PROSTITUTION A MAJOR PROBLEM

Editor:

When are local officials going to get serious about prostitution and
its related drug problems in Chilliwack?

Personally I don't feel threatened when I am downtown at night, but a
lot of people are and it is affecting some very fine businesses and
restaurants in the area. It has become so serious in the downtown
core that some store owners and services have already moved away in
disgust and others are considering leaving. We can come up with all
kinds of great plans for revitalizing the downtown core, but until we
as a community get serious about drugs and prostitution we are
wasting our time.

This is not a shot at the police, who are doing everything they can
under impossible conditions. Because of the Charter of Rights, they
spend more time doing paperwork than actual policing and the hookers
are back on the street before the police.

The police recently conducted a major operation to catch some of
these hookers and their johns but because of lack of support from
others in the community, I don't think it will have much of a lasting
effect. I like what was done with sending some of the customers to
john school because in a lot of cases these guys don't know the harm
they are doing and maybe that is all that is needed to have them
change their ways, but why, like other crimes, haven't the names been
promptly released of the others that were actually charged with a
criminal code offence?

Was a decision made to protect the names of the customers, rather
than protecting this community?

Those that repeatedly use the services of hookers have one thing in
common; they don't care about the community and the harm that is done
to it or their own families. What they don't have in common is where
they come from. They aren't just blue collar workers; they are also
business people and other prominent members of a community.

Chilliwack now has organized crime as part of its makeup, and it
recently resulted in Wild West shootings on our streets. What makes
it so attractive for these people to be here is the money to be made
from drugs and prostitution.

There is nothing we as citizens can presently do about the drug
situation unless we want to become vigilantes. We in the Lower
Mainland are stuck with judges who don't think illegal drug growing,
manufacturing and distribution are serious problems. The result is
organized crime has a good toehold in Chilliwack.

The prostitution problem is something we can do something about by
going after the customers. It means shining a big search light on
these guys so that the whole town knows who they are.

By dealing with prostitutes, these guys are supporting the sexual
exploitation of women, supporting them being beat up by their pimps
and supporting their drug addiction, and most of all they are
supporting organized crime and allowing it to get a stranglehold on
this great community. These people also don't seem to care if their
wives become infected with AIDS or syphilis and they don't care if
their actions result in businesses closing and neighbourhood
communities are ruined.

We citizens can only hope people in charge aren't putting the
reputations of these customers above the rest of the citizens of Chilliwack.

Vancouver police want to try a new approach to the hooker problem by
adopting a program that has been successfully used in the Prairies to
cut down on prostitution. Cars of the customers are seized by police,
since they were used in the commission of a criminal code offence.
The reports from the Prairies so far indicate it has cut down on prostitution.

Solicitor General and local MLA John Les made it quite clear to the
Vancouver Sun that he doesn't think it is a good idea, and without
provincial legislation it won't happen. He didn't even indicate he
would look into the results from the Prairies. This man is in charge
of public safety in the province and he doesn't seem to know or
understand you can't stop crime until you remove the money that can
be made. Even when hookers know someone is out there killing other
prostitutes, they still work the streets. A fine is not going to do
it, so it is time to give up on focusing primarily on the prostitutes.

Let these johns explain to their wives and friends why they were
arrested for being involved with prostitution and why their cars were
seized. Prostitute's customers are like cockroaches and will scurry
away at the thought of the public spotlight being on them.

If we continue with the old ways, it will just drive the hookers out
of the downtown and into the residential back alleys in the areas
surrounding Five Corners making it harder for police to control the
situation. It will result in sex acts being conducted around schools,
with the byproduct being needles and condoms lying around for
children to find. Also it will result in local neighbourhoods
deteriorating as good families start to move away.

Also by driving these women into back alleys and away from the eyes
of the community places them in very grave danger. Vancouver tried
that approach and it resulted in the deaths of a number of women. It
doesn't matter if it is Five Corners or a back alley, a police sting
will get these guys and scare off other potential customers. Without
the money, prostitution will be less of a problem, and it will make
the downtown a better place to live and shop.

Let John Les know it is time to deal with prostitution problem
seriously and crack down on the customers.

John Pritchard

Chilliwack