Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
For almost a year, Anoka County detectives staked out a massage parlor suspected of prostitution in a nondescript strip mall in Ramsey. They tracked the suspected prostitutes, the owner and the manager, linked the business to an apartment where the sex workers stayed, traced money and analyzed cellphone and financial data.
It paid off. The manager and owner were charged this month with felony receiving profits from prostitution — the third major recent prostitution sting in Anoka County where police targeted those who profit.
That’s a far different approach from the old catch-and-release way of doing business — a quick bust to round up prostitutes and clients, charge them with misdemeanors, then watch them walk out the door. It’s part of a nationwide shift toward focusing on the profiteers and clients rather then the sex workers, and trying to help the latter, many of whom are under the thumb of traffickers or pimps.
Reader Comments(0)