“There’s little question that this language has been used and abused,” stated Assemblymember Andy Goodell (R-Jamestown), however “prostitution sho
“There’s little question that this language has been used and abused,” stated Assemblymember Andy Goodell (R-Jamestown), however “prostitution shouldn’t be an incredible occupation … Now we have people who find themselves acquitted of homicide — we don’t legalize homicide! But right here we’re saying ‘we now have folks arrested below the statute wrongly, let’s eradicate the statute.’”
The regulation which the Legislature voted to repeal on Tuesday was handed within the spring of 1976, 4 months after the discharge of Taxi Driver. The visibility of prostitution in Manhattan had grow to be a significant high quality of life concern, one which turned extra urgent as lawmakers hoped to wash up the streets earlier than the Democratic Nationwide Conference got here to Madison Sq. Backyard that summer time.
Two Democrats typically identified for working with civil libertarians at the moment — Senate Minority Chief Manfred Ohrenstein and Sen. Carl McCall — pushed the invoice by way of. Solely a few dozen legislators opposed the measure, a gaggle that included a disproportionate variety of comparatively younger Democrats with names like Hevesi, Hinchey, Farrell, Koppell, Grannis, Weprin, and a 25-year-old freshman named Schumer.
One other then-whippersnapper, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, was sluggish to assist the invoice. However he was subjected to a marketing campaign by his Hell’s Kitchen constituents and Mayor Abe Beame to take a more durable line in opposition to streetwalkers, and wound up voting within the affirmative. Greater than 40 years later, he reversed course.
“I’ve served on this Legislature now for over 50 years. I’m proud to say there are hardly any issues that I really feel ashamed of or embarrassed about what I’ve accomplished right here, however there’s definitely one,” Gottfried stated on Tuesday. “At the moment, there was a whole lot of neighborhood outcry in opposition to avenue solicitation for prostitution. And I’m not proud to say that in response to that neighborhood advocacy I voted for the invoice. I used to be fallacious then — the regulation is fallacious right now. It’s and at all times has been an unjustified software for regulation enforcement to harass whoever is the widespread goal for harassment in a selected period.”
McCall conveyed by way of a former spokesperson that with the modified occasions, he now helps the invoice’s repeal as nicely.