On April 30th 2015, Honolulu Police, along with FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, initiated a sting at known Honolulu brothels and arrested the female victims of prostitution.

Alarmingly, the women were charged with Sex Assault in the 4th degree which carries a prison term of up to 1 year and mandatory registration as a sex offender, which if convicted, would destroy these women's lives. 

Several women, aged 24 to 56, are foreign nationals and could face deportation. If these women are mothers, or will be, maintaining custody would be challenging with a sex offender label on their records. It also may affect these women getting legitimate jobs.

These sex assault charges not only exemplify an abuse of power by law enforcement, it clarifies the HPD's clear intent to criminalize women and children trapped in prostitution/sex-trafficking.

KNOW THE FACTS
1) To imply, through these sex assault arrests that it is the women/girls who commit sex assault, as if it were the johns/customers who are victimized, is absolutely unjust and fundamentally corrupt.

2) The women/girls do not "force" themselves upon their customers. The women/girls are themselves forced to please their customers or face retaliation from their traffickers which includes beatings, forced starvation, and rape.

3) According to the arrest logs, all addresses where these women were arrested were at known brothels. If a male customer chooses to enter into these establishments, he does so knowing what he will be getting for his money. So the element of "compulsion" defined in the sex assault law is not present.

4) To establish these offenses as a strategy against the rise of prostitution and sex-trafficking goes against all best practices to combat these crimes against women and destroys the trust advocate agencies had with Honolulu law enforcement, who sit on the same federally funded task force together (Hawaii Coalition Against Human Trafficking).

5) Make no mistake that these actions by Honolulu police are meant to oppress these victimized women/girls and to "keep them in their place" NOT to combat real crime e.g. sex trafficking and promoting prostitution. To effectively combat these crimes, criminalize the buyers (johns), the traffickers, and the brothel owners/land holders. 

Drop these abusive charges against the women in prostitution immediately. These charges embarrass local law enforcement and send a message to any victim that law enforcement is not a source of help to attain justice. 

PRESS

Hawaii News Now - May 5th 2015 - HPD arrests more than a dozen women in massage parlor prostitution sting
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/28978144/hpd-arrest-more-than-dozen-women-in-massage-parlor-prostitution-sting

Huffington Post - Associated Press - May 6th 2015 - Women Charged With Sexual Assault In Honolulu Prostitution Sting
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/06/honolulu-police-prostitution-sting_n_7227518.html

Hawaii Public Radio - The Conversation - May 7th 2015 - Massage Parlor Sting
http://hpr2.org/post/massage-parlor-sting-rosie-reunion-weekly-update-neal-conan-portuguese-festa