By ohtadmin on July 15, The Queen City of Burlington has been giving the royal treatment to its menfolk over the last few monthsβwhile the immigrant women involved were held in virtual bondage. Raids on July 1 by state and federal authorities exposed the fact that a half dozen "health spas" in and around Burlington were actually houses of prostitution. The "spas" employed the services of at least eight Korean and Chinese immigrant women, who reportedly were forced into prostitution to pay off the fee for smuggling them into the country.
What a nice welcome to the USA that must have been! When the time for a bust came, of course, it was the women who felt the weight of the law. Meanwhile, no arrests have been made, so far as we know, of the people running the brothels, who happen to be male. Also worthy of note is the fact that neighbors and police reportedly knew for a long time that the "spas" were actually bordellos, and that no steps were taken to investigate them or shut them down.
Even now, after the raid, nobody is being cited on charges related to prostitution, only immigration-based charges. The raid, in fact, has uncovered the fact that in Burlington, houses of prostitution are more or less OK, as far as the cops are concerned.
Nor has any particular outcry arisen in the city since the raids on the spasβthis despite the vivid demonstration of how abusive these businesses, operating outside the law, can be. The same sort of operation is evidently taking place under the noses of the Burlington authorities one of the "spas" was operating in a building owned by the city itself , but nobody seems to care much about it.
Did Clavelle know about the police policy of permitting houses of prostitution? Does he agree with it? How does he feel about the way the Asian women were treated upon their arrival in his fair city? It seems from here that Burlington needs an in-depth conversation abut this scandal, but so far nobody wants to start talking.
