My next commentary will be a critique of Asheville’s “service” industry. I’d better do some research. Ta ta!

  4. heh, heh … well put, Jahshwa.

    puns, naughty or otherwise, are always worthwhile… I am a prominent proponent of paronomasia (look it up in the dictionary). ;-)

    most delicious of all types of word play are discovering the unintentional punning of others, whether by assonance or mere mishmashing of meaning.

    the English language is ever so wondrously malleable.

    and one should not attach a trailer to their car within city limits because, judging by the statutes of the City of Asheville, being a hooker is illegal. …. as is walking the street … and there’s something in there about buying an oar on municipal throughfares as well… that one, I will have to research. Perhaps I misread it.

  5. but, back to topic, this is nothing new, you know. I remember back in the 60s and 70s lists of “johns” caught soliciting would be published in the paper. I enjoyed reading those and looking for the names of guys I knew (and there were some). ;-)

  6. I think sending postcards to car owners whose vehicles have been spotted in “high crime” areas is harassment. I drive through “high crime” areas for a variety of reasons (one of which is to get my gym). Until you’ve been convicted of a crime, you’re innocent. Supposedly. What happens to treating people innocent until PROVEN guilty?

  7. Rob Close

    The theme here is nothing new: let’s show off the police’s latest arrests – BEFORE the people have been convicted. You can see a bunch of arrests in the Asheville Housing Authorities newsletter – and the Daily Planet prints the arrests right up front.

    But do any of these publications release follow-ups when one of these arrested people ISN’T convicted? Doesn’t this throw away the basis of our criminal-law system – innocent before guilty?

    And no, it doesn’t matter if 95% of these people are repeat offenders. What matters if that people are being labeled as criminals publicly before their trial, without any recourse.

  8. Asheville Student

    Does anyone else not think this is the one of the worst possible ideas? Why do we think as a community it is okay to publicly shame sex workers and then disparage them with base comments about their appearance? These women deserve the basic respect that we should extend to everyone. If we are going to print pictures why not speeding tickets or DUIs or any other crime? This is an obvious prejudice against sex workers and a way to devalue them as human beings. If this community is serious about stopping the sex trade, start rehabilitation programs and outreach centers, don’t reinvent the public stocks.

  9. Here’s the press release I’d like to see: During X month, the APD made X number of arrests. Since then, X number of those arrested have attended Buncombe County Court. Of those arrested, X were proven innocent. X number were convicted as guilty. Charges included X, X, X…Of those convicted of X, X number were given jail sentences of X. X number were fined $X and released. Etc., etc. Why is this type of statistical information not easily available from the APD and our court system? I want conviction data, not arrest data.

  10. jahshwa

    As the earth’s population increases and real problems come into focus, I think we’ll see this obsession with Sunday-schooling the populus decrease. Take your larger cities as an example. When there are real crimes occurring — violent crimes that matter and must be stopped, then police begin to grow up. They don’t roll up with four squad cards over that roach in your ashtray when there are people shooting guns down the street. I think what we’re dealing with here is a case of boredom, big budgets and Baptists. There, I said it.

    Just because something is illegal doesn’t always make it shameful. Suicide is technically illegal. Perhaps we should make a perp walk of all the downtrodden and the hopeless who attempt to off themselves. Sure, or maybe we should just spank them in front of the class? Its obvious where these cultural notions come from, Asheville Student… The stocks were invented by puritans who would punish you for playing the violin, using herbs to heal or playing cards. I’m sure they thought they were doing the right thing, and the remnants of their medieval customs are still alive and well along the southern portion of this coast, in particular.

    And yes, I grew up here in a religious family. I’m not a transplant from New Jersey. Just because I am progressive doesn’t mean I come from a more progressive region. There are some of us who can think clearly, regardless of the climate.

  11. Ashevegasjoe

    Cohabitation is also illegal. I would like the A.P.D. to publish a picture of me and my girlfriend, and anyone else who dares live together and isn’t married.

  12. Ashevegasjoe

    Also, oral sex and sodomy are illegal. Don’t know where to beging with that one.

  13. jahshwa

    I’m starting to think that illegality is turning all of us on in a very perverse way. I’m looking forward to the pictures.

