The Untouchables

City councilman Chris Cate has proposed new regulations for the city’s massage parlors, regulations that will, in his words “provide the San Diego Police Department and City Attorney’s office with the tools needed to effectively and efficiently shut down bad actors and combat human trafficking in massage establishments.” But while the regulations may provide the legal tools, Cate granted that other tools are required as well. “We’re going to need a rock-solid group of officers who are able to do the long, hard work of investigating these establishments,” he warned, citing a 1973 Reader article on a previous massage parlor crackdown that stated, “many police reservists who were sent into the parlors to try to get solicited ended up ejaculating, which often resulted in the case being thrown out of court or not prosecuted at all.” “The key word there is ‘reserve,’” concluded Cate. “These vice officers will be getting three, four massages a night; we can’t afford to have any of these ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ types we’ve seen in the news lately.”