Sexworkers help police "escape" life on the streets

[Art Mann]

PRESS RELEASE:
GROUNDBREAKING SEX WORKER RESEARCH TODAY REVEALS
THAT OVER 17,000 POLICE OFFICERS PLY THEIR TRADE IN SCOTLAND

08/16/2014

New research released today by sex worker collective the Sex Worker Open University reveals that ; a boom some sources attribute to a rise in TV cop thrillers as well as an intense atmosphere of toxic masculinity within the force.

(Note: this may be useful context if you've not seen today's Herald front page.)

Sex workers across Scotland propose to offer help to those who are ‘employed’ in this line of work through conducting . Sex workers are calling these ‘welfare visits’, and hope that these home visits will enable police officers who might want help to escape from ‘the life’ to begin to receive that support, and be rehabilitated back into our communities.

Police sources have indicated in the past that unexpected visits at police workers’ homes might be experienced as intimidating or intrusive, but a sex worker source stated, “We’ve included their concerns about these unexpected home visits in our on-going wide-ranging stakeholder partnership project, which means we’re just going to go ahead and do the visits anyway. Management-speak means you never have to really listen to the people you’re making policy about, right?”

While ‘on-street’ police officers are the most visible indicator of police activity in any given area, this sex worker research has revealed the significant presence of ‘off-street’ working police.

One sex worker stated, “We basically found out how many police officers are working in Scotland by googling it. We didn’t think that merited a press release either, until we noticed that apparently it’s ‘a thing’ now to google how many people work in a stigmatized occupation, and then tell journalists about it?

 

[Bubba]

Reading the press release...

 

[PatrickBateman]

Amazing story and great to see sex workers taking the bull by the horn and fighting back.

 

[Chunky]

Priceless , imagine the look on their faces as their rights are violated. The rest of the article makes some great points.


In Scotland, women caught up in last year’s Edinburgh sauna raids : "I was told to lean against the bed with my legs spread so they could search. When I was in this position, completely naked, a male officer pushed the door open and walked in. As soon as I realised what was going on, I tried to cover myself ... I felt very bad, so violated. Imagine if you were completely naked and a man walked in. I’ve never been so humiliated in my life. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. We were all separated from each other and I wasn’t told what was happening.” The police took journalists and photographers along with them on these sauna raids, and to raids on working flats in Glasgow. One sex worker, Cat, said, “We’re not sure how taking the press along - to photograph frightened women who are in their underwear, and who have not given their consent to be photographed - fits in with the ending violence against women agenda, to be honest. We’re just not sure.”

The World Health Organization recommends tackling violence against sex workers through rejecting ‘rescue’ approaches,calling on states to: “Reject interventions based on the notion of rescue and rehabilitation. Even when ostensibly focused on minors (who are not sex workers), such raids deprive sex workers of their agency (the choice, control and power to act for themselves) and increase the likelihood that they will experience violence (p25).” The extent to which the criminalisation of sex work serves to legitimise police and state violence against sex workers was made clear when the Edinburgh Violence Against Women Partnership responded to the sauna raids - described by the women who endured them as “so violating, so humiliating” - with the sentence, “We support this police action”.

 

[Rolex]

Great post Art.

 

[User-E]

Great post Art.

+1 :good:

 

[Madman]

This should be done here but maybe it's the politicians that need saving.

 

[Signingin]

+1 :good:

+ 2

 

[DannyDeVito]

I am left speechless.

 

[Goodlooking]

[h=1]3,000 women sell sex in thriving 'off-street' prostitution industry[/h]


https://www.heraldscotland.com/news...ing-off-street-prostitution-industry.25059026

 

[HOOKED]

Let the ladies live their lives and earn their money. The Government has no business in the peoples bedroom!!!!

 

[Analme]

I think sex workers here should unite and start making some noise, serious noise.

 

[Art Mann]

They already are, at least in my bed. :biggrin2: