A proposal in Washington, D.C. to make “prostitution free zones” permanent has been criticized by human rights activists, health advocates, and even the police and prosecutors. BPPP has helped to coordinate and support the local efforts to stop the law — read more in Media Analysis.
Tag: policing
Some activists in Washington, D.C. have been having a sense of dejá vù lately. Several years ago, communities fought a proposal to create “Prostitution Free Zones” (PFZs) – areas declared by the police chief where officers could order people to move along and/or arrest them if the officers believed the individuals were “congregating for the purposes of prostitution.” Despite a robust organizing effort that brought together groups in new ways, the law was passed, and legitimized long-standing police tactics of arresting people for looking a certain way or being in a certain area in the name of enforcing prostitution laws.At the end of 2011, a member of the D.C. Council proposed a bill to make the PFZs – originally temporary – permanent.