  14. Ashevegasjoe

    Then I would like to retract the aformentioned admition of guilt– I live alone and am in no way sexually active

  15. Rob Close

    “I want conviction data, not arrest data.” ~ edgy mama.

    I couldn’t agree more. Great post back there.

  16. tatuaje

    Excellent post, Edgy Mama… What if a person has a legitimate reason for being in those “bad” neighborhoods, has the photo taken and sent to the house, and the wife or husband or kid opens it up? Potentially life-ruining situation….This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of.

  17. ray ray

    I know of folks who have been told, point blank, by police that they cant walk into the projects. “Turn around”.

  18. Nam Vet

    I applaud the APD for trying to discourage people from patronizing prostitutes. Don’t like it? Don’t do it. Period. If you don’t like a law, change it or obey it.

  19. jahshwa

    Tatuaje wrote, “What if a person has a legitimate reason for being in those “bad” neighborhoods, has the photo taken and sent to the house, and the wife or husband or kid opens it up?”

    Okay, so this was funnier a year ago, but what if this person was Carl Mumpower? Hee hee… Poor Carl!

    Carl was making a point, though. It’s still super easy to buy crack at any project in Asheville. In the meantime, we have tons of silly laws that nobody enforces. People don’t change or delete most of these laws… they just don’t get enforced.

    Here in North Carolina, it is illegal to make love on the floor of a hotel room between two double beds. Truth is, it’s the first time i’ve seriously considered doing it.

    Pittsburgh has a special cleaning ordinance on the books that bans housewives from hiding dirt under their rugs, and in Salem, West Virginia, it’s against the law to eat candy less than an hour and a half before church service.

    My point? I don’t have to obey or change any of these laws. Its my duty as an American to make fun of them, maybe break them, and ultimately to point out the obvious… We don’t enforce all of our laws, and if we spend time and resources focusing on these little misdemeanors, then who is going to stop Carl from buying his crack???

    Poor Carl!!!

  20. tatuaje

    Is it against the law to go into certain neighborhoods? It’s not a question of breaking or not breaking the law. It’s a question of civil rights. As Edgy Mama so eloquently pointed out,this amounts to implying guilt before conviction. This article was not about any certain law, but the tactics being used by the APD. Read the posts and stick with the thread. Period.

  21. Nam Vet

    AsheJoe said: “Also, oral sex and sodomy are illegal. Don’t know where to beging with that one.”

    I guess Bill Clinton had better stay out of North Carolina then. :)

    I applaud the tactics of the APD.

  22. Ashevegasjoe

    If by “tactics” you mean using scare tactics against people presumed to be guilty, before a trial, for being in a bad neighborhood, prohibiting people to display a flag upside down, and harassing protestors, you have perverse things you applaud. They need more oversight, in and out of the force.

  23. Fallstaff

    I’m with the Nam Vet. Joe you are the one who has a perverse point of view. You should’ve left it up north when you moved here. The PD isn’t using scare tactics. It is just letting certain people who frequent certain areas under suspicious reasons, that they are being observed. Good preventative police work in my book. Crack dealers, prostitutes, and customers, beware. We won’t stand for crime here in Asheville. And the law abiding residents of these neighborhoods are the most appreciative.

  24. Ashevegasjoe

    I’m not from the North, I’m Southern by the grace of the God, and have went to high school and college in Asheville. My parents (also southerners) moved me here in 1992 (sixteen years ago for those of you who can’t do figurin’ with yer shoes on). Get your facts straight before you go on the attack, you make all of us southerners look like slow morons! Viva the New South!

  25. Ashevegasjoe

    Falstaff, that’s twice I have proven you factually wrong. Watch out, I’m on to you.

  26. Fallstaff

    “(sixteen years ago for those of you who can’t do figurin’ with yer shoes on)”. Now that is hostile and proves you are a g.d. yankee Joe. You haven’t proved jack. You just hide your hostility behind a false “friendly” face. W hat is the name of the high school you attended? Name a few of your teachers. And college? Same same.

