Massage Parlors Busted

[RiverDog]

No, this isn't about DeShawn Watson or Robert Kraft. It's a local story right here in my hometown:

A Tacoma man suspected of sex trafficking is listed as the owner of as many as 13 massage parlors across the state, including four in Kennewick. Linhui Yan, 60, is the owner of the Clearwater Avenue storefront raided by Kennewick police and federal agents Wednesday morning, according to court documents. It’s unclear if the other three businesses are still operating. The Clearwater Avenue business was targeted for a search after a visit by an undercover officer in February, according to the documents. He said he was greeted by a woman who at first gave him a massage and then offered sex acts. It was part of a 7-month investigation led by the Wenatchee-based Columbia River Drug Task Force.

Investigators believe they trafficked in women from outside of the country, who were required to live inside the business storefront and Yan would bring them weeks-worth of groceries at a time to live on.

Read more at: https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/loc ... rylink=cpy

There's more in that article about the conditions the women were forced to work in.

I'm not sure why it took this long to bust this guy. For decades, it's been a well known fact that many, if not most, massage parlors are nothing more than a front for prostitution. There's tons of blatant red flags that a moron could see, including explicit ads on the internet and way more massage parlors than what normal business could support as there's at least 10 of them in the Clearwater corridor here in Kennewick.

The big issue here is human trafficking and forced prostitution. I can understand closing a blind eye to the prostitution aspect. After all, the cops have more to do than pursuing misdemeanor crimes involving consensual sex. But common sense would lead one to suspect that the women were brought into the country and forced to work in these rub-and-tug joints. Most of the women are Asian, many not able to speak passable English. Aren't they supposed to have a license to practice? How did they get into the country? They certainly didn't swim the Rio Grande.

Rather than worrying about illegal immigrants that work in the fields trying to earn enough money to send back to their families or these folks that are running away from the drug gangs in Central America, our border control efforts need to be more focused on human trafficking. Rather than spending billions on Trump's hideous border wall, we need focus our efforts on ports of entry.

[Aseahawkfan]

Dirty business. Desperate girls being sold into prostitution to escape poverty.

What do you do? You want Universal basic income and socialized healthcare so everyone gets taken care of you want to leave it as a work for what you get world where lots of people fall in the cracks?

[RiverDog]

Dirty business. Desperate girls being sold into prostitution to escape poverty.

What do you do? You want Universal basic income and socialized healthcare so everyone gets taken care of you want to leave it as a work for what you get world where lots of people fall in the cracks?

The girls aren't necessarily 'escaping poverty'. Most of the women in these massage parlors around here are Asian immigrants and are here illegally, lured to this country with false promises. They'll come through a port of entry legally as a visitor then overstay their visa. It isn't streetwalker/hooker type prostitution that's more closely associated with drugs and poverty. They're the victims of an international human trafficking business.

They need to take a closer look at this massage industry. If you haven't read the article I posted in the OP, please take a moment to do so. In it, they note how some of these women are being housed and confined in these businesses as they've observed dishes and groceries being taken into them. Some are open 24/7 and nearly all advertised as being open until 10pm. How many legitimate massages are given at 10pm? It's so damn obvious that it shouldn't be too hard for LE to crack down on them. I don't want to see them go after their clients or the girls that are here legally and are willing participants for misdemeanor stuff like prostitution and solicitation, but this human trafficking problem needs to be addressed.

It's a problem that's going on nationwide. If it's this rampant where I live, in relatively sparsely populated eastern Washington, you know that it's at least as active of a problem in the bigger cities. Indeed, some of these websites host advertisements from tens of thousands of these illicit businesses spread across every state in the union.

It's one of the reasons why I'm completely opposed to people like AOC who want to abolish ICE as well as the Trump supporters that want to close down the border entirely and shoot anyone attempting to cross. I don't want to see ICE chasing down workers in the orchards and vineyards unless there's some other crime that's involved, but they need to go after these rub and tug joints.

[Aseahawkfan]

The girls aren't necessarily 'escaping poverty'. Most of the women in these massage parlors around here are Asian immigrants and are here illegally, lured to this country with false promises. They'll come through a port of entry legally as a visitor then overstay their visa. It isn't streetwalker/hooker type prostitution that's more closely associated with drugs and poverty. They're the victims of an international human trafficking business.

They need to take a closer look at this massage industry. If you haven't read the article I posted in the OP, please take a moment to do so. In it, they note how some of these women are being housed and confined in these businesses as they've observed dishes and groceries being taken into them. Some are open 24/7 and nearly all advertised as being open until 10pm. How many legitimate massages are given at 10pm? It's so damn obvious that it shouldn't be too hard for LE to crack down on them. I don't want to see them go after their clients or the girls that are here legally and are willing participants for misdemeanor stuff like prostitution and solicitation, but this human trafficking problem needs to be addressed.

It's a problem that's going on nationwide. If it's this rampant where I live, in relatively sparsely populated eastern Washington, you know that it's at least as active of a problem in the bigger cities. Indeed, some of these websites host advertisements from tens of thousands of these illicit businesses spread across every state in the union.

