I’ll have you know that most of the bs opinions of the higher ups about what is going on with the escort section is so far off the mark that it isnt even funny. If those so called teenagers hadnt been in the wrong place at the wrong time they wouldnt have gotten in trouble like they did and you cant blame it on backpage. Blame it on the person who got of hold of them and blame it on their parents for not keeping better tabs on their kids. And just to set the record straight, some of us out here do this in ORDER TO SURVIVE AND PAY OUR BILLS and who the hell has a pimp? What a joke.I am way over 50 yrs old and I will be damned if I have to go back to living on the street and sleeping in a park on a picnic table at night. I am not being exploited (LOL)and I am certainly not a VICTIM. And I’ll be damned if I have go out and look for a job again. I looked for 4 YEARS and all I got was turn downs. I am not fat, ugly or on drugs and I certainly am not going to find another narcissist asshole to marry to support myself. And I believe I am hearing terms ” recovery and resources ” being thrown around. LOL Recovery from what? trying to support myself?? give me a break. Tell you what: You pay all my bills, put gas in my car, buy all of my basic necessities etc and I will quit. Until then you all need to give this high and mighty on your high horse moral crap a rest. I HATE my job . I dont do what I have to do because I WANT to, I do it because I HAVE to. And NO one is forcing me to do it. Its either do it and keep a roof over my head etc or go back to being a bum on the street. And if you shut down Backpage , we will all just go elsewhere. Shutting down the escort ads on Backpage will not solve anything. People will just go move their ads elsewhere.

So, let’s summarize what the AGs are saying: “Hey Backpage, these ads are CLEARLY from hookers. Anyone can see that! So now it’s your fault because you should have looked at the ads, known they were posted by hookers, and you should have immediately pulled them.”

But wait — inherent in this theory is the assumption that the ads are blatant, open, obvious offers to exchange sex for money which should have alerted Backpage to their unlawful nature. OK, but if that assumption is correct, then why can’t law enforcement agencies simply contact the people who posted the ads and arrest them? Every ad must contain some type of contact info for the prostitute, otherwise what would be the point of the ad?

I just can’t understand why a public law enforcement agency which takes millions of taxpayer dollars for the specific purpose of catching criminals is blaming a private company for failing to stop crime? Um, hello?

Aren’t the AGs really saying: “Stopping prostitution is our job for which we receive millions in taxpaying funding, but doing our job is too hard, so we’re going to delegate our duties to private companies who don’t receive a dime from taxpayers.”

I’m sorry…I just don’t get it. If the ads on Backpage are so obviously illegal, then law enforcement should simply arrest the people posting the ads. Problem solved, no?