Sex workers ‘named and shamed’ by the police

So we are seeing the start of the Olympics ‘clean-up’ then with this?

Sex workers and their support groups have condemned a police operation to “out” prostitutes even when they have not been convicted of any crime. Six street-based sex workers in Newham, east London, were named on the Metropolitan police website. Police posted their photos, full names and dates of birth. In a second case, two Polish women who were selling sex from their home in Aldgate, east London, were raided by City of London police as part of Operation Monaco.

The thing is that the police can do this without referring to any law. On a legal matter these sex workers could challenge this through a judicial review and even then that would be unchartered territory (and expensive). In other words, the police can get away with posting up the faces, names and addresses of these sex workers without any legal redress.. And for this to be challenged it has to be through political means.

But the latest actions by the police, sex workers, already marginalised, will be further alienated, victimised, criminalised and stigmatised. Where will this information go, how will it be used? It unjustly creates a criminal record without going through the usual legal processes. This is utterly wrong.

Stark reality is that these women will be further targeted, increased vulnerability and scapegoated along with possible vigilantism because that’s what naming and shaming does. This further illustrates the desperate need for decriminalisation and unionisation.

Harry Fletcher (Napo) rightly says, “I suspect this is part of a pre-Olympics clean-up in east London.”

And in previous Olympics there have been ‘clean-up’ operations which meant getting rid of the ‘undesirables’……..

So is this the start of social cleansing?