Craigslist's Shame

Why should craigslist take down the erotic personals section of their site? I have been asking myself this question for several days. I know instinctively it is the right thing for them to do but why? What makes what craigslist is doing any different than the free magazines on the street or the personals in the newspapers that advertise sex for sale? Or even the girls on the streets offering it in person? Probably nothing at first glance. At second glance, a lot of things.

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Crimes connected to users of craigslist is not a new phenomenon. Since 2007, when crime blogger Trench Reynolds at Crime News began chronically all the different types of crimes connected to activity on Craigslist, he has posted over 500 times on that topic. If you have been following murder of Julissa Brisman you will have seen him being interviewed on 48 Hours and CNN. Everything from scams to rapes to murder-for-hire have been connected to craigslist and Trench is the one who knows all about it.

Unless you are follow the crime blogs, you have most likely never read about most of those crimes. Much of the media has glossed over them, mentioning them only in passing. Until now. Our worst collective nightmare has come to life again. The young, "good looking, fair haired, comes from a good family, studying to be a doctor, is engaged to a beautiful fair haired girl" guy is suspected of hunting women on craigslist, robbing them and killing one. Yes, now we are listening, now we are reading, now we all know what can happen at craigslist. We ask for craigslist to respond to our questions about their part in all of it. And they deny their part. They try to dumb us down by telling us what we know to be true isn't.

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Craigslist's CEO, Jim Buckmaster says that no part of the website is sex related. How can he possibly say that? Does he really think we are not on top of this now or has all the money he's making clouded his definition of what is sex related? Oh, but wait... They have come up with a way, they say, to control that section of their site, to make sure only "legitimate" escort services and massage parlors can run ads. In November 2008, craigslist started charging $5.00 to place an erotic ad and says that the cost has already brought down the number of posts the site has received for those types of services. Is that really their only solution? These girls claim to be making be a lot of money through their ads so what's the big deal about having to spend $5.00? Supposedly the big deal is that the girls will not want to provide the necessary information needed to post their ads. I checked out my local craigslist site today and it seems the ads are still going strong, with or without the fee and additional user info. And who is in charge of researching whether or not these businesses are legit? Well, no one it would seem. According to craigslist, their site is self policed. I strongly doubt the predators lurking about the site are policing anything any more than the girls trying to make a living are. And now that craigslist has a new stream of income directly from those ads, you can be sure they aren't coming down any time soon.

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Any other business conducting themselves this way would have been shut down a long time ago. Even the City of Chicago has had enough and has brought suit against craigslist for their unwillingness to do anything to stop this source of prostitution and have even gone so far as to say it it the largest source of prostitution in our country.

Craigslist offers a free service to the public and we all know we like free. Except, in reality it isn't free at all. The crimes committed that are connected to this website costs us all in tax payer dollars through police involvement but more importantly, they hurt our psyche. In the name of free do we sit by and allow craigslist to continue to do business as normal? It seems thus far, we have. The time has come for that to stop, for us send the message that their business practices are no longer acceptable. Craigslist ads may be free but they are making money on all those free ads. Do not forget for one minute that we control their purse strings. Without a public willing to post on their site, they have no business at all.

The call to boycott Craigslist is not about trying to stop prostitution. It is not about telling adults what they can or cannot do. It is about stopping the “largest single source of prostitution in our nation”. It is about calling Craigslist out on their lies. It is about telling a business they no longer have the support of the public in their willingness to provide a free platform for illegal enterprises. It is about draining the pond predators can easily and freely fish in. It is about cleaning up a public cesspool.

Jennifer Willams has started a national campain to force craigslist to shut down their eroctic sites. At her ThePoint.com site she says this about it:

"Mission:
To strongly encourage Craigslist to close down sections of their site that are known to frequently feature ads for illegal activities, particularly the Erotic Services section, through the non-violent mechanism of boycotting.

We, as a collective voice and through the use of our “dollar-vote” are choosing to support other similar communities who take more effort to foster an environment where crime is discouraged, rather than condoned through feigned ignorance and turning a blind eye."

To read more and to join her national effort to get 500,000 people to boycott craigslist, please visit her site here at The Point or simply click on the button at the top of my sidebar.



If you are looking for an alternative to Craigslist, geebo.com offers an on line classified ad site that does police and does not support illegal activities..