Easton, PA to Confiscate Johns' Cars
The Easton, Pennsylvania City Council is set to pass a town ordinance that would seize the cars of "johns" cruising through their town looking for prostitutes. The Morning Call reports that the new law would apply to any vehicle used ''to solicit prostitution or to engage in an act of prostitution or to solicit or engage in sexual activity.'' We're not talking about impounding (so to speak); the ordinance would allow the city to keep or sell the confiscated vehicles. Councilwoman Elinor Warner introduced the ordinance, which was last mooted a decade previous. She has no doubts that the law will scare off the mobile sex trade that's been plaguing the city for years. In an unfortunate choice of words, she claimed it would attack the demand side of the equation and ''spread the love around, and make it hard on the johns as well.'' Warner's City Council colleagues have no problem with silly little things like constitutionality. Councilman Roger Ruggles told the paper that state law already allows police to seize vehicles used in drug deals. ''I don't see much of a difference." I wonder what kind of car he drives…
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Seriously - so if I see my girlfriend walking down the sidewalk and I stop to give her a ride - I could lose my car if the powers-that-be deem the situation to look "suspicious"? I refuse to worry about what the religious think of the laws based on their holy book b/c while I may share their ideas about many things, I don't share their religion or their books. What their deities or books may say carries no weight with me. What good sense the religious may have to share I will welcome. Still feel that the separation of church and state to be a very, very important concept b/c we don't all share the same religion, same religious texts, or the same deities.
Some one cruising for a date in Easton PA is sending out a cry for help. Don't confiscate his car. Send him to Vegas.