Robert Kraft Sting: What were the police thinking? They are just as guilty as the john's!

[getagrip_already]

Ok, so it appears the sting operation the police ran went on for up to 8 months. The johns weren't arrested on the spot. The cops used hidden cameras to catch them, and then circled back months later and arrested them at the close of the operation. They didn't want word to get out.

Very effective. Except for one thing.

If underage girls or exploited woman were being forced to work (the charges of sex trafficing alleges this), why did the police let this continue for so long?

They just re-exploited the sex workers.

Eight months? How many new workers showed up in that time? How many workers were transfered to another jurisdiction trapping them for years of further abuse?

The police are just as guilty as the john's if this true.

[msongs]

1. well if we clean up crime we dont need all those expensive police and courts nt

[getagrip_already]

3. yeah, it just seems to me that...

if the objective is to protect the woman, they should just be shutting these places down. If the woman don't want to be doing that, give them a new path.

You could close every spa in days if you gave the woman a new life. If there goal was to protect woman and stop trafficing, that would seem to be a much better solution.

[PTWB]

2. It's a tough call to balance the need to investigate and the need to intervene

Definitely not shoes I would want to be in.

[ChicagoRonin]

4. No offense, but this is standard operating procedure for dealing with sort of criminal activity

It's awful, but when you're trying to bust an entire criminal organization, network or conspiracy, it takes ages to build up enough evidence. And a lot of that involves letting the criminals continue about their business while their activities are monitored and recorded.

A lot of fictional and true crime stories dealing with deep investigations (particularly undercover work) address the very quandary you described. It becomes emotionally taxing to cops who sometimes stand by as people are intimidated, beaten, abused or even killed just so they can collect evidence.

[getagrip_already]

5. maybe...

Not saying you are wrong, but leo's almost never allow harm to minors to continue during an ongoing investigation.

This looks like their goal was a convicted body count, not stopping trafficking.

A month, maybe. 8 months? Seems excessive. They didn't need to run it that long to charge the operators and free the workers.

Just saying how it looks.

[Kaleva]

6. It can take months to take down a pedophile ring.

If the police go in quickly, maybe one or a few pedophiles are picked up but the rest go and continue being predators.

[getagrip_already]

7. yes, but that is because...

it takes months to strip away the secrecy and hidden identities. Also, they are usually looking for the bigger fish. In many cases, they will just assume the identity of a lower level target - having thrown them in jail and protecting the kids involved.

I've worked with an unamed organization in nyc that did just that. They have petabytes of seized images they would use to continue to try to lure out targets, but they would always take out targets if they thought a child was at risk. Once they assumed the identity, they just kept going as though they were the target.

Since most of these people don't actually know each other, it is easy to do.

But in this case, they never went up the chain or at least they didn't give any info they did. They had no reason to keep going other than increasing the arrest count.

[Kaleva]

8. A very large arrest count takes many predators off the street.

Go in quickly and just a few on scene get arrested and a few girls get saved but in the long run, the majority of predators are not apprehended and are free to prey on a larger number of underage girls.

Just my opinion. Just glad I'm not the one who had to decide.

[getagrip_already]

12. well, there is that..

but I doubt any of these went there for underage woman. Not that they checked id's. But I don't see these guys as pedophile predators.

But I've followed a lot of these stings. I almost never see them find under age workers. They are usually 25-45. Really, a lot of middle aged workers get picked up.

So maybe this was all about the arrest count and they knew no under age workers were at risk? That doesn't explain the captive workers who weren't under aged.

I'm sure a lot of south florida residents are having a bad weekend...... So there is that.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Yeah, they totally should have called SWAT and done the bust on day one

so all the financial and trafficking connections could have vanished in the wind...

[getagrip_already]

10. just out of curiousity...

What financial and trafficking connections got busted?

I'm willing to listen, I just don't see any evidence of it. The only people they announced were arrested were the operators of the spas, some of the woman who worked there (very few), and the john''s.

They didn't seize any bank accounts. No international warrants. They didn't even announce any "kingpin" arrests. Just the equivelan of a few small business owners and burger flippers.

I don't care about the number of john's. Could be 1500 for all I care. What I don't get is why did they leave the workers at risk?

[Blue_Tires]

11. I'm thinking this is an "ongoing investigation"?

But I could be wrong...

[getagrip_already]

14. not a secret anymore...

so why not at least say so? Never met a prosecutor who didn't like to fluff up their investigations when they could.

Nothing reported here though.

[Blue_Tires]

15. Maybe we should let the story play out for 24-36 hours and THEN see?

[getagrip_already]

17. fair enuf...

But outside of kraft and any bigger names, this story will be gone in 2 days......

Just what happens to these.

[DontBooVote]

13. WHY ARE YOU here attempting to delegitimize the work of LEOs??? This is a tactic! This issue is not

an unknown feature of law enforcement investigations and your commentary is designed to undermine credibility in that work getting done and criminal organizations being held accountable.

There's a certain criminal organization that right this minute, and every single minute of every day, trying to delegitimize and undermine our government and its institutions and trying to shake the confidence of The People in those same agencies and institutions.

What is the meaning of this? Am I detecting an accent in your writing?

[getagrip_already]

16. oh noze!! I'm criticizing law enforcement?

Say what?

This isn't the muehler investigation. This is a local leo operation that was run off the rails.

Look, law enforcement isn't perfect. We can criticize it when they appear to do something wrong.

What are you even ranting about?

Can't we even discuss it civily?

[DontBooVote]

18. I said what I have to say. If juried, they will make a judgement. I read what you said. Good Day!

[getagrip_already]

19. you aren't worth a jury...

Just curious what your issue is. Sounds pretty authoritarian to me.

[getagrip_already]

23. you are a sad person.....

I'll stack my posting history against your any day. Project much?

[DontBooVote]

24. Do you comprehend the English language? I said "Good day!" Say it with me, now: Good...day!

[A-Schwarzenegger]

25. it's got to be a parody

[treestar]

20. Criticizing from lack of knowledge is not helpful

and can be unreasonable criticism. Merely because something is criticism does not make it sacred.

[getagrip_already]

26. I humbly disagree...

A discussion is not a criticism. A criticism is not an attack.

I am criticizing, to me, what appears to be an excessive length of time to allow a victim crime to continue. So far, there is no evidence provided that the length of time netted anything except more arrests.

If that was the goal, ok, but why justify it as a human trafficking investigation?

It's a legitimate question me thinks.

[treestar]

31. People in the field actually doing it likely experience a lot of pressure

over that, including the pressure to get the big guys so the whole thing stops. I bet they would think it is too easy for you to just say they are taking too long. They may be working hard on it and coming across many challenges and obstructions. It can involve detail that you can't imagine.

[IcyPeas]

21. did you ever watch "The Wire"

the detective unit wanted to get the big players, but the city government wanted the cops to arrest the kids on the street corners selling and using small amounts of drugs because it made their numbers look good--they could point to the arrest numbers and say, see we are doing something. that just creates a revolving door because there will always be more expendable and exploited kids.

great series.

[rockfordfile]

27. Kraft is sleazy just like trump.

[stonecutter357]

28. lol fail !

[dewsgirl]

29. I live on the Treasure Coast, one of these massage parlors,is almost directly across the street from

our police station. There were stings, throughout the entire Treasure Coast, which includes, Indian River County, St.Lucie County and Martin County.
Our tax advisor last night, as we were discussing the story and assuming higher ups in local government are involved. She said "Oh you'll be surprised how high up this will go". I'm not really into local politics, assumed that local government what she meant. I am now beginning to think she knew something.

[ghostsinthemachine]

30. In a weird way

You are right.