Prostitution Issue

The Times story on prostitution on El Cajon Boulevard, “Neighborhood War on Hookers Is Paying Off,” (March 15) got off to a bad start with such a blatantly incorrect statement for a headline. Considering this is the third crackdown on prostitution in as many years, the results are only short term.

Equally disturbing about the article was the lack of more than one perspective. I question how objective Brian Bennett, principal of a Catholic school, can be on the matter. Catholic theology states that the only morally correct sex is between married couples and then only for purposes of reproduction. Bennett’s major concern seems to be people having a different moral standard than his own.

Prostitution is said to be the world’s oldest profession, and any free market capitalist knows that when there is a demand for a product or service, someone is going to find a way to fill that need. Therefore, “crackdowns” on prostitution only move the activity elsewhere, and once the crackdown is over, the situation returns to normal.

We pay a very high price for police activity against voluntary activity between consenting adults. Even the multipage article in The Times crowded out a tiny article, “Serial Rapist Sought at Beach.” After reading both articles, one has to ask, which is the police and The Times more concerned about--violent crime against women, or voluntary acts between adults?

The obvious solution to the problem is to decriminalize prostitution and brothels, which would remove most of the trade from the streets. Perhaps then the Police Department would be able to concentrate on actual crime like the beach area rapist.

PAT WRIGHT

San Diego