Chicago Offers Pimps Free Ad Space

Kerry Howley | June 23, 2005

Chicago's police department is publishing the photographs, names, and partial addresses of the city's alleged johns and pimps on a public site. The Web site (which tactfully reminds us that the humiliated men are "presumed innocent") is apparently not part of the "Choose Chicago" tourism pitch, but an attempt to "out" offenders and clean up Chi-town so its residents can continue to wallow in the prairie mudhole unblemished by the louche impulses of their friends and neighbors. Money quote:

And despite the public humiliation factor, Daley said the city's effort is built on compassion for victims -- starting with the prostitutes themselves -- some 25,000 women selling sex in Chicago over the course of a year.