A sexy outfit can get you arrested in Phoenix — especially if you’re Black or trans
A sexy outfit can get you arrested in Phoenix — especially if you’re Black or trans
Phoenix cops have cited more than 450 people. "You're being prosecuted because of what you're wearing."
In January, a 23-year-old woman sat in Phoenix Municipal Court listening to a prosecutor lay out the evidence against her. On the night of her arrest, she was scantily dressed, the prosecutor told the judge. She also had condoms in her purse and got into a car with a man.
In Phoenix, that was enough to charge her with a crime.
“Given the way the defendant was dressed, as well as a statement as to a date, and her getting in the vehicle with this witness — there is evidence of manifesting prostitution," a prosecutor told Municipal Court Judge Alex Navidad.
Or, more specifically, “manifesting an intent to commit or solicit an act of prostitution.” An obscure city ordinance in Phoenix makes this act a crime with a mandatory sentence of at least 15 days in jail.
The woman, whose name Phoenix New Times is withholding to protect her privacy, is one of more than 450 people in Phoenix who have been charged with manifestation of prostitution over the past eight years. The ordinance, which has been called unconstitutional by the ACLU of Arizona, allows the act of flagging down a car or wearing provocative clothing to be used as grounds to cite someone.
In 2014, the city’s prosecution of Monica Jones under the ordinance drew national outcry. Civil rights organizations condemned the arrest of Jones, a transgender activist and social work student. Even celebrities spoke out against the city’s use of the law.
But Phoenix has not stopped using the ordinance, according to data obtained by New Times.
A review of the data showed that hundreds of people — including 90 in 2022 — have been charged with manifesting prostitution since Jones' case. Over the last two years, the majority of those charged were Black
It’s Phoenix. She’s lucky the cops didn’t execute her on the spot.
Y’all remember that time they did that? I remember.
64The time? It's only happened once? I remember it a bit differently.
17Wait, you’re telling me police officers in Phoenix have executed a random person more than once?
Next you’re going to tell me they’ve recently kept slaves in air-conditionless tents in one of the hottest counties in the country.
22
I believe that the totalitarian government in Iran also polices dress codes.
55Man, don’t you just love thoughtcrimes? They don’t even need to wait for you to actually do anything - they can just guess you intend to do something and jail you.
“No reasonable person would dress scantily” they say in a place that gets over 110f in the shade. “No reasonable person would carry condoms” they say when we have XDR Gonorrhea, HIV, and Hep C. “It was a known prostitution area” they say, assuming Google Maps publishes known prostitution areas so we can all know where to avoid. “It’s manifesting an intent…” but an intent is not a crime - there’s no injured party with a thought - what damages/punishment could possibly be awarded/inflicted to make a party whole?
It’s fucking farcical how lawyers will defend laws like this, yet also claim to follow logic and reasoning.
32but an intent is not a crime - there’s no injured party with a thought
In this case there's no injured party even if the "real" crime happens. It's a whole new level of victimless crime.
9Soliciting a prostitute wouldn't require going through the entire process first.
-1
On this logic, I'm looking forward to laws that criminalize buying firearms because they "manifest an intent to commit murder".
Checkmate, SCOTUS!
29Too bad they have the ultimate checkmate of being able to decide the law means whatever that want it to mean.
9
We REALLY need to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work. Society has not collapse after pot and gambling legalization. All of us will be better off with sex work being just a part of the world.
28I agree but I don't want it near my home.
0
What an absolute shithole.
27Real theocracy o'clock hours
24Sexy with intent to fuck is a crime now?
That makes me like Pablo Escobar.
22That makes me the gang that couldn't shot straight
1
Seems like a free speech issue to me if you can be charged for wearing the wrong thing. The Supreme Court has determined that clothing can be speech for first amendment purposes.
15Yes but context matters too.
1
I thought I'd never say this, but America is looking really like a third-world country lately. Of course that's too much of a generalization, but shit like this, and school shootings, and etc etc...makes you really wondering if you get what I mean.
14I get we have problems, but holy shit. Stop saying this.
We are not a third world country, and someone even comparing us to one just shows they've never been to a 3rd world country, outside of maybe an enclosed resort.
-3
What would cause a person to go out that scantily clad is the real question? She must have been up to something.
12Always be carrying filming equipment and release forms apparently.
9Every time I read about American police I think of that policeman from jojolands.
9She was a prostitute and got caught. im so tired of these rage bait headlines
-122The point is that you shouldn't be arrested for a thought crime just for dressing slutty. She wasn't cought prostituting, she was cought with condoms and "dressed provocatively." I feel like you only read the title.
112She was arrested for manifestation of prostitution on May 17, 2013 after accepting a ride home from an undercover Phoenix police officer whom she had met at a bar. A few minutes after getting in the car, a police vehicle pulled up, and she realized she had been caught up in an anti-prostitution sting. That night, Jones was wearing a “black, tight-fitting dress,” the Phoenix police officer testified at trial. She was in an area known to have prostitution activity, he claimed, never mind that the arrest occurred near where Jones lived. A municipal court judge sentenced her to a month in jail.
I think getting a lift home resulting in a prostitution charge is pretty ridiculous.
48You shouldn't be arrested for a crime you haven't committed yet. There is no evidence of a crime, just a woman in a dress with condoms in her purse.
36Just a new version of blaming women for what they are wearing. Maybe not even that new.
11
It shouldn’t even be illegal in the first place but go off bozo
13🤡
13This shouldn't be illegal anyway
11Clown
11Prostitution shouldn't be illegal anyway
9So catch them in the act of, you know, prostitution. Not in the act of, you know, wearing clothes.
7