  27. Ashevegasjoe

    A.C. Reynolds, senior home room Coach Roberts, played football for Bobby Poss, Principals Ron Dalton and Andy Peoples will attest to my presence in their offices daily. I went to U.N.C.A., gasp, a liberal university, that explains my indoctrination and inability to think and reason for myself. Falstaff, if you must use a Shakespearean reference, realize a southerner by anyother name smells as sweet! I tire of proving your ignorance

  28. Ashevegasjoe

    I’m sorry, I just can’t believe I’m proving my southern heritage. This is absurd, I have enjoyed the past few weeks of going back and forth on mountain x, but this is lame. Also, this has NOTHING to do with this thread?!

  29. Fallstaff

    “I tire of proving your ignorance”. Hum,only the ‘conservatives’ spew here? -:) The newer professors at UNCA (my alma mater) are yankee transplants. Looks like you forsook your roots for yankee brainwashing Joe. A pity. By the way, how old are you?

  30. Ashevegasjoe

    I’m thirty years old. I would like to think “my roots” come from my great-grandfather Erston B. Royal, who was a farmer in Georgia in the early 1900’s. I was well established mentally and politically before college (he was mayor of my hometown for eighteen years). I hold dearly southern traditions of honesty, hard work, and egrarian society (vs. the industrialist north). Falstaff, let’s keep this on topic and quit attacking my age and heritage, unless you revel in being a jackass.
    Also, some of my professors were Yankee Transplants, some were from ‘gasp’ Africa, I enjoyed hearing perspectives, as I do now, from other cultures. Unlike yourself, I am not brainwashed, but rather emboldened with the knowledge that transcends cultures. The one that Jesus himself tried to dole onto deaf ears. If you are confident in your heritage you can immerse into others and it will come out shining like gold.

  31. Ashevegasjoe

    Falstaff, I’m sorry, I just realized you’re some plant sent here to make ridiculous dialogue, and I bought into it hook, line, and sinker. When you questioned my heritage, high school, college, and age I thought that you were a real person. Boy do I feel foolish, you got me, where’s the camera? Now I’ve been exposed for all the other righties to attack my credentials. That’s it, now I’m really done, and this is really lame. God Bless

  32. Viet Nam Vet

    AsheJoe is all of 30 years old? Well no wonder he thinks he knows everything! :)

    The Asheville Police Dept does a good job of policing this town. I support them and their tactics 100%.

  33. Ashevegasjoe

    I can’t help my age, but thirty is hardly the age where you think you know eveything, only to find out you don’t. I would say sixteen, twenty, maybe mid-twenties. But, since you can’t argue any facts or logic put forth, you guys have attacked my age and heritage, real mature.

  34. brebro

    I once recorded a Braves game without the full written consent of Major League Baseball.

  35. nam veteran

    AsheJoe, you are too immature to have a seasoned point of vew concerning socialized medicine, etc. I’ve read here youare a small businessman. Guess what? If a democrat is elected, your taxes and regulation will INCREASE. They consider YOU rich! Thats the rub. If you think there is some mythical rich guy who will pay for all the socialism to come, you are sadly mistaken. Mark my words. One year from now we will compare notes…assuming a liberal democrat is elected.

  36. Ashevegasjoe

    Barack will be elected, and I can’t wait to compare notes. Your hatred of socialized programs astonishes me, I assume you use the Post Office, may need the Fire or Police Departments, and probably are the product of public schools. We can have socialized agencies without being socialist, come on.

    As for my “immaturity”, people with your “seasoned views” have screwed things up to the point where we are, maybe a young, fresh point of view is needed here and in D.C. Vote Obama!

    Rich guys aren’t mythical and they don’t deserve tax cuts!

  37. nam veteran

    I don’t hate socialism.I just clearly see it does not work…for working people anyway. Why would you trust the government with so much power and so much of your money? The government that can give you everything you want, can take it all away. My guess is that you were brainwashed by some of the yankee transplant professors at UNCA who have never participated in the free market. They get their tenure, then they talk about socialism.

    “Rich” is very subjective. The top 5% of money earners in this country cannot support the rest of us with government mandated and managed socialized medicine. It is the MIDDLE CLASS who will pay for it. If you were a little older and had some sense of proportion, you would see my argument. Once we go socialist it will be very difficult to progress us back to freedom.

