High Street at Cruelery.com - The Web's Bitter Afterbirth / Dear John Letter

sofaking · 2009-03-23 15:05:33

Soon wives could receive letters from the Escambia County Sheriff's Department letting them know when their husbands are arrested for soliciting prostitutes.

tojo2000 · 2009-03-23 15:47:49

Good on them. If you don't want your wife to know who you're sleeping with, then either don't get married, or marry someone who doesn't care.

whosasailorthen · 2009-03-23 16:27:53

I agree with the gent in the article - it is publicizing your 'guilt' before you've even been found guilty. Constitutionally, I can't agree this is right.

tojo2000 · 2009-03-23 16:45:04

whosasailorthen wrote:
I agree with the gent in the article - it is publicizing your 'guilt' before you've even been found guilty. Constitutionally, I can't agree this is right.

Sorry, I was thinking convicted vs. arrested. I agree with you there.

Taint · 2009-03-23 16:45:51

If they haven't yet been found guilty of soliciting, then they're not guilty and the letters interfere with the whole process. After the court delivers a verdict, then - go for it.

Better, of course, to legalize and regulate prostitution but that's probably another thread.

Last edited by Taint (2009-03-23 16:46:22)

Zookeeper · 2009-03-23 17:22:54

whosasailorthen wrote:
I agree with the gent in the article - it is publicizing your 'guilt' before you've even been found guilty. Constitutionally, I can't agree this is right.

How so? How is telling the wife the husband was arrested for something "publicizing" anything? To "publicize" something you are making it public. This is a private letter to the wife. What constitutional issue is there with this? Letting the wife know the man was arrested doesn't influence the outcome of his trial (except that he may not show up to the trial after his wife kills him).

(from the article) wrote:
"You need therapy. You need help. You don't need to be lambasted by your wife."

Actually, it sounds more like he just needs a blowjob...

fnord · 2009-03-23 18:36:58

Harassing the customers ensures that prostitution will be legal sooner than later.

karenw · 2009-03-23 19:25:03

Zookeeper wrote:
How so? How is telling the wife the husband was arrested for something "publicizing" anything? To "publicize" something you are making it public. This is a private letter to the wife. What constitutional issue is there with this? Letting the wife know the man was arrested doesn't influence the outcome of his trial (except that he may not show up to the trial after his wife kills him).

Actually, arrests are a matter of public record.

Taint · 2009-03-23 20:58:52

karenw wrote:
Zookeeper wrote:
How so? How is telling the wife the husband was arrested for something "publicizing" anything? To "publicize" something you are making it public. This is a private letter to the wife. What constitutional issue is there with this? Letting the wife know the man was arrested doesn't influence the outcome of his trial (except that he may not show up to the trial after his wife kills him).
Actually, arrests are a matter of public record.

C'est vrai, but the story makes it sound as if the police want to write the letters as if the alleged johns are guilty of the crime. Until they are found so by a court, they're innocent.

choad · 2009-03-23 22:07:19

whosasailorthen wrote:
I agree with the gent in the article - it is publicizing your 'guilt' before you've even been found guilty.

And I agree with both of you. This issue surfaced recently in my home town, a working class community surrounded by affluence, a place where the most literate inhabitants are cops.

Yeah, the things you discover when newspapers disappear, huh? Damn right, I was suprised, but probably without cause. Here are people writing reports and putting one thought in front of another every day.

So the requests to add an updated Police Log to my local site began to add up and I began to get squeamish. Rewriting obits and the police blotter were my first "professional" employment; thankless, mindnumblingly dull and exacting. You can't make a mistake.

One night last week I decided enough and visited our PD's website to read that day's log.

Names I know popped up all over; one, a nice enough guy, few bricks shy of full load maybe but reliable when he's sober. I do not want to read, though, some anonymous slob observe, "One look at his wife, you see why he drinks!"

True or not, that doesn't help anyone. Unless they're public office holders, people with troubled lives in a town this size already bring enough ridicule on themselves.

Happily, the rank and file cops are launching their own site.

Last edited by choad (2009-03-23 22:08:09)