Contact: Rachel West (415 626-4114)

Expressing their opposition to the Public Nuisance Vehicle Seizure and Forfeiture Ordinance which would allow the police to seize the cars of people they suspect of soliciting prostitution and drugs, the US PROStitutes Collective, Legal Action for Women and others will hold a press conference today September 25 at 1:30pm. Protesters will then attend the Board of Supervisors meeting at 2pm which is voting on this measure.

"Vulnerability to violence is already a major problem that prostitute women face. This proposal if passed, will increase that vulnerability because sting operations and surveillance of people to implement this law will be prioritized over catching rapists and other violent men", says Rachel West of US PROStitutes Collective. "Our experience shows that measures which appear to target clients result in increased arrests and criminalization of prostitute women. Impounding cars doesn’t address why people are forced by poverty to sell their bodies or drugs to survive and it won’t solve anything."

"There is widespread horror at the discretion given to the police and the increase in police powers that this proposal advocates", says Lori Nairne of Legal Action for Women. "Testimony at the Public Hearing on Violence against Prostitute Women and other Sex Workers at City Hall in August highlighted the daily abuse and violation of civil rights by police that prostitute women already face. Extending this injustice to men is not the answer."

"It’s outrageous that this law is being proposed at a time of widespread concern over racial profiling by police when they stop people in cars and the recent Rampart scandal in Los Angeles involving police corruption and drugs. Black people, immigrants and other people of color will clearly be targeted by this law and it only adds insult to injury that it is being put forward by the only Black member of the Board of Supervisors", says Chandra Redack of the network of Black Women for Wages for Housework.

Richard Terry Koch of the National Lawyers Guild says: "Every criminal attorney in San Francisco should be opposed to such a law, given its flagrant violation of constitutional rights." Lawyers who have fought forfeiture cases in other areas are submitting evidence to the Board that it has resulted in much injustice and encourages police corruption as they directly profit from seizures.

Betty Traynor, a resident of the Mission says "This is unworkable, unconstitutional and is not going to make my neighborhood safer. City resources could be better spent on addressing homelessness and other pressing issues in the neighborhoods".

This proposal panders to a vocal minority of residents. It is in direct opposition to the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution, which after two years of deliberation, recommended the decriminalization of prostitution by diverting the $7.6 million which is currently spent on enforcement of the prostitution laws into services and resources for the whole community. 66% of readers polled by the SF Examiner supported this. Once again politicians who seem ready to say or do anything to make a name for themselves are scape-goating prostitute women and other people who live and work on the street for all the problems of run down neighborhoods.