Stacey Swimme discusses the Long Island murders… by BeyondPixBroadcast_________________________________________________________________ CNN’s Susan Candiotti talks with sex workers about women apparently targeted in Long Island.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————– Media Statement on Craigslist Adult Services Section
Sex Workers Stop Traffick
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Contact:
Sex Workers Outreach Project
http://www.SWOPUSA.org
877-776-2004 x 2
info@swopusa.org
Sex Workers Outreach Project USA, a social justice and anti-violence project by and for sex workers, decries trafficking and demands protections for workers. In the debate regarding the coercive shutdown of the Craigslist adult services sections the voices of sex workers have been conspicuously overlooked. Trafficking is not sex work. Real traffickers and child abusers must be stopped. Sex workers are in a unique position to help end trafficking, if our perspectives are taken into account. Based on our extensive knowledge and experience with the sex industry, SWOP calls on elected officials and members of law enforcement to pursue a sane and effective approach to ending trafficking.
The conflation of consensual sex work with rape is a disservice to both victims of trafficking and to sex workers. Persecuting consenting adults for exchanging sex for money is a waste of precious resources that could better be used providing services and legal protections for minors and others who have been abused.
Trafficking and child sexual abuse are not sex work. Real traffickers must be stopped. Sex workers need health and labor protections to keep them safe while working and the ability to report crimes to the police if they are violated.
Sex workers and our clients are part of the solution- not the problem- to identify and root out real abuses. Sex workers and our clients are best situated to recognize suspicious or illegitimate activity on the Internet. The criminal status of some sex work is a barrier to helping law enforcement tap into this vital resource.
Since sex workers are not afforded equal legal protection from sexual assault and theft, we self-police by monitoring and identifying predators, work cooperatively to create safe workspaces and advise each other in safety methods that are critical to survival. Nobody is better situated to speak to the real problems and respective solutions for this community than sex workers.
SWOP demands that the voices of sex workers be included in all discussions of issues related to the commercial sex industry, particularly when the venues in which we communicate and keep each other safe are concerned. Purported rights groups, such as Change.org, have ignored sex worker voices while wrongfully vilifying Craigslist as a cause of- rather than an ally in stopping- trafficking. The continued silencing of sex workers, the trend to shut down the spaces where we communicate and the disregard of our expert knowledge demonstrate clearly that these efforts are more about stomping out sex for sale in general than in protecting those who are actually abused.
Stacey Swimme interview with the Alyona show
Tim Barnett speaks out on sex worker rights
Revisioning Prostitution Policy conference
3rd Annual Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Third International Day – Letter from Robyn Few
Berkeley proclaims International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
SF Mayor and Supervisors proclaim International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Quotes from discussion on December 17
First Annual Transgender Holiday Dinner
Announcement of Third Annual Day to End Violence Against Sex Workerks
SWOP-initiated measure to decriminalize sex work in Berkeley
Libertarians endorse Measure Q
Green Party endorses Measure Q
City Council candidate endorses Measure Q
Meaure Q qualifies for the ballot
Letter to Berkeley Councilwoman Maudelle Shirek
Press conference on Holy Hill pictures
Press conference about decriminalization
Commentary: Decriminalization Ends Trafficking
SWOP files measure to decriminalize prostitution
2nd Annual Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Annie Sprinkle Offers Ways to Participate in Day to End Violence
Poster for 2nd Annual Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
2nd Annual Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Green River Memorial
Other events
Robyn Few appears on Penn and Teller
Robyn Few speaks at NE School of Law
Robyn Few speaks at Georgetown
Declaration of Human Rights for Sex Workers
SWOP Presents at Toledo Conference
Justice Now Hosts Conversation with Robyn Few
SWOP appointed to commission for women
Comments
Interesting information about activation
I think this board is the proper place to ask you about the activation proccess. My link is not working properly, do you know why it is happening? http://www.swopusa.org/?09f3430df80ab4577aee2846bb2,
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Is state covering up murder of prostitutes?
http://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/opinion/120708editorial.html
Is the state covering up murder?
By The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper
- 12/7/08
Why would the Maryland medical examiner refuse to release essential public information on hundreds of “undetermined” deaths?
State law offers no exemption. The attorney general’s latest manual on our Public Information Act says these public records are open. Police have no objection. Families of the deceased want details out in the open.
In fact, the attorney general specifically states legal exemption for private, personal medical records “does not protect from disclosure autopsy reports of a medical examiner,” and that even in criminal cases, “A custodian of investigatory records must nonetheless disclose them to any person, unless the custodian determines that disclosure would be ‘contrary to the public interest’ or unless other law would prevent disclosure.”
State Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler cannot or will not cite any “public interest” served by secrecy. He cannot or will not cite any statute or court ruling to justify withholding this public information.
Spokeswoman Cindy Feldstein replied by e-mail to Reporter Stephen Janis only that “Location of incident is not public.”
Wrong. For one thing, all government information is public. The only question is whether it is open or falls within precisely limited exceptions allowing secrecy.
When in doubt about a government record, the attorney general makes it clear: “[The] general right of access to records is limited by numerous exceptions. … Given the PIA’s policy in favor of public access, and the requirement that the PIA ‘be construed in favor of permitting inspection of a record,’ these exceptions should be construed narrowly.”
That means when in doubt, let it out.
So, what is Fowler hiding? For whom and why? This government secrecy makes no sense.
Here’s the story. In September, Janis filed an MPIA request for full names, ages, dates of death and locations of body for all women ruled “undetermined” in the past 10 years in Baltimore City.
The medical examiner’s office provided only last names, and estimated dates and causes of death.
Fowler won’t release the number of “undetermined” deaths since 2005, when there were 814 statewide. In 2004 Baltimore City had 341 of Maryland’s 807. That same year, Washington, D.C., had only 76.
Undetermined deaths add nothing to the city’s murder rate. Police do not have to investigate them.
In Baltimore three years ago, a community activist accused the city of covering up a serial strangler of prostitutes. Official response was vehement denial. Yet in 10 years, police solved only seven murders of 26 women with histories of prostitutioni.
What we don’t know is how many of the “undetermined” deaths may have been murders. Families of some victims are convinced they were.
Letting the public know their full names and where they died would be one small step toward either putting rumors to rest or killers behind bars.
Killing streets
Click on the headlines below for more from The Baltimore Examiner’s coverage of attacks against sex workers on the city’s streets.
Who is killing the prostitutes?
Prostitute tells harrowing tale of assault
Dixon says city working hard to crack unsolved slayings
Love of heroin greater than fear of danger for Baltimore sex worker
Three minutes with Sidney Ford on protecting prostitutes
‘He thought I was dead’ – Baltimore woman identifies man charged with attacks on prostitutes
Addiction, crime plague area where sesker’s body was found
Baltimore police chief: Two of five stranglings probably aren’t related to others
Allegations of serial predator shock Baltimore neighborhood
Deaths on Baltimore City streets rattle local sex workers
Suspected predator may face more charges
Records: 5th Baltimore City strangling victim a prostitute
Three more slayings of hookers remain unsolved from 2003, records show
Special squad to investigate Baltimore stranglings
Four prostitutes strangled since April
Attorney: Police knew ‘serial rapist’ on the loose since ’05