New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been charged with solicitation of prostitution in Florida. Early reports indicate that he was caught up in a larger sex-trafficking sting in which at least 25 people have been arrested. A local paper reveals that Kraft was caught on video camera allegedly paying for and receiving sexual services at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa located in Jupiter, Fla.
Treasure Coast Newspapers reported the disturbing details:
The spa was among 10 shut down in Orlando, Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast after a several-month investigation revealed women there were in “sexual servitude,” according to arrest records… Women, many of them from China, lived in the spa and were not permitted to leave, according to Martin County Sheriff Will Snyder.
The owner of that spa, Hua Zhang, 58, of Winter Garden, was arrested and charged with deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution, keeping and frequenting a house of prostitution and 26 counts of procuring for prostitution.
The charges, which Kraft denies, are only misdemeanors, but that shouldn’t obscure the seriousness of his alleged actions.
Often, men (and women) believe that their involvement with things like porn and the sex industry is done in a vacuum; that it’s solely a consensual engagement. I have no way of knowing how Robert Kraft justified his actions to himself whenever he allegedly paid for sexual services. Like many other men, he may have told himself that the women have the right to use their bodies however they see fit. In his mind, his actions may have been purely a business exchange. Because of the reports, though, it appears otherwise. If true, his actions not only enabled sex trafficking and human slavery but were directly connected to them.
Society needs to stop buying the lie that there are certain vices that can be committed in a vacuum. Pornography, prostitution, and the entire sex industry rely on sex trafficking and human slavery. It is impossible to engage in the sex industry without enabling some of the worst human rights violations that exist on this planet.
It remains to be seen how this will affect Kraft or how the NFL will respond. Beyond Kraft’s legal issues, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is notorious for protecting the league’s image, and he’s brought the hammer down on Kraft in the past. However, if these charges are proven true, whatever consequences Robert Kraft suffers will be tiny in comparison to the horrific damage suffered by the young women trapped in the sex industry.
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