    Do you know what the main reason is for so many northeastern transplants here? Because they cannot afford to pay the socialist property taxes up north, now that they are retired. And some of them, while making middle class salaries, were unable to buy up north because the property taxes EQUAL the house payment…in effect doubling it.
    Socialism will keep the middleclass from the American dream of owning a house.

    “The government that governs least, governs best” – Thomas Jefferson

  38. Ashevegasjoe

    I’m pretty sure they moved here for the same reasons everyone else has– the beauty of the area. If were a matter of finances, there are lots of places to live that are cheaper. Once again your arguement is based on a wrong presumption.

    Also, your continued attacks on my youth (thirty?), are tiresome and ridiculous. I am far more knowledgable and well read than you give me credit for, and can hold my own with seniors like you all day, as evidenced by my continually handing you your butt to where as a hat.

    Lastly, I am far from brainwashed. If you want to have a discussion without name calling, I am willing to show you the meaning of “free-thinker”. However, due to years of subjecting yourself to Rush, Hannity, and Glenn I think you are incapable of using your own ideas, and prefer talking points. I don’t want the top five percent to pay for everyone else, but I don’t think they’re entitled to tax breaks. They should be happy to give back to the society that has afforded them such success.

  39. jahshwa

    No worries, Joe. You’re talking to people who still hold a grudge against Yankees, for goodness sake. Somewhere in NC there is a yokel who needs a drool-guard on his keyboard!

    There’s a difference between supporting the APD and supporting anything they do, carte blanche. I support the APD. That said, as with any kind of government American citizens must keep watch over the “tactics” being used to keep the populace safe. No system is free from tyranny, and because of the human element, you can bet that in every system there are those who abuse the system and those who would further their own moral or personal agendas with the authority the public has entrusted to them.

    There’s no difference between entrusting your health care to the government, than entrusting your safety. The difference is, you’re paying one person to fire bullets and the other to heal wounds. Both systems are inefficient, plagued with problems, subject to lawsuit and criticism, etc… It is obvious we need these systems in place. The APD needs support, but if your support is not tempered with some healthy suspicion, then you are naive.

  40. nam veteran

    AsheJoe said: “However, due to years of subjecting yourself to Rush, Hannity, and Glenn I think you are incapable of using your own ideas, and prefer talking points.”

    AsheJoe, just when I was feeling closer to you, you come out with this liberal hogwash. I am not a sponge programed by Rush, Glen or Hannity. And I am not brainwashed by 880 the Revolution either. You sound like a bumper sticker liberal from Air America. You are sweet on socialism, even though it runs contrary to our Constitution and our traditions. You are perhaps one of those who have plenty of complains and want “change”? You do not have the sense of scale to know how good you really have it? Well, let us compare notes a year from now. Your lack of free thinking is disappointing. This kind of banter from you is why I doubt your sense of scale because you are only 30. And you have not experienced any adversity in your life. It’s not completely your fault. You are a victim of your times.

    Consider. Hard work, freedom, God, family, community. A man deserves the fruits of his own labor. Free to be want makes him/her happy. These are libertarian ideas, the same ideas our country was founded on. Locke, Jefferson. Did you study them at UNCA? Or Karl Marx only? And why are you a landscaper when you have a college education? Is it because you enjoy landscaping? Or is it the only field can can work now?

  41. nam veteran

    Jahshwa “Somewhere in NC there is a yokel who needs a drool-guard on his keyboard!”

    LOL, and you wonder why yankees are suspect here? I do not automatically support the APD in everything they do. But unlike you, I have real police experience and realize the APD is an above average PD. You do not have the sense of scale to realize this because you are a young pup who just has the capacity to complain. Go spend some time in Atlanta, then come back and you’ll appreciate the APD.

  42. travelah

    Ashevillejoe wrote:
    “Lastly, I am far from brainwashed. If you want to have a discussion without name calling, I am willing to show you the meaning of “free-thinker”. However, due to years of subjecting yourself to Rush, Hannity, and Glenn I think you are incapable of using your own ideas, and prefer talking points. I don’t want the top five percent to pay for everyone else, but I don’t think they’re entitled to tax breaks. They should be happy to give back to the society that has afforded them such success. “”

    Why is it in one sentence you seek a discussion to demonstrate your “free thinking” and in the next you denigrate others who think differently than yourself?

