D.A.’s move follows New York state’s repeal earlier this year of an anti-prostitution loitering statute known as the ‘walking while trans’ ban
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it would stop prosecuting prostitution cases, a new policy that it said was the first of its kind in the state.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. also asked a New York state judge to vacate about 6,000 bench warrants and dismiss associated cases dating back to 1976, in a virtual court hearing on Wednesday. The cases all had a top charge of prostitution, unlicensed massage or loitering for the purposes of prostitution, Mr. Vance’s office said.
“Over the last decade we’ve learned from those with lived experience, and from our own experience on the ground: criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers,” Mr. Vance, a Democrat, said in a statement. He called the cases a relic of a different New York.
