One woman on the sidelines, appearing disinterested, sips from a can of Red Bull through a straw. This open-air sex market has operated in plain sight on Friday and Saturday nights for months.
The women, many likely trafficking victims, stop drivers who line up for their services. Their pimps pull the strings from the shadows. The authorities largely turn a blind eye to it all β amid a shift away from cracking down on prostitution , a Post investigation has found.
Apparent pimps and traffickers keep watch from flashy cars idling on the stretch, including a black Cadillac Escalade and a white Mercedes SUV. When the police ride through β in both marked and unmarked cars β business mostly carries on without interruption.
While cruising down the block one night, a cop flashed the lights of their unmarked car in an apparent attempt at deterrence but took no other action.
The next month saw the statewide repeal of the so-called "Walking While Trans" law, barring law enforcement from arresting individuals who appear to be loitering for the purpose of prostitution. His Queens counterpart, Melinda Katz, followed suit in asking a judge to dismiss and seal more than such cases, and Manhattan DA Cy Vance in April tossed thousands of warrants and announced it would no longer prosecute prostitution and unlicensed massage cases.
