Kraft is Still Not to Thank

Kraft is Still Not to Thank

Unfortunately, the underdog Florida State prosecutors in the Kraft prostitution case have lost again. This time it’s a decision to reject the prosecution’s request to hold Kraft’s lawyers in contempt. Judge Leonard Hanser suggested instead that the prosecutors take up any concerns over the attorneys’ behavior with their states’ bar association.  

Frankly, it is time to set aside the noise being caused by the hand-wringing conversation over Mr. Kraft’s potential first-world problems with the NFL and the grandstanding by Kraft’s infamous “Dream Team” of lawyers, who are selling a defense of lechery as a constitutional battle, and concentrate on the real matter at hand: rampant prostitution in broad daylight. 

In the quiet, we can rationally consider the terrible reality of prostitution and the other important facts revealed by the uncovering of a four-county wide sex trade ring in the middle of the snowbird capital—less than two hours from Disney World. Although the media, especially those with interest in the NFL, have shown little interest in this aspect of the Kraft case, there are valuable lessons unmarred by the unfortunate bungling of the surveillance video. 

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For one, deep in Judge Hanser’s otherwise disappointing decision declaring the much talked about video inadmissible in court is a statement that clearly affirms the dangers of prostitution. In defending the use of video surveillance in general, he states, “The unique circumstances of a massage room creates the need for an unusually intrusive law enforcement technique.”

Why is video surveillance necessary? Because asking an undercover officer to partake in prostitution to gather evidence is unsafe. Sexually transmitted diseases don’t care if the persons involved has a badge. This statement not only confirms that prostitution creates a serious public health risk, it highlights the fact it is commonly held that prostitution is an unhealthy and antisocial act. 

The Center for Disease Control confirms the judge’s concern for health risks resulting from the sex trade. Even a cursory review of the topic on the CDC’s website will reveal that prostitution increases rates of contracting HIV and other life-threatening diseases. Sex workers also experience increased chances of depression, drug addiction, chronic homelessness and even suicide. 

Prostitution, always a violation, is also almost always violent. Dr. Melissa Farley, a psychologist who heads the organization Prostitution Research and Education based in San Francisco, reported in 2017 that an occupational survey of women involved in prostitution suggests 99% are physically assaulted during their “work”. Her well regarded academic paper also points out that the 2000 Palermo Protocol, an international agreement signed by the United States, says that consent is irrelevant as money is coercion.

Finally, the Kraft case certainly does much to remove any chance of romanticizing the sex trade. When a 77-year-old man is arrested for allegedly walking into a place operated by a 58-year-old woman to receive sexual acts distributed in an assembly line fashion, the dehumanization speaks for itself. Prostitution is a form of modern slavery—regardless of passports or citizenship. Even Hollywood, in its most male powered, pre-#MeToo moment, can’t gloss that.

Unlike those misguided (or pragmatic to a fault) souls on CNN, NBC, and football talk shows pushing Kraft as a hero of the Constitution, I am not going to extend any thanks to Mr. Kraft for bringing to light that prostitution is wrong, that it harms people, especially the most vulnerable, and even kills. He does not deserve the thanks since he has done everything his money can do to bury the ugly side of what he allegedly supported with his own money. 

Deacon Patrick Moynihan is President of The Haitian Project, a 501(c)3 non-profit and Catholic Mission which supports Louverture Cleary School, a tuition-free, secondary boarding school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for academically talented students whose families cannot afford the cost of their education. Learn more at haitianproject.org.