Police Priorities
After reading about the latest police crackdown on prostitution and the closing of four Oriental massage parlors, I have to wonder just how serious the San Diego Police Department is.
I do not sleep better at night knowing I am safe from prostitutes. I want the police to protect me from robbers, muggers and other violent criminals. The activities of a hooker has no bearing on my safety.
Valuable police time is diverted from serious crimes, prostitution is put back on the streets where it really is a nuisance to everybody else, and civil liberties suffer another blow.
What is especially frightening about all this is the power of government to go into these massage parlors, confiscate their records, dictate ridiculous practices on the part of the businesses, try to close the businesses for a year and then sell off their assets. Activities like that sound more like the domain of the KGB or the IRS, certainly not the City of San Diego.
Being a Libertarian and believing in the motto “Live and Let Live,” I grieve for this latest setback for freedom. However, I take solace that somewhere in San Diego, four new Oriental massage parlors are likely to be born soon.
PAT WRIGHT
San Diego
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