You sick fucks

Everyone's heard by now that Roberta Busby, a woman in Tarzana, CA was set on fire as she walked out of her workplace, Babes and Beer.

The suspects were caught today.

I had never heard of the place she worked until the day before it happened. I heard about it again at my new club, where she worked up until two weeks before the attack. My new colleagues apparently knew the perpetrators.

Newspapers and websites have, predictably, eaten this up because it gives them the opportunity to use the word "stripper" in a headline. Never mind that she is a woman, a mother. Maybe "Mother set on fire" wouldn't be quite so tantalizing?

But what pisses me off more is that this incident is leading to the most useless, jerk-off line of questioning about sex work. Not "What can we do to make it safer?" which might be a question that would actually lead to productive action, but "Is it inherently unsafe?" And then: scratch ass, do nothing, think about naked chicks, jerk off and go to bed.

When a disgruntled employee walks into an office building and shoots it up, where are the stories about whether or not being an office drone is dangerous? This didn't happen because she is a stripper. This happened because two sick fucks did something sick and fucked up. Stripping might be unsafe for other reasons, but linking sex work to the actions of two deranged individuals is (while convenient for selling papers) nothing more than shoddy, irresponsible journalism.

However. That doesn't mean that this isn't reason to re-examine safety around strip clubs - but again, I haven't read anything about that, anywhere. Why wasn't she walked to her car? Why wasn't there better security? Why are strip clubs located in areas that allow people to chill out with containers of gasoline, lying in wait? This attack should be a reason, like any other workplace violence, to re-examine what is being done to make the workplace safer.

If anyone actually gave a shit, and actually didn't want to see this happen again, maybe we could talk about real protection for sex workers.

But, alas, we won't. Will we? Fucking useless.

My prayers and thoughts are with her, and I hope yours are too. She is still in critical condition.