New article on Leeds red light district

[Bowlofbabelfish]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/23/disaster-day-one-end-britains-first-legal-red-light-district/

For those interested.

Sigh... clicky link hopefully

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/23/disaster-day-one-end-britains-first-legal-red-light-district/

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Thanks for the link.
I watched the BBC3 series on Holbeck.
Grim from the outset.

''Britain’s first official red light district has been branded a failure by one of its key architects amid speculation that the controversial scheme maybe on the brink of collapse.

The local politician who helped mastermind the zone in Leeds admitted the women working the streets were still at risk of violence and neighbouring residents had seen a surge in sex and drug-taking in their streets, parks and woods, sometimes in full view of children. Kerb-crawling men are meanwhile evading prosecution from the police’s “hands-off” approach.''

Well they tried it, it didn't work.
Amsterdam tried it and it didn't work. It isn't working in Germany with the super brothels. Everywhere they try it it doesn't work.

''The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.''

It's because they desperately want it to work.

Syphilis rates in the city have doubled since 2014, gonorrhoea has marginally increased and chlamydia among 15-24 year olds is up by 30 per cent, and is almost 75 per cent higher than the national rate.

Jesus fucking Christ.

In contrast, A Nordic-style approach in Ipswich following the murder of five prostitutes in 2006 saw a ban on kerb-crawling clear the streets with nearly all of the women still out of prostitution...An independent evaluation by the University of East Anglia judged it a “clear and sustained success” in tackling kerb crawling and helping the women. Superintendent Kerry Cutler said they enacted a multi-agency approach to get women off the street “straight away” if they received any alerts about prostitutes, allied to zero tolerance of kerb crawling.

I wonder where we've also been talking about the desirability of multi-agency working hereabouts? Gosh. Anyone would think it was a good idea.

It’s an outright failure. Shame on the male politicians Hilary Benn and Mark Dobson for their weasel words.
Women are human beings. We deserve hunan rights. Allowing a market system where a certain class of women can be bought and sold is fundamentally wrong. No tinkering around with regulation can solve it.

These quotes are good from the article

“It was a disaster from day one. Other criminals came into the area quick as a flash. Drug dealers, pimps, even traffickers that brought the women from Romania… the women were given carte blanche and it was like there was a total amnesty on any of the scumbags buying and selling the girls,” added the officer.

And this one

“Our argument is that it’s not appropriate to have girls bought and sold on our streets in 2018,” said Claire Bentley-Smith, a resident.

Hmm - Northern councils don't have a brilliant track record of protecting women and girls or admitting that they're wrong so I wonder whether it will be abandoned?

It great that this is starting to come to light. I wis someone would hold W Yorkshire police to account.

Great reporting from telegraph today. They also have an article about child bride being trafficked into prostitution in Bangladesh.

Let's see it any of this hits the guardian.

The article about Bangladesh is heartbreaking. One girl bought and sold like cattle and actually given hormonal treatment given to cattle to ‘mature’ her.

Half the world’s population treated as objects.

I really hope this ends the red light district. I wish people would be held accountable for allowing this misery to happen in the first place.

To add, I live not too far away from Holbeck and since reading the first article I sometimes wonder if any of the nice, normal, friendly men coming home to our quiet middle-class street have been via the red light district on their way home. It sickens me.

To be fair, I’ve spoken to Mark Dobson about this and he wholly accepts it hasn’t worked and that he was misguided. He has completely changed his thinking and position. He knows it was wrong and has admitted he was wrong. He accepts it wasn’t the right way to help the women and why. He’s also against self ID and signed the petition.

He regularly reads this Feminism board now.

gacapa

That’s interesting to know, thank you. A politician who will change stance and admit they’re wrong in the face of evidence. Refreshing.

Good on him. Now, what’s he actively doing to resolve this and protect these women? Are his office in touch with forces like Ipswich police who have successfully dealt with this? How do we move forward from here and help these women?

We’ve spoken about it this morning. He’s no longer the Executive member so doesn’t have that influence. But, if women on here can give us advice, suggestions and a way forward he’ll put it to the administration.

Let’s try and do what we can. He wants to be led by feminists on this. It is a complete turnaround.

That’s brilliant gacapa - do you want to start a specific thread to ask for suggestions? People with direct experience/expertise might be more likely to chime in then?

That is really refreshing gacapa and good to know.

There is a segment on R4 now with Eddie Mair discussing this.

New thread started.

Thanks for this.

High five, Gacapa - activism bringing results and changing minds.

I read the article this morning - today's Telegraph also has a good op ed piece on it by Julie Bindel too.

What's that people were saying about how the Nordic model is harmful to prostitutes but decrim would work great?

It's been a disaster everywhere it's been tried, though Holbeck is particularly bad because, well, West Yorkshire police, seems like if they tried to run a church raffle it would end in widescale corruption and the local minister running a drug/trafficking ring.

I hope that there will actually be a process for sorting things out and not just a situation where the people who allowed this to happen try to wash their hands of the mess they created and walk away.

Very good news.

I have nothing useful to add to this particular debate but I respect Mark Dobson and his admissions on this. I hope he can help to bring about some change. Very difficult for an independent councillor but I wish him the best with this.

Another horrific article today. Shows how little women are worth to police in Leeds. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/25/teacher-living-next-legal-red-light-district-raped-man-believed/

Can anyone remember the thread where we listed all of the issues with West/South Yorkshire police? I'm not on twitter but I wonder if it might be worth someone who is tweeting it to Charles Hymas who wrote the articles? I think something is deeply wrong and it needs proper investigation.