back to article Three indicted over sex trafficking operation run on Backpage.com

Three people have been indicted for operating a sex trafficking ring through the scandalous classifieds website Backpage.com's adult section. Feng Yang Chen, 41, LiangLiang Guo, 31, and Cheng Qi Li, 28, all of Flushing in New York State, are accused of conspiracy in regards to "an interstate prostitution business". Chen faces …

  1. Your alien overlord - fear me

    I thought it was going to be about Three, the mobile phone company. A bit of scandal for the weekend sir?

    1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

      I thought it was going to be about Three, the mobile phone company.

      Ditto. It would have given "Feel at Home" a very different meaning.

    2. creepy gecko
      Unhappy

      I also thought the story would be about Three. Surprised and disappointed to be reading about sex trafficking in New York. Ahhh well, maybe next time.

  2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Backpage, hey

    I'll take "things that should surprise nobody" for $1600, Alex.

  3. kain preacher

    Pro tip, In the US if you are a pimp dont take your hookers across lines. At that point it becomes federal crime. Human trafficking aka modern term for slavery and traffic slaves. That becomes a life.

    1. kain preacher

      Sorry it's sex trafficking. If it's forced then it also becomes sex trafficking. Both still can get you life. And if it's minors Extra charges. I know most people hear are against the death penalty but I do believe if some is found guilty of forcing some into the sex trade death should be an option.

      1. Charles 9

        Too easy to abuse that way. My opinion is to save for the worst of the worst: the likes of a bin Laden or an El Chapo (the last one I felt met the criteria was Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh).

  4. Potemkine Silver badge

    Chen faces additional charges regarding the use of force, fraud and coercion, and faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life

    15 years would be a light sentence for that slave driver.... There would be some kind of Justice if he discovers in jail what it is to be on the other side of sex trafficking.

    1. Charles 9

      Be careful. He could be a Top man with the cojones to assert that. He could even start a ring IN prison.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    huh

    Craigslist still shows "dating" ads, pretty much the same as before.

    "looking for 'generous"" type ads abound even today.

    Still got a better shot at not getting ripped off buying a used car than finding an actual non-professional or non-bot "female" ad LOL

  6. Crazy Operations Guy

    Suppressing prostitution never works

    There will always be a demand for sex, so when will politicians get it through their thick skulls that the best way to protect women would be to make it legal for them to actually report being trafficked (As of right now, in the US, the police will arrest prostitutes alongside their pimps and treat them both equally guilty).

    Sex trafficking in Canada has dropped dramatically since they decriminalized selling sex. One of the primary methods in the US for pimps to control their slaves is to find women with children that in the country without a visa, and have someone complicit in the operation take joint-custody of the child. That way, if the woman were to attempt to report the trafficking, she'd end up getting deported (gotta ged ridda dem e-legals comin' in an' committin' crimes) and separated from their children. Even if the pimp is convicted of being a complete shit-bag, and they end up seeing the inside of a jail cell, then another member of the ring would take control and use the child (and the child is kept in line with the threat of being deported just like their mother).

    The (least terrible) solution would be to make prostitution fully legal and use something like the Dutch model to police it, perhaps have regulations such as the business must be owned and controlled by the workers themselves (A sort of sexual co-op) to prevent any semblance of pimping going on. Require, and provide, medical care and regular screenings (paid for by taxes placed on the business), maybe even set up a network for those who want to get out of the profession (offer schooling, relocation services, etc). Make it so that the legal option is prevalent and has very little risk so that few, if any, people attempt to make use of the unlicensed / unregulated services.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Suppressing prostitution never works

      perhaps have regulations such as the business must be owned and controlled by the workers themselves (A sort of sexual co-op)

      The issue with that model is that most prostitutes aren't in it for a career, they just want to make a bit of money in the short term (to get through college, for example), and don't want their real names associated with prostitution once they move on to their actual careers. Any legal sex business would have to be formed around the idea of temporary and legally anonymous workers.

      With today's social stigma on sex work, a competitive market of legally registered (regulated, taxed, inspected, policed) brothels is probably the best option for all involved.

      ...to prevent any semblance of pimping going on.

      Actors, musicians and artists often have agents to take care of their legal, accounting, and marketing needs. Why not also prostitutes?

      1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

        Re: Suppressing prostitution never works

        The simplest solution is the middle eastern method - you get married for the night and divorced in the morning ... problem solved, it's no longer prostitution ...

        Realistically, outlawing prostitution is stupid, apparently we're fine with the army paying people money to go and shoot brown people in foreign countries, but totally against people paying others for a quickie in a hotel room. That's got to be the definition of dumb as rocks.

      2. Crazy Operations Guy

        Re: Suppressing prostitution never works

        "The issue with that model is that most prostitutes aren't in it for a career, they just want to make a bit of money in the short term"

        That would be part of the support network, providing former prostitutes a new identity (Or operate under a nom-de-whore, so to speak) where if they could put some generic-sounding customer service job on their resumes and have former coworkers able to vouch for them. Also, may offer re-location, so that they don;t end up running into someone they knew while working. But I figure that providing safe and secure work spaces, paying a fair wage, and giving them a bit more agency over their bodies, there may be quite a few people wanting to make it into a career, or at least a long-term side-gig.

        "Actors, musicians and artists often have agents to take care of their legal, accounting, and marketing needs. Why not also prostitutes?"

        Well, the idea of what a pimp does isn't the bad part, its what happens in practice that is the issue. Even in places like Amsterdam or Nevada, the brothel owners tend to go quite abusive on their employees. They're out to make a profit and tend to lack the ability to understand the position they are putting their employees in (forcing them to service terrible clients that otherwise pay quite a lot, in some cases getting away with everything short of murder). In areas where prostitution is illegal, the prostitutes are almost always emotionally abused quite regularly, physically abused in the vast majority of cases, and in many cases, repeatedly sexually abused by the pimp, if not by the client (In many cases, they end up in a situation where if they don't do heinous things for the client, they'll have those same things performed upon them by their pimp).

        1. Charles 9

          Re: Suppressing prostitution never works

          And I think part of the problem is the stigma of the profession: legal or not. Most don't go into it by choice; rather they're coerced or do it out of desperation. Either way, the agent/madam/pimp knows he/she can control prostitutes through their hardships. They're also usually not the most attractive-looking as the pretty ones would've been scouted by modeling agencies (even gravure or nude modeling would probably be preferable as you won't have to "get dirty").

    2. Potemkine Silver badge

      Re: Suppressing prostitution never works

      Prostitutes are not the problem: pimps are.

      How many prostitutes have no choice and are forced to prostitute themselves? Most studies say that around 90% of prostitutes are under the "protection" of pimp, when only 10% are free.

  7. Old Handle
    Thumb Down

    It's a carefully engineered moral panic

    Human trafficking is a completely invented problem pushed by politicians and fake do-gooders who stand to gain by stirring people up. It's a great issue for them because it has appeal across party lines. Leftists hate because those poor womens. Conservatives like because that nasty evil sex. Who cares if it doesn't really exist? It's a great excuse for draconian laws, right up there with terrorism and a lovely gravy train for "charities".

    Case in point: This attack on Back Page was initiated by California's Attorney General in an effort to look good while she was running for senate. Back Page has been around for years, yet in what would be an example of deplorable laxity if it were a real problem, she saved it until election season just to get her name out there.

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