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• Monday, May 5, 2008 09:36 AM

  No matter what, this points out the idiocy of vice laws

  I have to admit it was awfully convenient for some politicos that she hung herself, perhaps too convenient. Her saying she wouldn't go to jail and threatening suicide might have been the perfect out for someone wanting to do her in. Or, perhaps she did commit suicide.

  Either way, it points out the problems of our vice laws that criminalize non-coercive behavior. Certainly, prostitution is not a great career choice. But, it's a choice that should be left to the individuals involved, and NO ONE ELSE. I'll never understand the mindset that wants to criminalize non-coercive adult behavior. A month or so ago Glenn Greenwald's column brought up a storm of people who insisted it was to these women's benefit that prostitution be illegal. Tell that to Ms. Palfrey, or her mother. Tell that to one of her workers who killed herself not too long ago. There can be no moral justification for these laws, and people who support them speak volumes about themselves. They always make me think of someone who wants to operate on you after dipping their hands in sewerage, because there's something unclean about them.

  Of course, it should go without saying (but there are too many people who can't figure this out), that none of this applies to someone who would coerce another into prostitution (or any vice), or to minors, I'm only talking about adults.

  --Ron Robertson

  —lemecdutex Read lemecdutex's other letters
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