Writing in response to op-ed pieces by Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk and defense attorney Barry Engle, Pete Colt of Portland offers his street-level view of the issues that surround prostitution.
Here's his lengthy piece:. Just about this time last year I was oblivious to the prostitution, IV syringes, meth deals, and transient camps in my "upscale" neighborhood I felt bad for her so I went to put some money in her purse. Suddenly she bolted upright from obvious fear and I saw that her face had been so badly beaten that she was not recognizable as another human being.
At age 11 during the blackout of in NYC, our friend, the woman who lived in the apartment above ours, was stabbed to death which has, to this day, influenced me to focus on safety.
My paternal instincts drove me to stop, forget about anything else, and get this victim to emergency care, but she was having a post traumatic panic attack. She couldn't move, and so I sat with her and soothed her and built trust. After what seemed like hours, she sobbed that she had been grabbed by the transients who had been allowed to set up camp on Trinity's property; these transients had been shooting up drugs and drinking all night and, with the pack mentality of dogs, in the darkest corner of the property, and under the cover of the overgrown hydrangea shrubs, she was repeatedly gang raped and repeatedly gang beaten all night long.
What has this got to do with prostitution? Life never happens in a vacuum. Crime feeds crime. In this past year since that morning, I've spent countless breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night, and early morning hours walking the same streets the prostitutes walk in my neighborhood watching, learning, reporting -- did I say learning?
