The Bay Area exemplifies money, affluence and power. Just take a look at San Francisco’s newly renovated streets, the new Bay Bridge and the latest skyscrapers, funded by Chinese capital. Beyond Silicon Valley, and San Francisco’s robust economy is a darker side – prostitution and human trafficking.
In 2009, the FBI determined that San Francisco was an epicenter for modern-day slavery. The city’s human trafficking victims include domestic servants, people forced to work in garment factories, and young women lured to the U.S. for legitimate work, only to be forced into prostitution.
As of June of 2015, there were roughly 300 massage establishments in San Francisco. The Department of Public Health acknowledges that up to half of San Francisco’s massage parlors are operating as fronts for the sex trade – but nobody knows for sure exactly how many “erotic parlors” operate in the Bay Area.
In the last seven years, several laws have been passed to crack down on the city’s unsavory establishments, while trying to let legitimate massage parlors conduct their business uninterrupted.
However, not much has changed and these erotic massage parlors continue to conduct their business behind the red lights, tinted windows, and closed curtains.
While the Bay Area is a nexus for erotic massage parlors, these parlors are abundant Southern California as well. Relatively inexpensive to get off the ground, California has seen a boom in massage businesses, most noticeably in places with a large Chinese immigrant population.
Since California loosened restrictions in the massage industry in 2011, sexually-oriented massage parlors exploded around the Bay Area and Los Angeles County. While some of the local parlors are staffed by honest, hardworking people, law enforcement is aware that prostitution is going on at many of the establishments.
Were you arrested for prostitution or solicitation?
What if you were arrested for prostitution or solicitation at one of the Bay Area’s “erotic massage” parlors? Under California law, prostitution and solicitation are misdemeanor offenses, punishable by up to $1,000 fine, or up to six months behind bars, or both.
Whether you are a “John” who is accused of solicitation, or a masseuse who is being accused of prostitution, or even a human trafficking victim who was forced to work in the sex trade, you need to be represented by an experienced and hard-hitting criminal defense attorney.
We urge you to contact the Law Office of Nabiel C. Ahmed for a consultation with one of Oakland’s top-rated criminal defense lawyers!