Remember Citizens United? That decision anthropomorphized corporations and other groups endowing them with rights previously restricted to flesh and blood people enabling unlimited donations in politics. Dunwoody has decided to take that ball and run with it. They have decided that local hotels are really people. Specific people. Specifically they are confidential informants and thereby offered protection from public scrutiny. So say the city: in all public crime reports regarding prostitution busts [more on that in a bit] the scene of the crime is listed as City Hall. Wonder where they got that idea?
This is problematic on so many levels.
Government transparency should not be available only when convenient. Especially when the "convenience" is for a police department. Where a crime occurs is an important piece of any crime report and while there certainly have been hijinks in the PD, City Hall is not the only location in Dunwoody with prostitution.
There is also the semantic massage, a common tactic in this City. A concrete highway lane is not a "path" and a prostitution bust is not a frontal assault on the root causes of human trafficking. Or even the proximate causes for that matter. Fact is, local yokels are working the streets, attacking the retail element and not the supply, logistics and distribution. As an analogy, it is the local role to round up the street dealers because those are the bad guys they have contact with, not the drug cartels. So to claim they are battling human trafficking is more than disingenuous. Regardless, "human trafficking" sounds so much more dramatic than "prostitution" so expect the term to become well overused here in Dunwoody.
And "sting?" Really? Let's say that is the proper term and further let's say these stings occur on a routine basis. And, suspend your disbelief here, let's say that if the location is not disclosed in a police report that the yet-to-be-stung will not have a heads up (pun intended) and will slot right in behind the already stung, awaiting their turn. So, by doing this could it still be called a sting or is it entrapment? Have they set up a honey pot? After all, city officials justify this practice by its results, without clearly disclosing what those results might be (another secret?).
This ends-justifies-the-means rationalization never comes to a good end. Just look at this PD's track record of violating constitutional rights. Again, ends justified the means. They are distorting the law beyond all recognition, playing fast and loose until the courts jerk them back to reality. Maybe they should have started there. In reality.
The notion that reporting the location might "hurt the reputation of the hotels" is absolute bollocks. How in the world can that thought survive the simple scrutiny of "well, the johns know which hotels to visit even if your police report doesn't tell them?" Do you really think no one else will figure this out? As for the possibility that hotels may no longer "cooperate" we don't even know what that cooperation looks like, even in a general form, because, well, lack of transparency. And if transparency hurts their non-sex-trade business that just might encourage them to be proactive in eliminating prostitution at their establishment rather than turning a blind eye. After all it is highly unlikely that these hotels don't know what is actually happening or they wouldn't be much of a confidential informant. Would they?
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