This article just made my jaw drop. Whoever came up with that "condom cause for arrest" is an absolute moron!

Wow. There are no words for this level of [insert cuss words here].

HOW DARE THEY.

We ought to inflict some serious STD in these lawmakers.

What are they thinking? Condoms are prostitution? I say forcing people to abandon safe sex practices is unlawful and epidemic-inducing.

Just goes to show that when you have puritan idiots in high places or in positions of power...This is what you get.

Alex, thanks for publicizing this--it's making the rounds on twitter, very informative for those of us outside of DC. I can only imagine the discussions that took place prior to introducing this harmful piece of legislation; I wonder who thought this was a good idea, and exactly how many public health officials were consulted...

Since it IS making the rounds, now would be a great time to ask if it's possible to edit the piece to remove all instances of the term "prostitution" other than those specifically in reference to the name of the law itself. It's an ideologically-loaded pejorative that further stigmatizes sex workers, and that's clearly not the intended effect of your article.

Awesome, Alex! Thanks for the swift response. And I'm actually quite curious about the attitude of law enforcement officials, which probably varies.

Seriously? How backwards are we going here?

And I always have a couple if not a few condoms on me, particularly when I'm on a night out. Better not stand on a corner waiting for my ride *rolls eyes*

Whoaaa that's just crazy!  That's an utterly irresponsible justice system!

Whoever came up with the idea to limit the carry-on amount of condoms should be charged with endangerment.

only in Amerika!

Seriously???  Ugh...I can't stand it when they try to legislate morality.  IT NEVER WORKS....nor should it even be attempted.  Besides, are they really going to be able to enforce this consistently?  Don't law officers have more serious things to deal with in D.C.?  Crimes that hurt people?  I'd be curious to know who propsed this law in the first place.  That it got approved astounds me.  And in D.C.!!! 

who are the people who introduced this?!! published their names on the internet now! put them on blast! twitter everybody these idiots are morons!

since DC is 80% black then who will be going to jail?? then these black idiots will be crying later that the reasons why so many blacks are in jail is because of the racist white system that always makes it hard for blacks to get ahead

Same thing happens in supposedly liberal San Francisco: http://missionlocal.org/2008/10/prostitutes-burned-by-rubbers/ even though in 1994 the old District Attorney agreed not to use condoms as evidence of prostitution: http://www.bayswan.org/lawindex.html

If they get away with this they can get away with anything, because a condom isn't an illegal product.. this can be fought in supreme court and won easily..  what's to stop them from saying you can carry three packs of cigarettes because you might sell them on corner, or anyting by that matter

I wonder if while debating this anyone mentioned that condoms come in three packs. 

I have an idea to combat this completely backwards law - encourage EVERYONE to carry around a ton of condoms everywhere they go. Eventually they won't be able to use that criteria for arresting people becuase they'll have too many arrests of innocent people.

I don't know if it would work, but it might be work a try.

In Texas A known street lady( prostitute) if she is infected with a virus, can be charged with attempted man slaughter, if she is in the streets with out them, try asking the law if they would like you to try spreading aids in the hopes it will come around to there family.

 who are the morons that thought up such a law  ?

 Ps. my wife does not want me to carry them around,or own them,though I don't think she can press chrages on me,,,if I get caught I hope you will take up a collection to go my bail.!

Yes folks, the clowns are running the circus and the asylum is being run by the inmates. Mayor of D.C., you are in the running for the "Dumb & Dumber" Award.

I believe that anyone that gets an STD in any of the cities that has such a backwards and antiquated law should sue that city for contributing to unsafe sex practices.  Unbelievable that laws like this get passed in this day and age.

I read the MoveAlongReport.pdf that you link to as a source and I couldn't find any indication that carrying more than 2 condoms is illegal.  There wasn't any mention at all of any significance of carrying a specific number of condoms.

Can you cite a clear source for this information?  I hate to imagine the damage that might be done to women if numerous web sites start spreading the word that it's illegal to carry condoms.