    Now,the top 5% are already footing well over 80% of the bill now. Under Bush’s 2003 tax cuts,those paying over 80% of the bill received back 50% of the cuts. That means Bush’s cuts increased the progressive nature of our tax code rather than fueled the rich further as the propogandists claim. I am far from rich and I know from my own calculations that my tax burden was reduced over 22%. As for giving back to the society that afforded them success, it would be wise to remember that the society that did such was an economic model that understood the high value of lowering tax burdens to spur business investment. Your sentence almost sounds as if you think liberals and social engineers allowed the successful to succeed. Quite to the contrary, it is the successful private citizens that allow the liberal mindset to continue in relative prosperity.

  43. jahshwa

    “Now,the top 5% are already footing well over 80% of the bill now.”

    Get your facts straight. The top 5% pay just under 60%, but consider that they also own this proportion of the wealth in the country. If you look at our tax system, including all of the forms of taxation (property, sales, etc…) you’ll see that the very wealthiest only pay about 6 percentage points more on their income than the poorest. We have very nearly a flat tax, if you look at all of the taxes across the board.

    I prefer Atlanta cops to Asheville police, simply because they focus on real crime and don’t pull up in four squad cars and drug dogs because someone bounced a check. (true story)

    Mr. Travelah, if you can communicate to people without saying the word “Yankee”, you’ll sound more educated and people won’t think you are from the 1800’s. :) Yankees aren’t suspect anywhere except history books and trailer parks.

  44. travelah

    jahshwa, you are partially right. I should have checked my post more carefully. The 80% number took into account the percentage return on taxes paid i.e. lower income levels receive a much higher return back from Government than do higher income providers who pay far more into the system than they ever get back.
    However the more accurate percentages are:
    Top 1% pay 34%
    Top 5% pay 52%
    Top 10% pay 65%
    Top 50% pay 96%

    Study those figures. This means that the people making more than $50,000 per yr are footing all the bill already.

    As for property taxes, they are based on the value of the property so wealthier individuals generally pay far more in property taxes.
    Sales taxes are flat percentages so if you wish to help the “poor”, eliminate sales taxes or exempt all food and essentials.

  45. nam veteran

    travelah said: “As for giving back to the society that afforded them success, it would be wise to remember that the society that did such was an economic model that understood the high value of lowering tax burdens to spur business investment. Your sentence almost sounds as if you think liberals and social engineers allowed the successful to succeed. Quite to the contrary, it is the successful private citizens that allow the liberal mindset to continue in relative prosperity.”

    Wow, right on travelah. You should have your own local talk show here. Either that, or see if you can fill in on Take A Stand, now and then. You quite eloquently put forth the libertarian-fiscal-conservative point of view. Yes, isn’t it ironic that the very success of our low tax, low regulation, capitalist model affords liberals a higher lifestyle as well while they plot to undercut that very system? My liberal friends simply do not understand that socialism-lite, much higher taxes and regulation, will hurt THEIR lifestyle as well as mine. They always point to the mythical “rich” as the only person who will pay through the nose. Not so. The middle class will pay dearly if the liberals are able to effect the “change” they vaguely refer to on the campaign trial.

    jahshwa, “yankee” is still a great term to refer to those from the Northeast. Many of my friends from these areas are proud of that term, saying things like “yankee ingenuity”. New Yorkers even have a baseball team named “yankees”. Besides, if your relatives were murdered, raped and burned out of their homes in 1864 by Union troops committing war crimes under the approval of Lincoln, you’d have a long memory as well. :)

  46. Ashevegasjoe

    oh sweet sweet Nam Vet, your claims of me not having experineced hardship, are much like your claims that I am a Northener, not based in fact. There are children that are five-years-old that have experienced far more than you or I, but now I’m waxing existential. I have, in fact , experienced hardship (recently). I did become a landscaper because I enjoy it, I love seeing the fruits of my labor. Throughout my time at U.N.C.A., I never once received the teachings of Karl Marx! I have, on my own studies, read Marx, Orwell, Conrad, and many others. I also didn’t study Jefferson or Locke at U.N.C.A. I have, on my own, studied Locke, Jefferson and Paine. As a Christian, I’m sure you would be the first to recognize Jefferson’s own theology, a Deatist, not a Christian, and a staunch defender of the separation of church and state.

