In other news this past week that probably almost everyone missed, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution (S. Res. 439) calling for Village Voice Media to take down the adult section of Backpage.
While I appreciate the effort this shows me a couple of things. The first is that it’s obvious that Congress is behind the times since Village Voice Media no longer owns Backpage. Backpage is now owned by the founders of Village Voice Media and supposedly no longer has any connection to the Village Voice family of newspapers. Secondly, this resolution will be about as effective as a strongly worded letter from the U.N. to Iran, as in not effective at all. Backpage will continue to go on about how it’s their constitutional right to collect advertising money from pimps and traffickers in order to exploit women and children that are in sexual slavery.
There is something of actual use to come out of the resolution as it…
…supports the efforts of law enforcement agencies to provide training to law enforcement agents on how to identify victims of sex trafficking, investigate cases of sex trafficking, prosecute sex trafficking offenses and rescue victims of sex trafficking.
Again, the intention is there but the road to hell is paved with congressional resolutions. What we need are new laws. Laws that would not only make the risk greater than the reward for traffickers but for johns as well.
You can pass all the resolutions you want but until real laws with teeth are passed congress is just spinning its wheels.
Thanks to Dr. Jones for the tip.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 