New York Daily News Article, July 26, 2008

In prostitution raids, let's remember men break the law, too
BY ANGELA BONAVOGLIA
Saturday, July 26th 2008, 6:18 PM
Last week yet another Manhattan prostitution ring was busted. Operating out of the reportedly "posh," "plush" and "swanky" Hot Lap Dance Club, the operation run by lawyer Louis Posner catered to the last survivors of a crashing economy, the attorneys and Wall Streeters willing to pay up to $5,000 for some private time with the club's dancers.
A raid on the club's W. 38th St. loft headquarters netted 21 people, including Posner, his wife and 19 other club employees on charges ranging from money laundering to promoting prostitution. Among those arrested were four female dancers.
What was most interesting about this sting is that report after report simply stated that "no client was arrested," "no customer was cuffed." Period. No story detailed why no johns were nabbed, or even explained who the johns were or what they were doing during the raid.
Like so much of the handling of prostitution in the U.S., this latest legal sledgehammer landed nowhere near the protected heads of the johns who keep these businesses afloat.
Since buying sex is just as illegal as selling it in New York City, the johns should not get off scot-free.
In New York City, arrests for prostitution and loitering for purposes of prostitution are made at twice the rate of arrests for patronizing a prostitute. And while more than 50% of those prostitution charges result in convictions, a mere 5% of charges for patronizing do.
The picture is the same or worse nationally. And the women arrested have long included girls under the age of 18. While underage girls are forbidden by law to even consent to sex, they are charged as prostitutes and imprisoned, even as the men who pay to have sex with them - often fully aware and even turned on by the fact that they're underage - rarely set foot in a criminal court. It's time for Gov. Paterson to change this situation and sign the Safe Harbor Act, which would put young girls picked up for prostitution into social programs instead of being arrested.
Doing so would offer these minors a chance at a better life, and would prove to New Yorkers that Paterson cannot be swayed by the position of Mayor Bloomberg, who asserts the only way to keep kids safe and to prevent them from running away from programs is to keep them locked up. And the Safe Harbor Act would be a good complement to New York's new anti-trafficking law, which increased patronizing a prostitute from a Class B to a Class A misdemeanor carrying a maximum one-year prison sentence.
In 1979, Mayor Ed Koch ordered the city-owned radio station WNYC to read the names of convicted johns in a segment he called "The John Hour." While it didn't last, it was at least an attempt to level the playing field.
New York is not alone. A review of prostitution arrests in California's Sacramento County revealed an alarming gender bias. According to arrest data compiled by Sacramento Bee reporters Phillip Reese and Ryan Lillis over three months, Sacramento city police and county sheriff's deputies arrested 210 prostitutes but only two of their customers.
The extraordinarily sexist state of affairs reached its zenith recently when Thomas Athans, husband of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), was observed by cops entering and leaving a hotel in Troy, Mich., that was under surveillance for prostitution. Athans confessed to paying $150 for oral sex. Athans, 47, was not arrested. The 21-year-old prostitute was. Adding insult to injury, Athans was expected to testify against the woman at her evidentiary hearing! She pleaded guilty, and Athans never had to appear.
In some states, johns can go to john school in exchange for having their arrest records expunged, an option not routinely available to women convicted of prostitution.
After the Hot Lap Dance Club raid, the door to the club was padlocked. According to one report, a "disappointed young customer" standing outside said that the place was "f-----' awesome," and that it was "the greatest establishment."
You have to wonder if he would have felt that way if he were spending the night behind bars.
Bonavoglia, who writes about women's issues, is the author of "Good Catholic Girls: How Women are Leading the Fight to Change the Church."