    Please don’t ever refer to me as a “victim of my time”. I feel lucky to be alive and young in times that are on the cusp of actualization. I agree that a man deserves the fruit of his actualization, but he should not recieve a tax break just because he or she inherited wealth. People with a long lineage of wealth should pay as much, if not more than people of middle incomes.

    Travelah, the top 5% are paying the bill? I should hope so, because the top 5% control 99% of the wealth. Look at the distrubution of wealth before you whine about how much the top 5% pay.

  47. jahshwa

    Between 1979 and 2005, the top five percent of American families saw their real incomes increase 81 percent. Over the same period, the lowest-income fifth saw their real incomes decline 1 percent. (Census Bureau)

    In 1979, the average income of the top 5 percent of families was 11.4 times as large as the average income of the bottom 20 percent. In 2005, the ratio was 20.9 times.

    That’s a pretty big difference, my friends.

    Now, when you realize that it is the top 1% of the country’s wealth that controls the Democrats AND the Republicans, you begin to see why the conversation that divides us into “liberals and conservatives” is a cruel hoax. Don’t believe it.

    Divide and conquer. It’s the strategy that the big players are using to divvy up America, Iraq, you name it.

  48. travelah

    nam, Matt Whatshisname wouldn’t like me on his show because I once suggested to his supposed hottie-helper, whatshername, that he should move to the evening timespot to allow Hannity to be broadcast live rather than tape-delayed. … of course I was only kidding but you never know how those liberal-libertarian-conservative confused radio show hosts will take things.

  49. travelah

    Ashevegasjoe, the truth of the matter is that Pension plans, 401K and other investment plans control more of the equity structure in this country than the upper “echelons” of the wealthy. Considering that the top 25% in this country are already paying 85% of everything, what more do you want?

  50. Billy P Patton

    I thought this was supposed to be able the police putting the names of prostitutes on the internet? I’m all in favor of that. They should also put up the names and faces of the pimps and drug dealers who hang around the same projects.

    Joe you sound just like a crybaby young socialist who wants daddy (taxpayer) to subsidize your lifestyle. Get a backbone boy and work for everything you want yourself.

  51. So how come Duke Energy hasn’t been arrested for “Crimes against nature? Or any nuclear weapons Facilities? Seems far more of a “Crime against Nature” than the blowjob these folks were probably trying to sell.

  52. jahshwa

    Careful, Sammule. You’re starting to make sense. We can’t legislate against destruction of the planet — only what you do with your body, see? This makes sense if someone puts ideas in your head when its still soft.

  53. PatD

    So another proof we live in puritan and hypocrite America
    Shame on you Asheville for allowing something like this.
    http://www.ashevillenc.gov/departments/police/default.aspx?id=10436

    Is Prostitution a problem?
    Yes, sure it is.
    But for one and one reason only ‘ Unjustified Illegality’
    Because in this ridiculous backward country, prostitution is still regarded as illegal, it is therefore pushed underground.
    This is the only true problem.

    There are many countries where it has been shown that if made legal, it can be controlled.
    The only reasons drugs, pimps, disease and other bad influences are involved, is because these women have to operate under the radar.
    In countries like Holland, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia and many others, prostitution is contained, controlled, taxed and without a criminal atmosphere.

    I look at this ‘Fine Asheville Police work’ and I am truly ashamed I am part of this community.
    What a waste of tax-payers money
    Instead of controlling it, keeping it in a certain allowed area, getting rid of the criminal aspect and making sure these people are looked after, you obviously believe it will go away by making it illegal. Seriously, are you people stupid or just plain ignorant? (because ignorance can be helped, stupidity I think not)

    Many people believe the same as I do but nobody speaks up because everyone is afraid to be labeled or associated with prostitution.
    I think much worse….I am surrounded by hypocrite scum.
    Of course….it’s probably a good church going crowd so it must be ok.
    You people scare me a lot more than the so called ‘criminals’ you portray on this web page.

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