Over the weekend, Seattle police took down a suspected brothel called the 'Sacred Temple' after a year-long investigation. Only last November, a spa on Aurora Ave. was busted on similar charges after a three year investigation. It appears that SPD is very thorough in these cases, with repeated stings, to make damn sure that illicit sex is taking place.

Here is the account from KOMO news.

The Stranger quotes a witness as saying, "we saw [police] swarming like ants." A caller to a KPLU talk show claimed that police were in full SWAT gear, and had the ladies face down on the ground, handcuffed. Was SPD afraid the ladies might beat them up???

Less than two months ago, KOMO reported on a home invasion robbery that had followed "series of violent crimes in the University District." I moved out of Seattle several years ago, partly due to crime. Yet SPD chooses to direct significant resources at sex between consenting adults.

I realize social conservatives will argue that it is sinful, and deservedly illegal. And others argue that as long as it's illegal, police must enforce the law. However, I once read in the old Journal American (before it became the King County Journal, and then went belly-up) that collecting rainwater is technically illegal in Washington. But they noted that the law was little-enforced, and that those with rain-barrels need not fear a visit from SWAT. Prostitution ought to lie in that same category. We should arrest the first pot smoker, prostitute, or rain-barrel owner only after the last mugger, burglar, and car-thief is arrested and jailed.