On February 16, 2023, Rachel West, US Pros Collective, and Nell Myhand, Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike, were interviewed about the police crackdown on sex workers in the Mission District of San Francisco by Dennis J. Bernstein for Flashpoints, his investigative news magazine on KPFA.
From the interview:
“Since October, when the crackdown began, the police have been shining lights on people, targeting sex workers, especially women of color. The increase in sex workers is because of growing poverty, the high cost of living, and income inequality. Women are driven into poverty and illegality to survive. Most are single mothers trying to feed their families. This crackdown is not going to decrease sex work; it just pushes sex workers into more dangerous areas, making them more vulnerable. Criminalization is not the answer because poverty is the problem. Attacking poverty, not women, is the solution.” Rachel West
“California is the richest state in the country and the fourth largest economy in the world and yet 50% live in poverty. This is a systematic attack on the poor and the most vulnerable are women and children. No effort has been made to close the gap between what we can earn and what we need to make a living. Black, Indigenous, and Trans women are the poorest and so at the greatest risk. In LA we found that, between 2017 and 2019, 56% of those arrested for prostitution were women of color, and nationally 42% of those arrested for prostitution are women of color even though we are 13.2% of the population” Nell Myhand
The interview begins at 18:07 minutes.
US PROS Collective 