Washington DC is controlled by corrupted goverment and who thinks they can make more money arresting people instead of thinking about condom saving a life...

But what do you expect from Washington DC.. especially when

“D.C. is a hot spot for labor trafficking as well as sex trafficking,”

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/012509-More_than_a_thousand_women_were_forced_into_sex_slavery_Justice_Department_reports.html#ixzz0cGkKx7xX

pathic

i really don't see the point to this article. cops see someone whom they think is a prostitute. they perform a search. they find condoms. they draw an arbitrary line at 3 for determining whether the number of condoms suggests the woman is a sex worker. they do or do not arrest the woman based on their assessment.

what exactly is the problem here? provided that the search is constitutional (ie., was based on a reasonable suspicion or on an actual search warrant), then i see no problem. carrying a number of condoms is rationally related to working as a prostitute.

this law is very unlikely to have a chilling effect on the average person, unless the average person happens to be acting in such a way that would give a cop reasonable suspicion to believe she was a hooker. in that case, it's unsurprising that you would be charged with prostitution. i, for one, think that establishing some objective tests for making arrests is a step in the right direction.

Who ever came up with this STUPID law needs to have their a$$ kicked from the earth to the moon!! 

WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMMING TO? WE HAVE IDIOTS FOR LAWMAKERS!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Posted by Nilah Mckinney

WE HAVE IDIOTS FOR LAWMAKERS!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Check out who your lawmakers are

http://www.house.gov/

I have a good solution for you, get a large group of people to go to DC give them each a bunch of condoms and then call on the police to enforce the law. You need 300-500 people. What are they going to do, not arrest you because you don't "look" like a prostitute? If they are truly enforcing the law and not being selective about it, the police should act. Otherwise they are hypocrites.

Bonus: Do it on the day of a city council meeting. If they don't arrest you, then go and complain about selective enforcement by the police.

Unfortunately I live abroad and am not anywhere close to DC, but believe me if I was there, I'd be helping to organize something like this.

David

Actually Since I am a lady and I dont go out at night, maybe you need to advocate  the police to arrest the PIMPS and sex traffickers. And the goverment agents who also sell women on the streets.

Sex industries traffic in ever-younger girls. Forced prostitution, often accompanied by violent abuse and disease, can be a death sentence. Millions of Asian girls and women have been forced into prostitution during the past decade, although this human rights abuse is by no means limited to that region of the world.

Rape, used as a weapon of war, spares neither young girls nor elderly women. Fleeing for their lives, refugee women and girls often face assaults, sometimes lethal, at the hands of government agents who are supposed to protect them.

http://www.udhr.org/Womensrights/intro.htm

Los Angeles ALSO is guilty of using condoms as evidence.  I can speak from experience.  My work bag has wayyy more than 2 condoms.  It has flavored condoms, dental dams, gloves for fisting, lube to make the condoms not break, massage oil in a spray bottle, mace for some protection...

because I've been arrested before and the above contents have been used to incriminate me it I KNOW that the bag will be used as evidence but I choose to risk arrest instead of HIV or pregnancy. 

And most women and girls are NOT trafficked.  Especially in that area of DC.  Most of the women who are most affected by the law are the transgender street workers who are arrested again and again add violations in a PFZ as another risk on their list.

Spermbortion is MURDER!

I would rather see my children infected with STD's than for them to know about condoms!

AIDS is punishment!

"S*x-Ed" corrupts minors!

Outlaw condoms nationwide!

I can sympathize with the sex workers,etc.  However, I find a much more threatening and long term consequence to such laws.  When did condoms become an unlawful substance or product?  When did it become alright to limit the purchase of a lawful substance?  When did it become alright to dictate the practice of lawful sexuality?  The answer is that it never has!  This is not to keep the streets free of sex workers, this is an attempt which seems to be working, to dictate to the common citizen what is right or wrong.  Read the book "The Family" to get a clear picture of what has been happening right under our noses for many, many years.  The time is coming, if we don't stop it, that so called "righteous people" will have a peep hole and a listening device in our bedrooms to make sure we have sex as they believe it should be, or should I say the way the want us to have sex but don't need to bother about such things for themselves.  Just look at Phyllis Schafly's post above, "Spermbortion", indeed.

