Long story. We received an alert from an ally that the #Jacksonville @fbi office had found an email warning folks that there was gonna be a sting during operation cross country, the infamous USA effort to arrest consenting adults under the guise of #sextrafficking

And wouldn’t you know, they found the email on the phone of a grown woman they arrested for prostitution. In Jacksonville. During operation cross country. No big surprise there.

Then they passed the email forward to every law enforcement agency in the southeast telling them that we provide resources for incarcerated #sexworkers. And there are a couple of things we want our community - and the @FBI to know.

First off. It’s not helpful to arrest consenting adults while purporting to find #sextrafficking victims. We’ve been over this several times folks. https://www.google.com/amp/s/reason.com/2017/10/18/fbi-operation-cross-country-xi/%3famp

“On Wednesday, federal officials announced the end of this round of stings on "pimps, prostitutes, and their customers," insisting that their "primary goal is to recover children." We call bullshit.

Secondly. We will continue to provide safety and health information to our community and #harmreduction principles dictate that helping people stay safe includes being arrested by you clowns. Especially when you let predators hunt us like animals and do nothing to protect us.

And lastly- for now - if you want to “help us”, start with #listentosexworkers and let us tell you how to catch actual predators that exploit women and children while you leave marginalized communities to fend for themselves and target people of color with fewer resources.

To our community - There is gonna be a lot of information and statements coming out about this - and you can review ways to stay safe during a police encounter by using #knowyourrights practices. Which are as follows.

Here’s why you should know about how #Knowyourrights training helps #sexworkers navigate encounters with #LawEnforcement. It’s easy just to know your rights in your head but it’s a lot harder to put into practice.

If you have arrived in an out call and thought that everything was ok but it turned out to be a sting - try to remember not to say anything. #remainsilent. They will try to get you to talk and incriminate yourself which makes for a very easy prosecution.

The very instant you find out that you are in the midst of #lawenforcement stay out loud “I wish to #remainsilent and I would like to speak to a lawyer”. Many times they will gang up on you and ask you several questions that wants to try and confuse you. Don’t fall for it!

You do not have to answer their questions but every time they ask you a question or talked to each other, reaffirm the statement “I wish to #remainsilent I would like to speak to a lawyer”

If you refuse to talk, they will have very little evidence to present to the district attorney to prosecute you and there’s a good chance that your charges could be dropped. Some people have reported there charges were dropped at first appearance the next day.

Remember that even if you asked to speak to a lawyer, it doesn’t mean that the lawyer is going to appear anytime soon. The first time you see a lawyer might be at your first appearance before the judge the next morning. There will be a public defender at the arraignment

In this scenario, they DO have “reasonable suspicion” to believe that you are committing a crime so they have every right to search your bag, your person and your car. But you can still say “I do not consent to the search”. Don’t forget to repeat I wish to remain silent often

The judge has the option of releasing you on your own recognizance which means he’s going to let you go without posting a bond and trust that you will show up for a court date at a later time.

A bond for a prostitution related charge can be anywhere from $500-$1500. You can post a cash bond or you can call a bail bondsman and he will bond you out for 10 to 15% of the requested bail. It is very difficult to find a bondsman that will write a bond on a prostitution charge

A bondsman will often ask you to collateralize the bond. This means that you will provide him with something equal value of the amount of your bond in addition to the 10 or 15% of the bail amount that is set. This is often the most difficult part of getting a bond.

#KnowYourRights thread. Also remember to NOT GIVE PERMISSION TO SEARCH YOUR PHONE! They are going to take it anyway and you aren’t getting it back. Don’t give them the passcode. Anything they find will be used AGAINST you.

We have pinned the #KnowYourRights thread to our profile. It was great not having to have this up there and be able to work on other ways to provide for our community but clearly #lawenforcement is going to remain problematic even when contrary overwhelming evidence exists