We hear from law enforcement all the time, “If you see something, say something”. But what do you do when saying what you have seen can be considered “culturally insensitive”?
Living and working just off of Witzel Avenue, I’ve driven past the “health spa” that was busted for alleged prostitution last week. I always found it a bit odd that the place was open at 8:00 on a Sunday night–but I wouldn’t have called the cops about that. What was really suspicious is that I would see different Asian women walking back and forth from the business and the house right behind it on Witzel. What business has all of its employees living right next door?
You may have heard me ask Oshkosh Police Public Information Officer Kate Mann about this case last Friday–and whether I should have called them with my suspicions that were going on with the women in the house next door. She said that I probably didn’t have to call about that–but that they welcome all calls about suspicious behavior.
But that raises the question of what is “suspicious”–and what role does race play in it? If you listen to any of the police scanner apps you hear the occasional dispatch call of “Caller reports three young black men in the neighborhood and they want it checked out”. It’s not often you hear “Caller reports three white men in the neighborhood and they want it checked out”. My wife goes to a masseuse here in Oshkosh–but I don’t assume that there is more than just massage going on in her office. So why did I almost immediately have my assumptions about the place on Witzel? Let’s say I–or someone else who had noticed things–had called police and their investigation reveals it was just a close-knit Asian family running the place and that everything going on there was legit. The white person complaining about it would look pretty foolish wouldn’t they?
We don’t have a criminal complaint filed yet against the two people arrested in connection with the raid–so details on what led to the police investigation are not yet known. But word that the Department of Homeland Security was also involved leads me to believe that there was concern about more than just “happy endings” going on in that “health spa”. That place has been open for a couple of years now, how many women may have been doing things in there that they really did not want to do–for money or otherwise–because those of us who “saw things” but didn’t “say something” thought it was best to mind their own business?
