OAKLAND: City promises billboard fame to shame 'johns'

[LVT]

OAKLAND
City promises billboard fame to shame 'johns'
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, February 25, 2005


Buy sex from a hooker in Oakland, and you may lose your car and see your picture plastered on a billboard or bus shelter.

That's the warning city and police officials sounded Thursday as they initiated a new "shaming campaign" to crack down on prostitution in the city's Fruitvale district.

The program will include surveillance cameras erected by merchants along busy International Boulevard, where residents say the blatant prostitution trade has hurt business. Videotapes of those soliciting prostitutes will be handed over to Oakland police and Alameda County prosecutors.

Customers -- known as johns -- convicted of soliciting prostitution could see their visages featured prominently on billboards and at bus stops, officials said at a news conference at a park at 35th Avenue and International Boulevard.

"You will be shamed," said Mario Juarez, 27, who owns Fireside Realty and Mortgage on International Boulevard where a camera will be installed. "We are open for business, and we are closed to criminals."

more...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/25/BAG4DBGN951.DTL

[davidinalameda]

1. I'm in that neighborhood every day

I use the Fruitvale BART station

I've never noticed hookers but then again, I'm not out looking for them