TheAgitator.com
Quote of the Day, 1
Saturday, November 14th, 2009“For nearly 5 years, I supplied Mr. Spitzer with high priced escorts while he was both Attorney General and Governor. For this crime, I served four months on Rikers Island, had all of my assets confiscated and am now considered a sex offender on 5 years probation. Mr. Spitzer broke both state and federal laws and walked away free.”
— Kristin Davis. Oh, and Spitzer just spoke on an “ethics” panel at Harvard.
Obligatory libertarian disclaimer: I don’t think Spitzer should have been prosecuted for frequenting prostitutes, violating the Mann Act, or structuring his bank withdrawals. I don’t think Kristin Davis should have been prosecuted, either.
But given that while as attorney general Spitzer regularly prosecuted suppliers of prostitutes and structurers of bank transactions, I don’t feel particularly sorry for him.
I also think it’s more than absurd to have him speak at an ethics conference.
Our lawmakers and prosecutors are diligently trying to destroy any respect for the law. It will soon be a badge of honor to have a felony conviction, not just among gang members, but among suburban housewives, bankers, and engineers. Anyone want to volunteer to organize the “felon pride” march?
Spitzer’s real crime was blowing the whistle on the mortgage house of cards that was about to fall. The prostitute thing was merely the instrument of punishment.
The real powers of this country are scared shitless of any candidate with a clean record. It means they have no handle on him.
I’m all in favor of legalizing prostitution, but Ms. Davis wasn’t just some poor working girl looking to make ends meet. She ran a pretty extensive criminal operation for many years. Her punishment seems more than fair.
As for Spitzer, his only serious crime was the attempt to hide the money transactions, but for the Bush DOJ to prosecute him on that they would have had to explain why they were investigating him in the first place.
The fact that she has been listed as a sex offender is what I find particularly troubling. I’m also for legalized prostitution but I feel like this really showcases how absurd the sex offender registry has become. I mean whose sexual abuse did she facilitate? Oh yea, paying clients.
Prostitution should not be illegal, period! We all own our bodies, therefore we should have the right to use them as we see fit and nothing we do with our bodies (that is personal or consensual) should be a prosecutable offense.
It is not logical for prostitution to be a crime while it is not be a crime to utilize the services of a prostitute. So if it is not a prosecutable, punishable offense to solicit the services of a prostitute, then it is not a prosecutable, punishable offense to BE a prostitute, either.
However, if the statutes say it is a crime so that cops are going to arrest, and prosecutors (and society) are going to prosecute (persecute) prostitutes, cops need to also arrest and prosecutors (and society) need to prosecute (persecute) ALL the clients of prostitutes, regardless who those clients might be.
If prostitutes are sex offenders, so are their clients.
I don’t have any problem with his extramarital sex.
I have a problem with the society that corners him on it and brays what a no-good shit he is for being a typical male Homo sapiens.
Spitzer’s real crime was blowing the whistle on the mortgage house of cards that was about to fall. The prostitute thing was merely the instrument of punishment.
The real powers of this country are scared shitless of any candidate with a clean record. It means they have no handle on him.
Oh, please. Spitzer was governor of New York at the time, and I don’t recall him saying anything then about the mortgage situation. This is nothing but spin coming from the Spitzer camp, and to say that Spitzer is “clean” is like saying Nixon was honest.
Elliot Spitzer was and is a bully, a shakedown artist who got a lot of campaign contributions via Wall Street by making threats. Oh, yeah, the New York Times thought he hung the moon, but the New York Times also was the entity that thought Rudy Giuliani was an angel when he was committing felonies left and right while U.S. attorney and criminalizing things that never before had been considered to be crimes.
Please, please, please do not give us the “Elliot Spitzer is a great guy and Mr. Clean” nonsense. As Radley said, Spitzer was quite happy to prosecute people who did what he did.
And as for the person attacking Radley on “ethics,” please tell me when Radley Balko has been unethical. He is one of the few people in the country willing to take on prosecutors who lie, suborn perjury, and have “expert witnesses” giving fraudulent testimony. He has been instrumental in having people take a second look at convictions that are questionable at best and wrong at worst.
How many wrongly-convicted people did Spitzer ever get out of prison?
I remember a George Carlin routine “Selling stuff is legal, fucking is legal, so why is it illegal to sell fucking?”
I think its the most bare bones summery of the libertarian position on the matter I’ve ever herd. I’ve used in it real life to point out that prostitution isn’t an issue of morality, its an issue of personal freedom.
Here’s another one, random:
It’s legal for two men to beat the daylights out of each other (boxing, UFC) for money, but not for two people (hey, some folks swing differently) to screw for money.
Yeah. I’m not a huge fan of prostitution either, but like drugs, I look at the results and my response is ‘Exactly what progress have we made?’.