Sex Trafficking

Groups that oppose the decriminalization of sex work often conflate prostitution with human trafficking and/or sex trafficking. But there are significant differences. Prostitution involves commercial sex between or among consenting adults, and it is prosecuted on a local level.  Sex trafficking, a subcategory of human trafficking, is a federal crime, defined by statute as causing a person under age eighteen to engage in commercial sex, or using force, fraud, or coercion to cause an adult to do the same.

Backpage, Censorship, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Michael Lacey, News, Opinion/Analysis, Section 230, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work, U.S. v. Lacey & Larkin

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Note: Some of the following content was repurposed from live reports from the courthouse. For regular updates during breaks in the proceedings, follow @stephenlemons on Twitter/X. The defense in the Backpage trial called its first witness on Tuesday in Phoenix’s…

Pink Elephant
Backpage, Censorship, First Amendment, News, Opinion/Analysis, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work, U.S. v. Lacey & Larkin

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After a half-day of trial on Friday, Sept. 15 in Phoenix, wherein federal proecutors made numerous references to children and child sex trafficking in the Backpage case, Joy Bertrand, attorney for Joye Vaught, a former Backpage employee, renewed the defense’s…

Asset Seizures, Backpage, Censorship, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, News, Opinion/Analysis, Sex Trafficking, U.S. DOJ, U.S. v. Lacey & Larkin

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On Friday, at the final pretrial hearing in the Backpage case, federal Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix shot down a defense suggestion that the prosecution not use the terms “sex trafficking” and “child sex trafficking” during the Aug. 29 trial…

U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa
Backpage, Censorship, First Amendment, News, Opinion/Analysis, Section 230, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work, U.S. v. Lacey & Larkin

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In an order issued on Monday, July 24, federal Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix granted prosecutors significant wins on a series of motions affecting the retrial of veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, set to begin on Aug. 8….

handcuffs
Censorship, Opinion/Analysis, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work, Super Bowl, U.S. v. Lacey & Larkin

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In the two-week runup to Super Bowl LVII, more than 100 law enforcement officers from nearly 20 local, state and federal law agencies — including the FBI and  DHS — participated in a massive operation in Metro Phoenix ostensibly targeting…

CindyMcCainInstitute
Censorship, Cindy McCain, John McCain, Opinion/Analysis, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work, Super Bowl

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If Arizona State University gave degrees in gaslighting, Cindy McCain and her lackeys at ASU’s McCain Institute would have long ago earned their PhDs in public chicanery. Case in point: A recent op-ed authored by two McCain Institute flunkies and…

First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Media, News, Opinion/Analysis, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work, Super Bowl

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A coalition of sex worker-rights organizations will demonstrate from 5-8 p.m. today, Monday, Feb. 6, outside the Footprint Center in Downtown Phoenix as part of a “public and media education action” ahead of Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, now less…

serverandprotect
Freedom of Speech, Media, Opinion, Opinion/Analysis, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work, Super Bowl

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Despite more than a decade of research, reports, editorials, magazine articles and even police accounts debunking the odious myth that the Super Bowl is a magnet for sex trafficking, this zombie lie remains catnip to local politicians, police and media…