Do youy really think so!

Arrested for being safe.  Great job D.C.!

It's all part of there plan to spread disease and population control. They know exactly what there doing when they make/pass laws. Be aware. 

http://www.infowars.com

I'm curious does this law apply to men as well?  Are men who carry more than three condoms considered sex workers as well, or is that just "boys will be boys".  

The phamacutical companies buy the politicians to vote for this law. Which of course causes more VD .Which in turn increases profits on aids meds...EVERY decision that a politician makes is based on who's the highest bidder.

This is beyond stupid and insane and that is a fact.

This headline is extremely misleading and the article stretches the truth. See http://davidschrag.com/schrug/2010/01/13/mommy-where-do-urban-legends-come-from/.

My mistake, David, re feministing.com, and my apologies. However, the fact does remain, as RH Reality Check elaborates in the post, that using condom possession as even ONE of the factors identifying sex workers will have the effect of discouraging condom possession (and, one would assume, condom use) AMONG SEX WORKERS. In other words, while the headline is a "hey, read me!" headline, the important story that follow highlights the difficulties of promoting public health in at-risk populations (sex workers and their clients.)

If prositution was legal,how would this work for millions of innocent women and children who are forced into sex slavery? Will this give the right for the sex trafficers to continue to abuse women and children who are kidnapped from other countries and many of our american children and women and boys are also kidnapped and forced into sex slavery..

David do you support Sex slavery?

David,

When I asked the question I wanted your honest opinion, I can say at least you are honest and by me asking that question I was in no way of disrespecting you as a person.

Regulating prostitution should be done when police actually arrest the PIMPS and the sex traffickers who abuse women and children who were forced into prostitution. This means when the women are arrested instead of treating the women as criminals they should try to built a trust with them by actually helping and not try to scare them into trusting the police.

FEAR doesn’t get help, it only causes people to keep silence. There are some people who are kidnapped by bad people who do force them into farming and house workers and other things, but a lot of women and children are kidnapped for the sex slavery. Many of these people are from different countries and like i said many of our own women and children are also kidnapped and shipped to other parts of the world for sex slavery too. Have you notice a lot of beautiful women and children in USA are missing and these people are often times never found. Why is that? It is because no one cares or someone is turning a blind eye within our government and police agencies.

I will post some good resources to help explain the importance about sex slavery and about how to stop it from happening.

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)
www.castla.org

Coalition against Trafficking in Women: www.catwinternational.org

Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GAATW): www.gaatw.org

End Child Prostitution and Trafficking/Child Wise: www.ecpat.org

International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol): www.interpol.com

The Protection Project:
www.protectionproject.org

Antislavery International:
www.antislavery.org

Free the Slaves:
www.freetheslaves.net

Shared Hope International
www.sharedhope.org

Can Having Three Condoms In D.C. Really Get You Arrested?

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2010/01/13/can-having-three-condoms-in-d-c-get-you-arrested/

More on Those Prostitution Free Zone Condom Regulations

http://dcist.com/2010/01/more_on_those_prostitution_free_zon.php

Hey guys,

I did some fact checking on this one, because it just didn't seem legit to me. The article above is very misleading and is spreading quite quickly. Here's an excerpt from one of the links I have included, which may help spread a little light on the situation. (Also, please read the links I have included. Possession of condoms is actually not grounds for arrest- thank God)

"Neither the report nor the police regulations nor anything else outside the blogosphere, state that carrying condoms - whether three or three hundred - can get you arrested....One may approve or disapprove of DC's actual tactics to thwart prostitution, but boiling down their policy to "carrying condoms in DC will get you arrested" is preposterously misleading. Advocates do their causes no favors by repeating errant claims, and bloggers should take the time to drill down to the original source material before rebroadcasting inflammatory reports.....It's probably too late to prevent this urban legend from making the rounds. Look for it someday at snopes.com.."

http://davidschrag.com/schrug/2010/01/13/mommy-where-do-urban-legends-come-from/... See More

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2010/01/13/can-having-three-condoms-in-d-c-get-you-arrested/

This is the response I got after signing this petition:

Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention. As you may be aware, prostitution in the District of Columbia has been a longstanding problem in certain neighborhoods and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and other members of the law enforcement community are working diligently and using all resources available to address this problem.

