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Attorneys General Ramp Up Misguided Attacks On Craigslist
from the it-ain't-the-tool dept
This should come as no surprise at all, but following the mad rush to blame Craigslist for the fact that a psychopath used the site to find women to murder, various Attorneys General are falsely trying to pin some blame on Craigslist and get it to take actions that won't help at all. Both Illinois' Attorney General and Connecticut's Attorney General (who has a history of wrongly blaming Craigslist) are calling for the site to shutter the "erotic services" section.
If you don't think too much, you can see why people might think this makes sense. After all, some of the services being offered on those sites are illegal. But does that mean that those actions stop once Craigslist stops accepting those ads? Of course not. As we saw last year when Craigslist was pressured into restricting that section, those who are in the market for erotic services simply move elsewhere, and in scattering them around, it actually makes it that much more difficult for law enforcement to monitor the activity and stop it from happening. We've pointed to a few examples of police actively using Craigslist as a tool to track down lawbreakers. It's hard to understand why these Attorneys General are trying to take that tool away from the police. Craigslist cooperates with law enforcement, and gives law enforcement an easy way to track and deal with illegal activity. Shutting down parts of Craigslist doesn't help. It doesn't stop the illegal activity -- it just makes it that much harder to track and stop.
If you don't think too much, you can see why people might think this makes sense. After all, some of the services being offered on those sites are illegal. But does that mean that those actions stop once Craigslist stops accepting those ads? Of course not. As we saw last year when Craigslist was pressured into restricting that section, those who are in the market for erotic services simply move elsewhere, and in scattering them around, it actually makes it that much more difficult for law enforcement to monitor the activity and stop it from happening. We've pointed to a few examples of police actively using Craigslist as a tool to track down lawbreakers. It's hard to understand why these Attorneys General are trying to take that tool away from the police. Craigslist cooperates with law enforcement, and gives law enforcement an easy way to track and deal with illegal activity. Shutting down parts of Craigslist doesn't help. It doesn't stop the illegal activity -- it just makes it that much harder to track and stop.
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Makes as much sense as
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health
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health
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Re: health
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The AGs aren't dumb
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Hmm...
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“Today a man shot six people on the crosstown bus, got a transfer, and shot six people on the downtown bus. In order to prevent this from happening in the future, authorities are discontinuing the transfer system.”
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damned if you do damned if you don't
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Re:
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Re: health
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Re: Re: health
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Re: Re: Re: health
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Re: damned if you do damned if you don't
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Re: Re: health
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Craigslist has to go because it's FREE
Even just repeating "Craigslist Killer" over and over again might put a dent in Craigslist. It's like brainwashing or something - just keep repeating something and people will believe it, and without realizing it, will start associating "Craigslist" with "killer." I have seen so many headlines this week, with those two words together, it's almost like they're trying to make a brand name out of it!!
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It's a distraction.
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