You Know It is Bad When I Feel Bad for the Prostitute

My husband and I have invested in a couple apartments in an up and coming neighborhood in an adjacent city. By up and coming, I mean it is a place where the recent college graduates come to live because the rents are cheaper, there are fun bars and great restaurants that aren't expensive. A fair number of divorced dads live here too while their ex-wives and children live in a much nicer town just a mile or two down the road.

Around the corner from one of our units has been this Asian 'massage' parlor. We've owned the unit for six years now and that business has been there long before we purchased our unit. This area has a few of these establishments. They have always ticked me off as they are in eye sight of an elementary school and surrounded by residential areas. Bring the whole tone of the neighborhood down. From a financial perspective, it turns off tenants too. But really, it makes me furious little elementary school kids have to walk by this business to go to school each day.

When looking at the newspaper online this past weekend, I was pleased to learn that over the end of December the city had shut down a bunch of these businesses as they were (shocker) not actually licensed massage parlors but a front for prostitution. What a boon to the neighborhood. Reading on, I discovered that the business by our apartment had made the mistake of re-opening the 'massage' parlor and resumed their illegal activities. Once again, the business was shut down, but this time the owner, manager and 'masseuse' were arrested. The Connecticut newspaper posted the pictures and names of the women who were charged with prostitution. You roll the dice you pay the price, right?

I was ok with them making public their names and pictures until I read further that a 70+ year old man from a very affluent neighboring town was found naked with one of the women arrested and charged with prostitution. The naked elderly man was not named, pictured not post and he was not charged with anything. Furious I read on and discovered that another prostitution front was busted after re-opening and the same thing happened: the women were named, pictured and charged, but the men got off scott-free.

Some say that prostitution is a victim-less crime. I am not one of those people, but that isn't why I am angry. What is good for the goose should be good for the gander. It infuriates me that those men -- the men who paid women to have sexual acts with them -- suffered nothing but a bit of embarrassment by being caught in the act by the police. They are not going through the same public humiliation, nor the same legal process. After their moment of embarrassment, I'm sure they were absolutely relieved that they were not going to suffer any significant consequence.

 Is it because they are men, more affluent, or some other reason? I don't know the answers and I hate the fact I'm asking the question.