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Thursday, February 23, 2006
Seares: Sex and raids
By Pachico A. Seares
News Sense
A photographer once showed me a photo of a man, a police decoy, on top of a suspected prostitute, both naked, the woman looking up, eyes wide with surprise and fright.
The woman was paid to get into the motel room. On cue, the photographer rushed in and, camera light ablaze, fired away. Cops then made the arrest, a woman's humiliation and police insensitivity recorded on film.
What for? For evidence, police said.
Prostitution is proved by sex for money and habituality. But---here's the snag---how many sex acts by the same woman is deemed habitual?
Judges routinely throw out prostitution cases. Police thus settle for vagrancy, which requires less evidence.
Trafficking
Now comes the law on trafficking of women and children. Sex is not essential, experts tell us.
Popularized by bar raids, the law punishes exploitation, not necessarily for sex.
Why then do police insist on setting up women? They are victims, not suspects. Entrapment debases even more.
I suspect that it gives the cops some kind of excitement.
Police work can be dull. Many cops don't get to fire their gun or chase a suspect. Snatches of a sex show and lurid photos can color drab existence.
But what do judges think of filmed butts, which infuriate Atty. Gloria Dalawampu and Fiscal Jane Petralba?
Judges, after all, decide which evidence proves what crime element.
Or do judges' spartan lives need perking up too?
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 23, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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