By Michigan J. Blogger
Former New York Giants linebacker was recently arrested for paying $300 for sex with a 16-year-old girl.
According to reports, Taylor was told by the 16-year-old's pimp she was 19.
I guess that makes it OK. (Please note the sarcasm I wish to convey).
There are many people who believe Taylor was just a victim of circumstance and really bears no blame. After all, a reputable pimp vouched for the girl's age. (More sarcasm). I don't care if she had three forms of fake ID, two witnesses, and a press clipping of a birth announcement stating she was born 19 years ago, Taylor is disgusting - if the allegations are true - and should face punishment for his crime.
I believe the NFL Hall of Famer thought the girl was 19 and thinks he did nothing wrong. But, if the allegations are true, he is a criminal and a participant in brutalizing a child.
This story is a sad one and all the attention has focused on how a NFL legend has fallen.
The real story should be how people who pay for prostitutes put young girls and women in danger. The story of the 16-year-old is horrifying.
According to reports, she was forced into sex acts and threatened with violence if she did not comply.
If that is case, then every person who paid her pimp is just as guilty as Rasheed Davis, the man arrested for prostituting the girl. It is true, some prostitutes do the job willingly, but most don't. And most of them are abused, beaten, raped, threatened, and kept dependent on drugs.
What needs to happen is people who pay for prostitutes need to face harsher penalties. In most cases, the man (99.99% are men) get a small fine for paying for sex, while the prostitute gets a bigger fine or jail time.
Some communities confiscate the John's vehicle when he gets busted for soliciting a prostitute and that's fine. But given the horrors the "industry" brings to the girls and women forced to be involved, even the embarrassment of having your car inpunded for a sex crime is not enough.
Jail time for repeat offenders is a good thing and a mandatory prison term for soliciting sex from a minor, even if the "customer" is told the girl is an adult.
There is the argument that legalizing prostitution would eliminate the need for illegal prostitution and the forcing of women and children into the business would end. Not so. There will always be an element of scum that will enslave these women and children to make money off them.
Making penalties stiffer for Johns won't end prostitution because there will always be people willing to skirt the law to satisfy their own needs. But that doesn't mean making all bad behavior legal is the answer.
The only way to stop forced prostitution is to stop the demand for it. Unfortunately, we live in a world where some people feel their needs out-weigh the well-being of others.
Nevada is proof positive that legalizing prostitution does take the slavery out of it.
I tend to agree with you on this. Laws neither eliminate immoral behavior or create moral behavior. Law does however, drive these activities further underground. By driving prostitution underground, it actually makes it more likely that pimps will use underaged prostitutes and control them by abuse.
The complete elimination of demand is a utopian vision that will never exist, but it can be reduced ... through moral character. But the sword cannot make a man moral, no matter how mighty it is!
One of the great failures of our society is absolving ourselves of moral responsibility by making the state responsible instead. Underaged girl? Yes, that's a crime and is within the realm of using state power for punishment. But the bigger issue of prostitution in general, is a spiritual matter and thus, a matter not belonging to the state.
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