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Men from as far away as Orlando, FL charged with soliciting Mass and Cass prostitutes who turned out to be undercover cops

A Boston Police officer and a state trooper posing as prostitutes Tuesday night into Wednesday snared 13 men who tried to pick them up for sex at Mass and Cass - offering to pay in either cash or drugs - the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

While several reside in Boston neighborhoods, others list home addresses in Malden, Medford, Randolph, New Bedford and Orlando, Florida.

Only one of the men was actually taken into custody on the charge of soliciting a prostitute, after police discovered he had an outstanding warrant - for failing to show up in Dorchester court on a charge of violating an abuse prevention order and of breaking and entering. The rest were given summonses for later arraignments on the charge of soliciting a prostitute, the DA's office says.

According to the DA's office:

During the overnight hours Tuesday into Wednesday morning, officers from the Boston Police Department Human Trafficking Unit, the Boston Police Department Crimes Against Children Unit, the Boston Police Street Outreach Unit, the Massachusetts State Police High-Risk Victims Unit and Arlington Police Department conducted an undercover operation to reduce the demand for commercial sexual exploitation. During the operation, an undercover BPD officer and Massachusetts State Trooper posed as trafficking victims working as sex workers in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. A total of 13 men agreed to provide cash or drugs in return for sexual acts from an undercover officers for prostitution. The men range in age 25 to 64.

This is not the first time law enforcement has gone after men as either johns or pimps at Mass and Cass.

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Comments

Legalize It. Tax It. Mandate Testing.

Who is the government to tell legal consenting adults what they can or cannot do with their bodies.

One of the oldest trades known to man. It's never going away. Complete waste of taxpayer dollars.

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I don't think the kinds of customers going to Mass & Cass to pay for sex are looking for clean, tested, regulated and taxed sex workers. They are likely looking for women who are easy to exploit for short money because of such chronic issues as homelessness and substance abuse.

Even if we legalize and regulate, we will still had to address the creeps who prey on the most vulnerable members of our society.

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According to the article the women are not consenting adults.

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How does one pose as a trafficking victim?

Does that require the undercover officers to say certain things? Does that change the crime?

Or is this an example of sensationalist writing by law enforcement to try to address the reactions like the first comment?

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I also wonder how undercover operations like this actually "reduce demand for commercial sexual exploitation"

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Just a guess, but maybe they had an Asian woman or someone else who used a foreign accent. Obviously girls who grew up in the US of any ethnicity end up being trafficked too, but there's a stereotype of foreign women being in that realm so maybe that's what they're trying to say.

I don't think it makes a difference to the facts and it's a weird thing to say, but maybe they were trying to give additional details about the sting but with a deaf ear towards political correctness.

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The fact that the Vice Squad is now called Human Trafficking Unit is just different letter-heads on the same old problem.

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Human trafficking is real, but it's very often overstated in service to ideology. To the extent human trafficking is happening in the USA, it's hidden and not on the streets.

Promoting the idea of pervasive human trafficking supports the enactment of the "Nordic model" of prosecuting prostitution advocated by feminists and progressives.

The Nordic model only prosecutes (male) clients and pimps, while prostitutes are treated as victims without agency.

Observations from many years in the Boston criminal courts:

Streetwalkers are always addicts. It's pretty simple: they prostitute themselves for drugs and money to buy drugs. Most are independent actors, they just go out when they need money for drugs.
First offenses usually dismissed upon attendance in a safe sex class and STD testing at Project Trust. Subsequent offenses face an escalating series of sanctions, usually beginning with probation with outpatient then inpatient drug treatment programs. Only after several arrests and probation failures will a custodial sentence at the House of Correction be imposed. This can save some of their lives, by providing a detox period and getting them off the dangerous streets. Custodial sentence is often coupled with probation with drug treatment

Common streetwalking / nightwalking and street prostitution are public order offenses. They disrupt neighborhoods, attract various types of criminals. I can't forget the story in the Globe about prostitution in Chinatown which included a bit about neighborhood children playing with a used condom. There are other "zones" in Boston in which streetwalkers roam besides Mass and Cass and downtown.

Discreet escorts plying their trade through the internet and in private apartments are almost never investigated with undercover police or prosecuted. Only saw one in ten+ years.

I've seen classic "The Mack" type of pimps and crews of streetwalkers a couple of times. A team of a pimp and 4-5 women will travel from city to city. If arrested, usually will be released on personal recognizance due to no local record and never be seen again. If not, pimp will have bail money. Identification and identity of these people often an issue - who are they?
Is this human trafficking or a business partnership?

In the past, Boston Police and the DA would go out of their way to publicize, publicly shame those men arrested for soliciting a prostitute out of all proportion to the nature of the offense. They didn't do it for robberies, assaults and batteries, etc. In this case, they only named the one guy who already had a warrant and probation, which is good. Do you really want to cause suicides?

Women police officers working as bait are facing a double whammy of stress: it's dangerous and it's objectifying or even humiliating.

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I remember reading about an effort to fight prostitution where they would publish the names of the johns in the paper (I think it was The Brockton Enterprise). The idea being that men would stop trying to pick up prostitutes because of the increased risk of public embarrassment.

One of the men (inevitably) committed suicide over the humiliation. There was a small story in the same paper reporting on the event, but it did not publish his name because the newspaper had a policy of not printing the name of those who committed suicide in order to protect the privacy of the family.

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Arrest these predators seize their vehicles,suspend their drivers licenses and publicize their names.

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The guys soliciting on Mass and Cass are predators. Please let’s post their names.

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1) This is your opinion, not a fact. 2) These were adult human beings looking to exchange money/goods for services.

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And a few STDs.

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I just want to set the record straight. I thought the cop was a prostitute.

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