Many of you know I am a city councilman in Macon, GA. In 2007, when I ran for office, the only issue that I really talked about was the proliferation of Asian themed massage parlors in Macon. We had, two years ago, more per capita than either San Francisco or Washington, D.C.
While many people wanted to discuss these spas as they related to prostitution and whether or not it should be legal, I was and ma very concerned that too many of them fit the profile of fronts for human trafficking.
Two years ago, when I got elected to Macon’s city council, I began working on shutting these places down. My life and property were threatened, I had several threats of lawsuits to bankrupt me, but I was not giving up.
Just two weeks ago our local paper told the story of one police raid. A spa “employee” had all the signs of being trafficked. Among those signs are forcing the massagist to sleep at the business, not allowing her to leave the premises unescorted, and shuffling her around to multiple businesses in a short amount of time to avoid regular interaction with regular customers.
We’ve seen that. I’ve been called a religious Nazi, American Taliban, religious fundamentalist, and a puritan.
But tonight, I won. After two years, over 60 arrests, and seeing the number of these businesses dwindle from over 20 to 11, my legislation was finally passed by city council in an 11 to 1 vote.
Today is a very good day.
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Congrats, Erick. I drove through Macon for the first time in 20 years
spainishirish (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 9:53PM EST (link)last week, and had forgotten how much interplay there is between I-75 and this form of bondage. Good job.
Congratulations.
Veronica (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 9:55PM EST (link)You deserve a good rest tonight.
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Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
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Wow, Erick!
4life (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 9:59PM EST (link)Great job! Definitely a fight that needed winning. Hard to believe there was so much opposition – and in the middle of the Bible Belt at that.
Good 4 U Erick
tngal (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:03PM EST (link)Having spent a few years in Gawja (Warner Robbins AFB, Doraville, Chamblee,) I appreciate your desire to “keep it clean”. Now, if you could do something about the traffic, you’d deserve a medal, Haven’t been back since ’79 but recall everyone driving like maniacs. Left in a Greyhound to avoid the confusion.
The furthest I dip down now is Chat’nooga.
Let this be the death knell
CMaree (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:03PM EST (link)of an abhorrent practice in Middle GA. Human trafficker must flee. And perhaps God will again smile and renew Macon.
Congrats, Councilman!
“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Your ordinance
SteveLA (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:04PM EST (link)Erick
What did your ordinance do, or more correctly how does your legislation change the equation? Other cities may be facing the same sort of problem and reading about what your approach to the problem was would be a good thing.
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Competency over ideological purity and litmus tests
Pretty straight forward
Erick Erickson (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:14PM EST (link)If they want to do any tugging, rubbing, pulling, pushing, prodding, prying, scrubbing, cleaning, or rinsing of the body to stimulate blood flow, the business owner has to live in county, the massagists have to comply with state law, and any incidents of prostitution on the premises will have the business’s privilege license revoked and the owner will not be allowed to get a new one.
Who will stand on either hand and keep this bridge with me?Follow @EWErickson
I like that
SteveLA (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 11:05PM EST (link)I’m a fan of going after businesses by means of the conditions of business license. Even more a a fan of cities demanding that all businesses who have a license in the city are using the eVerify system to check employees for legal status to be working in the city, but I’ll save that rant for the appropriate blog.
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Competency over ideological purity and litmus tests
Well done, Erick (nt)
RedBeard Tuesday, May 4th at 10:17PM EST (link)Standard-bearer for grouchy curmudgeonry since, oh, 1975 or so.
Well done, Erick...
feedyouradhd (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:20PM EST (link)Two years is a long time to fight for something. You deserve your victory.
Come on, they were just doing jobs Americans wouldn't do
phxg (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:22PM EST (link)That’s one in the win column.
Now to fix that dog euthanasia problem at the pound.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. –Aristotle
Nice job Erick
WoodstockRedCat Tuesday, May 4th at 10:28PM EST (link)Way to remain patient, congrats.
Erick as an example.
acat (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:33PM EST (link)One we could all follow.
Pick an issue. Get involved. *STAY* involved.
When conservatives win, there’s a tendency to say “Job’s done, goin’ back to the family business now”. We need to, as Erick, did, stay and fight, stay and govern.
Thank you, sir, and congratulations on a long but victorious slog.
Mew
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“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Soooooo
Darin_H (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 10:47PM EST (link)“Today Finished with a Happy Ending” was the first draft of the headline, right? Right?
Anyways, congrats Erick. Too many people turn a blind eye to sex slavery under the guise of “it’s not hurting anyone” belief that it’s a consensual relationship.
A visionary coward says that anger can be power, as long as there’s a victim on TV – Flat Top, Goo Goo Dolls
So Erick I have to ask...
mbecker908 (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 11:00PM EST (link)Who was the “one”. I think I know but I can’t remember the name.
Matthew 25:23
Uma Richie (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 11:13PM EST (link)Well done! Thank you for your persistence. Thank you for making the world a little bit safer for my daughters. And please thank your wife on my behalf for standing by you through the threats and slurs to allow you to be the man God needs you to be.
Congrats Erick!!
Susannah (Diary) Tuesday, May 4th at 11:43PM EST (link)Good job!!
X0X0, Suzi
How rewarding
pac_NY (Diary) Wednesday, May 5th at 1:28AM EST (link)to see a right fight won, and thanks to you Erick, your persistence let you be victorious in overcoming at least some of the evil forces that surround our society.
Congratulations and God bless you.
He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke. -Psalm 104:32
Well done indeed, Erick
CincoSolas_del_Bronx (Diary) Wednesday, May 5th at 2:50AM EST (link)Frequently the biggest battles have to be won right at home.
Those dreading urbanization should remember that though the Kingdom of God first appeared in a temporal Garden, at the end of the book it is established in an eternal City. (paraphrase, James M. Boice)
soli Deo gloria
Great job Erick!
Lloyd Davis (Diary) Wednesday, May 5th at 4:01AM EST (link)This shows what a person can do if they are willing to fight and not give up.
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No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
- Ronald Reagan
Great work Erick
Kentucky Scott (Diary) Wednesday, May 5th at 6:36AM EST (link)I have driven the I-75 route many times through Georgia and always wondered why the state was ignoring obvious prostitution. Now I know there are leaders who recognize the “slavery” that was taking place in the community and have taken steps to bring it to the end. You are doing God’s work in one small community but most importantly showing the rest of the country how one person is making a difference.
The really amazing thing...
kowalski (Diary) Wednesday, May 5th at 7:48PM EST (link)The really amazing thing apart from your determination to see it end, is that New York might yet forgive Eliot Spitzer and reelect him to something.
He’s staging his political comeback and you’re the one who gets the threats.
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