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Orlando police charge alt-weekly with racketeering over escort ads
Officials said that the newspaper's advertising executives also helped escort services design ads that would cloak them from the eyes of law-enforcement officers. Agents said the arrests culminated a two-year investigation dubbed "Operation Weekly Shame." As part of Operation Weekly Shame, two female agents went undercover and presented themselves as prostitutes to three of the Weekly's account executives, Lutz said. They made it clear that their ads were for promoting their prostitution businesses, he said. This Orlando Sentinel article notes the obvious First Amendment issues involved, and suggests there might be a revenge motive behind the daring undercover operation with the cutesy moniker. In the past, the Orlando Weekly has criticized MBI's tactics. "The MBI [Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation] has a well-earned reputation for ruthlessness when it comes to driving adult businesses out of Central Florida," a 2003 Weekly news story stated. "Its agents and prosecutors have harassed and intimidated witnesses, lied about investigations, trumped up charges against old ladies and spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to coax a handful of people into committing petty crimes." The Orlando Weekly's own blog has collected the paper's past stories about MBI's war on adult businesses. How can you not love a headline like "MBI busts handjob ring, proud of self"? And Orlando police might not be finished. The sudden and unusual round of arrests raises questions whether MBI will take on internationally known Craigslist networking site. MBI recently wrote a letter to the CEO of Craigslist requesting the Internet site remove all of its prostitution ads dealing with Orlando. Representatives at Craigslist have not answered law-enforcement official's letters. Freedom of speech issues aside, local law enforcement should tacitly welcome newspaper and internet advertising for sex services. It discourages street prostitution and tacky outdoor advertising for sex shops. It promotes entrepreneurship by sex workers and cuts down on exploitation by pimps. It makes the whole process safer and more pleasant for whores and johns alike. Stupid, wasteful campaigns like Operation Weekly Shame and Operation Craig Shame (or is that name already taken?) promote violent crime in order to stop harmless, private, consensual transactions.
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