The Chief of Police has the authority to designate Prostitution Free Zones (PFZ), which are areas that have accumulated high levels of proven prostitution cases/activities in the present and/or past during late night and early morning hours. DC Code 22-2731 explains the definitions, designation of prostitution free zones, and violation penalties in more detail. 

Therefore, a police officer cannot arrest a person for the sole reason of having two or more condoms in their possession whether they are inside or outside of a PFZ perimeter. The criminal offense associated with a PFZ involves the failure to disperse, after an officer issues such an order to two or more persons congregating on public space within the PFZ.   

The District of Columbia supports the usage, distribution, and awareness of condoms as a means to promote general public safety health practices. The District is one of only two cities in the country with a large scale public sector condom distribution program, with a goal to distribute 3 million free condoms a year.

For more information on the District's free condom distribution and education program, please feel free to visit the DC Department of Health's web site at: http://doh.dc.gov/doh/cwp/view,a,1371,q,602647.asp   I hope you find this information helpful. 

Thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

Adrian M. Fenty, Mayor

wow what a crock! condoms are the new 'contaband' ahah!, who would have thought we would see the day, God I must be getting old..

Amazing, ly stupid! Bah.

Simranjeet Singh

www.simranjeet.com

@DavidS you are right on the money, and that is pretty good for someone who considers themselves not an expert on the topic.  Sex Workers believe that decriminalization would help us be able to regulate our own safer sex practices and not let the police or government decide that for us. Lara N is just using you as a pawn to sound off her prostituion prohibitionist campaigns.

I want to clarify the idea that are being tossed around about whether possession of condoms can be the SOLE REASON FOR YOUR ARREST.  The answer is NO, HOWEVER if you are being SET UP by the police in a PROSTITUTION STING OPERATION and you do not know your rights so well that it becomes your very gutt instinct to yell out I DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY SEARCHES faster than 3 ARMED OFFICERS can BUST THROUGH AN ADJACENT HOTEL DOOR then they will be immediately on top of your purse or person where you stashed away the fake money/prop for your arrest. This is how that law pans out for workers who work indoors not like in the PFZs in DC.  Both indoor/outdoor workers fear arrest and they fear being caught with incriminating evidence (drugs or too many condoms).  Officers search your belongings to fish out the money that they gave you to bust you exchanging sex for money and they look for additional evidence that could make their misdemeanor arrest turn into a felony.  (Drug possession is the most common one used).  Condoms are automatic ADDITIONAL and EASILY OBTAINED evidence.  The other evidence they easily obtain is your cell phone w/ all its work texts, numbers and voicemails.  Because I have been arrested before, and have seen my condoms, lube and other safer sex supplies used as EVIDENCE AGAINST ME I now do not take more than 1 condom with me in my pocket whenever I go to the areas that are known for sting operations...1 condom is not enough folks!  I am a professional, and I NEED LOTS OF LUBE.  you need 2 condoms in case one breaks or gets messed up or dirty.  I hate just having 1 condom.  But, these are the breaks as long as prostitution remains a crime.   if you think this is bullshit then please, help sex workers change the laws!  Decriminalize SAFE SEX WORK!  If pimps are violating labor laws or commiting other crimes against us, we won't be able to come forward with those claims until our work is seen as work, and sexworkers are seen as humans not criminals. 

Condoms prevent HIV and STDs!  What is wrong with these people?  The more people using condoms and practicing safe sex, the less spreading of HIV and STDs!  The folks who put this is the law have seriously flunked sex ed...

So ridiculous I thought I was reading The Onion for a bit.