Editorial: Support crackdown on pimps

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 1:47 a.m.

ONE of the most heinous crimes is "selling" human beings.

That's what a pimp does, and it's really no different from being a slave trader.

It's an especially heinous crime when the person being "sold" is a child.

Often we learn about teenage girls -- usually runaways -- who are forced to become prostitutes. They are controlled and manipulated by pimps who make money off the girls having sex with anyone who wants it.

For some time, Metro Police has been cracking down on the problem of prostitution by rounding up "johns" -- men who pay for sex.

Now it seems that federal authorities are cracking down on pimps. Their efforts should be fully supported.

The latest in the fight against prostitution is the conviction of an admitted pimp in U.S. District Court. He had two teenagers who worked for him as prostitutes, and had transported them across state lines to Las Vegas. He also had arranged for phony identifications showing that the girls were 21.

He will be sentenced in December.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Schuit said a little-used law, the so-called Mann Act, will be used more frequently to combat interstate prostitution, especially where it concerns teenagers.

Obviously, we do not support pimps who control adult women. But we're especially concerned about prostitution involving teenagers and children.

This is an area federal authorities should concentrate on, especially in this resort town, which seems to attract its share of the innocents as well as the unscrupulous.

There are enough dangers out there for teenagers. We should make it more difficult for them to be victimized by pimps.