It's one of the reasons why I'm completely opposed to people like AOC who want to abolish ICE as well as the Trump supporters that want to close down the border entirely and shoot anyone attempting to cross. I don't want to see ICE chasing down workers in the orchards and vineyards unless there's some other crime that's involved, but they need to go after these rub and tug joints.

The human trafficking problem in America and worldwide is well known. Very evil. Should be taken apart, but won't be because it's happening in so many nations. There may be some women that are not impoverished, but a lot of it is driven by poverty and wealthy folks exploiting it. It's much like slavery. For some nations they overlook it worldwide as it's considered part of the culture like child brides.

Human trafficking takes many forms. It's child prostitution exploiting runaways. The massage parlors exploiting women trying to come over from Asian nations. Sex trafficking in Eastern Europe. Child brothels in Thailand. Girls taken in Latina America and sold as prostitutes to pedophiles. The list is endless and foul.

I'd be ok with the death penalty for these people, but the left is just insistent that even one wrong person killed is somehow worse than all the evil human traffickers, child molesters, child killers, mass shooters, serial killers, and the like cause. I don't agree myself, but I guess we'll have to sit by why they evil people do this then jail them and let them sit in prison like Maxwell or Epstein or Manson. And the wealthy folks that get away with it run off scot free.

That seems to be the world we live in now: lots of sympathy and excuses for soft punishments on criminals and lots of ignoring and forgetting about the victims after the criminal who has been doing the wrong for 40 years is caught.

Not sure how to fix it, but ICE doesn't seem to be stopping much of it considering if you watch some movies from the 80s this stuff was going on then and likely before then. There is not the resources or will to stop this kind of stuff for some reason. The cynical part of me thinks it is because so many of those in power use such services and thus protect them as wesaw with Epstein and Fleiss and other scandals over the years.

[RiverDog]

The human trafficking problem in America and worldwide is well known. Very evil. Should be taken apart, but won't be because it's happening in so many nations. There may be some women that are not impoverished, but a lot of it is driven by poverty and wealthy folks exploiting it. It's much like slavery. For some nations they overlook it worldwide as it's considered part of the culture like child brides.

Human trafficking takes many forms. It's child prostitution exploiting runaways. The massage parlors exploiting women trying to come over from Asian nations. Sex trafficking in Eastern Europe. Child brothels in Thailand. Girls taken in Latina America and sold as prostitutes to pedophiles. The list is endless and foul.

I'd be ok with the death penalty for these people, but the left is just insistent that even one wrong person killed is somehow worse than all the evil human traffickers, child molesters, child killers, mass shooters, serial killers, and the like cause. I don't agree myself, but I guess we'll have to sit by why they evil people do this then jail them and let them sit in prison like Maxwell or Epstein or Manson. And the wealthy folks that get away with it run off scot free.

That seems to be the world we live in now: lots of sympathy and excuses for soft punishments on criminals and lots of ignoring and forgetting about the victims after the criminal who has been doing the wrong for 40 years is caught.

Not sure how to fix it, but ICE doesn't seem to be stopping much of it considering if you watch some movies from the 80s this stuff was going on then and likely before then. There is not the resources or will to stop this kind of stuff for some reason. The cynical part of me thinks it is because so many of those in power use such services and thus protect them as wesaw with Epstein and Fleiss and other scandals over the years.

There's not a single thing in what you've said that I disagree with. My point is that the problem exposed with this bust here in little ole Tri Cities is a more worthy problem for our law enforcement to pursue than some of the 'crimes' that our politicians and a good portion of our citizens are currently focused on with regards to immigration. With very little extra effort or funding, they could make a big difference in a lot of these young women's lives.

The other issue it brings up is the legalization of prostitution. If prostitution were legal, these rub and tug joints wouldn't have a market. It's much like prohibition was back in the 1920's. Making something illegal is going to attract organized crime to fill the void. Plus, legalizing prostitution could help clean up the drug problem, as street walkers wouldn't have a market for them to get their money to buy drugs. Prostitutes in legal brothels can be monitored and licensed, help reduce the spread of STD's, and so on.

[Aseahawkfan]

There's not a single thing in what you've said that I disagree with. My point is that the problem exposed with this bust here in little ole Tri Cities is a more worthy problem for our law enforcement to pursue than some of the 'crimes' that our politicians and a good portion of our citizens are currently focused on with regards to immigration. With very little extra effort or funding, they could make a big difference in a lot of these young women's lives.

The other issue it brings up is the legalization of prostitution. If prostitution were legal, these rub and tug joints wouldn't have a market. It's much like prohibition was back in the 1920's. Making something illegal is going to attract organized crime to fill the void. Plus, legalizing prostitution could help clean up the drug problem, as street walkers wouldn't have a market for them to get their money to buy drugs. Prostitutes in legal brothels can be monitored and licensed, help reduce the spread of STD's, and so on.

Legalization probably would help. Then it would have rules to follow.

I'd love to see law enforcement used for better things than these constant political investigations.