Monique,
If you write about this kind of thing again, please be sure to include quotes from civil liberties advocates, such as the Libertarian Party, the ACLU, the Sex Workers Outreach Project, etc., and not just government law enforcement agents. I'm sorry you didn't report (or were unable to learn) how much taxpayer money was used to target private sexual activity in these stings. Also helpful would have been statistics about other types of (actual) crime, such as murder, assault, rape, etc., and what effect police could have had on the incidence of those crimes, if their resources had not been focused on going after consensual sex.
Readers should also be alerted to the fact that most violence surrounding prostitution is a result of the fact that by criminalizing the activity, government creates a black market that attracts other types of crime, including trafficking. A similar phenomenon can be observed where governments have created black markets around other peaceful actions, such as immigration and drug sales and use.
Finally I hope you will follow up on the fate of the two children in whose cases the Department of Children and Family Services was notified. How will their lives have been made better or worse by this decision? Many families have been wrecked, and children as well as parents put through great suffering, as the result of government agents intervening. One wonders whether a toddler left alone in a hotel room (for how long?) was really at any significant risk, and whether the police, in the course of arresting the toddlers' mothers, actually left them alone unsupervised for even longer? How were these kids taken care of while their mothers were arrested and booked? Were they taken to a proper daycare facility?
Sincerely,
((( starchild )))
Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco
(415) 621-7932