Quote:
Originally Posted by PornMD
I don't get why a big deal keeps being made about whether or not the "public" place was really public. If the charges are pertaining to prostitution, then wouldn't it not matter whether it was done in public or not? Isn't prostitution in private still prostitution? Or is it just the law being silly that soliciting a prostitute in public is a crime but soliciting a prostitute privately isn't?
I also don't understand why you posted this here if you 1: ignore nearly everyone's advice and 2: apparently have been through something similar before (you said police have confiscated your shit before).
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Very interesting question. Laws outlawing prostitution in toto are usually of fairly recent vintage, most are products of the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code of the 1950's. The tradition of the English-speaking nations is toleration of prostitution, and for that reason prostitution, as such, remains legal in Canada, UK, Australia, and NZ. For example, it did not become a crime in Illinois until 1962. But, it was (and still is) the rule in English speaking countries that public solicitation and organization into brothels were illegal. The local city ordinances against those things are usually far older than the state prostitution statutes. Chicago's uses language from the gilded age under which our brother GFY-er is charged goes back that far too. It requires both an underlying agreement or proposal for prostitution and a public place where that is made. You might remember a story a few years back about the legality of prostitution indoors in Rhode Island which the public was told was a "loophole" that had to be plugged to make massage parlor prostitution a crime. Nope. That was not honest. It was a legacy of the old tradition that the government would only regulate what goes on in public and keep its nose out of people's private morality what goes on in private. In some ways, the 19th Century was far more enlightened on matters of personal liberty and morality than our present society,influenced as it is by all the do-gooders who want to save our souls from drugs, gambling, booze, porn, and prostitution. I think the state legislators should worry about their own souls and leave the rest of us alone on morals offenses.
If you are curious about all of this, the very interesting story is told (on my site) at
http://www.xxxlaw.com/state-laws/prost-primer.html
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Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice. . . Restraint in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue.
Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964