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Bloomberg Doesn't Like Slut Shaming, Imagines Life As A Prostitute
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 16, 2012
Modified Jun 16, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 16, 2012
Modified Jun 16, 2012
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Mayor Bloomberg got in touch with his feminine side yesterday as he considered city council's new legislation punishing taxi drivers who are convicted of knowingly transporting sex trafficking victims. Bloomberg worried whether innocent women would be profiled and targeted because of how they were dressed: “You know, if I were a young lady and I dressed in a ‘sporty way’—or however you want to phrase it...I would not want somebody thinking that I’m a prostitute,” Bloomberg said during his weekly radio show.
"There’s nothing wrong with that," he reasoned. "Maybe it’s not appropriate to go to the workplace, but at night, sometimes sure, why not.” Cabbies caught transporting prostitutes could lose their license for a first offense, and face an additional $10,000 fine the second time around. In several recent sex trafficking cases, it's come out that certain cabbies were in on the deals, pocketing half the money of their earnings.
Bloomberg initially wasn't clear whether he would sign the legislation: “I have no idea of whether we’re in favor. Whether it’s enforceable and a good idea, I don’t know.” But spokesman Stu Loeser later said the administration was 100% behind the bill.
Update: Executive Director Laurel W. Eisner of the Sanctuary for Families—a victims advocacy group that was instrumental in constructing the law—clarified a bit about the new cabby law:
The law will not discourage drivers from picking up "sex workers" or women dressed in any particular way. The law will discourage drivers from engaging in crimes involving sex trafficking, which entail actively participating in and profiting from coerced prostitution. A driver must first be criminally convicted of one of the enumerated felony crimes under existing penal law before being subject to the civil penalties of this law. Picking up a passenger in the ordinary course of business does not implicate the State penal law and does not trigger the provisions of this bill.
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cabbies
mayor bloomberg
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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