Sex workers protest arrest of Backpage CEO
A woman wearing a white rabbit mask screamed, “Stay out of my underwear” at passersby outside the Earl Warren Building near the Civic Center in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Arrest warrants for two Backpage controlling shareholders, Michael Lacey, 68, and James Larkin, 67, were also issued on conspiracy charges.
Sex workers who use the website to market their services aren’t happy with the arrest of Ferrer and say state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is running for U.S. Senate, is violating their constitutional rights of free speech by cracking down on Backpage.
“Do they really want us back on the streets?” said Maxine Doogan, president of the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project, who was at the protest.
From 2011 to 2015, there was a 98 percent increase in child sex trafficking reports, said Staca Shehan, executive director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal,” Harris said in a statement.
[...] sex workers are worried the next step following Ferrer’s arrest is shutting down the adult services section on the site, West added.