CEO of Backpage arrested for Pimping

[dreamon]

Here is a good report

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/10/06...g-charges.html
So Harris is running in an election next month?

I don't know much about US laws but here in the UK having read this article and look at the current ads posted 95% of ads are beyond the boundaries!
Is backpage to blame….. well thats the beauty of red tape!, Backpage blocked a request to disclose how they vet because they do not vet!

The law is the law - regardless of who believes in it or agrees with it!

Yes. Unfortunately she will likely be our next Senator.

[gaysian71]

lol

i dont think i've ever read anything more wrong in my life.

Look, I get it. Child prostitution is a bad thing. Very bad. But a case like this would set a very bad precedence. If the ceo of backpage is convicted of this crime, it will be used against other ceo's or owners of other business if the product they provide aids a criminal in a crime. And to convict someone of a crime someone else committed would be fucked up. And the worst part is that the criminals who actually committed the crime would probably be home laughing.

Why not just find the pimp and shoot him in the motherfucking face? I'll tell you why. It's too much work for law enforcement. It's much easier to shoot at fish in a barrel than it is to catch one out in the ocean.

Think about it.

Oh, and I almost forgot to say. If I had a daughter and found out she was being pimped. I would shoot the pimp in the mother fucking face. And no one would ever find him.

[blackchubby38]

I think its safe to say in one shape or form we have all visited backpages at some time in our life. Okay maybe like 15 minutes ago. There are a lot of reputable providers from all parts of the sex industry who advertise there. So they and the clients who are not engaging in sex with minors or those being held against their will should not be penalized because of the few who are using it for nefarious reasons.

While Backpages does need to do a better job of screening, its not going to put an end to human trafficking and/or prostitution for that matter. Just like the war on drugs, law enforcement and government officials need to start taking a hard look at some of their tactics and maybe realize the ones they have been using for past 50 or so years are the reason why they have been losing both of them.

[bluesoul]

Why not just find the pimp and shoot him in the motherfucking face? I'll tell you why. It's too much work for law enforcement. It's much easier to shoot at fish in a barrel than it is to catch one out in the ocean.

Think about it.

there is nothing to think about.

pimps are indispensable. ceos are not.

so shooting a pimp "in the motherfucking face" means nothing, except that a new pimp can now move into his tuff.

[crystalsopen]

... and to be fair, human trafficking is a big issue.

Human trafficking for sex, in the US, is greatly exaggerated. Some people claim that 75-80% of trafficking is sex related, but that's bullshit. The percentage of the number victims actually found in the US is OVER 70% NON-sex-work human trafficking. There is a huge trend for law enforcement to label arrests as human trafficking for example: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/texa...m-on-facebook/. If you read more than just the headlines on these human trafficking arrests, most of them aren't sex work or aren't being trafficked at all. For example the sex trafficking victim that spoke at the DNC, previously said she wasn't a sex trafficking victim, but a labor trafficking victim.

[bigkid69]

I think GA has an excellent point as it's really the pimps who've committed the crimes...but the reality is that a case against backpage will garner far more publicity, which is very advantageous to a prosecutor running for re-election.

Even when the likelihood of losing a case is higher than winning it.

This is exactly what is going on here! Elected officials want to show they are doing something about the problem. What better way to do it then a flashy arrest of a CEO? They don't care that it will likely be thrown out of court, because that would probably happen after the election.

[chupapau]

Why not just find the pimp and shoot him in the motherfucking face? I'll tell you why. It's too much work for law enforcement. It's much easier to shoot at fish in a barrel than it is to catch one out in the ocean.

Think about it.

Oh, and I almost forgot to say. If I had a daughter and found out she was being pimped. I would shoot the pimp in the mother fucking face. And no one would ever find him.

If you had a daughter and had to find out she was being pimped... it would be clear proof to me that you weren't worthy of being a parent in the first place. Putting up a big mouth and waving guns wouldn't diminish your own guilt.

Did you know that statistically most plain gg hookers do it because it was something they grew up in? Like their family was in the work too? And if those leave Honduras or Guatemala to give it a go in the States, isn't it damn convenient they can blame someone else for trafficking?

[blackchubby38]

Update:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California judge on Wednesday said he was likely to dismiss criminal pimping charges against the chief executive and controlling shareholders of Backpage.com, ruling that a federal immunity shield for tech companies protected them from prosecution for content posted by third parties.

Backpage, the second-largest U.S. online classified ad service after Craigslist, has faced scrutiny from the U.S. Senate as well as civil lawsuits over allegations that the site facilitates sex trafficking, especially of children.

The controversy over Backpage.com is at the center of a debate over how much liability tech companies should face for user-generated content posted on their platforms.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris last month brought criminal charges against Carl Ferrer, the Backpage CEO, along with shareholders Michael Lacey and James Larkin. However, the defendants argued that the ads on Backpage were posted by third parties and that the state offered no evidence that the defendants knew ads placed by escort services were solicitations for sex.

Under the federal Communications Decency Act, the defendants argued that they could not be prosecuted for content posted by third parties.

In a tentative ruling on Wednesday, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman agreed, saying Congress passed the Communications Decency Act to protect free speech online.

"Congress has spoken on this matter and it is for Congress, not this Court, to revisit," Bowman wrote.

During a hearing later on Wednesday, the judge said the AG's office could file additional briefs on the issue and that he would make a final ruling by Dec. 9, according to his clerk Trevor Shaddix.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general's office declined to comment.

The Senate voted 96-0 earlier this year to hold Backpage in civil contempt after it did not comply with a subpoena to hand over documents explaining how it combats sex trafficking in ads on the adult section of its website.

One civil lawsuit against Backpage was filed by three young girls who said they were raped multiple times after being advertised on the site. The girls alleged Backpage's rules were intended to instruct pimps how to post trafficking ads that evade law enforcement.

The Washington state supreme court refused Backpage's request to dismiss that case. However, a federal appeals court threw out a similar trafficking case involving children against Backpage in Massachusetts earlier this year, saying the free speech principles embodied in the Communications Decency Act were paramount.

[MassageHunter]

It's as I thought they just want to put pressure on the ceo

[Laphroaig]

Case dismissed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38301979

"But California's attorney general, Kamala Harris, who will shortly become a senator for the Democrat Party, said she intended to find other means to hold the men to account.

"We will not turn a blind eye to the defendants' exploitative behaviour simply because they conducted their criminal enterprise online rather than on a street corner," she said."