So in the middle of yet another San Diego blitz last year, La Mesa added a new weapon to its arsenal: shame. Borrowing an idea used in the past in places as diverse as New York City and Aurora, Colo., La Mesa decided to buy space in the local paper to publish the names and mug shots of those found guilty of offering or soliciting sex for money – whether peddling wares or trying to buy. The city put up five billboards warning: WHEN CONVICTED LA MESA OFFERS FREE PHOTOS!
In mid-January three johns who pleaded guilty became the first to make the paper. The trio’s names, ages and photos landed in The Daily Californian (circulation: 25,000), right next to the winning California State Lottery number. “The people of La Mesa saw this as effective,” says Lou Ziegler, the paper’s editor. “If an individual is humiliated, they don’t care.” Nobody expects to entirely conquer a trade based on lust and money, two eternal human verities. But maybe another verity – infamy – will do the trick. Says the mayor: “We’ve already seen a reduction in the number of hookers walking the streets. If shame is a deterrent, let’s do it.”
