‘Pimps control our neighborhood!’ San Diego residents and business owners fume over ‘rampant’ prostitution that’s disrupting church services

Outraged San Diego residents have spoken out, claiming sex workers and pimps control entire neighborhoods, just days after an investigation found a massage parlor acted as a front for prostitution, disrupting nearby church services.

The California city’s business owners and residents have been threatened by prostitutes and witnessed attempted human trafficking, but they are reluctant to report them to police for fear of reprisals.

One business owner told Fox News on condition of anonymity about his interactions with prostitutes and pimps.

‘Prostitutes walk into the buildings and say: ‘What are you looking at?’, ‘Stop staring.’ And they go into more detail about calling their pimps to hurt them or do something to “take care of them.”

The surprising revelation comes after Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom
signed Senate Bill 357 in July 2022, which went into effect last year and repealed the law that banned loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution.

The California city’s business owners and residents have been threatened by prostitutes and witnessed attempted human trafficking. But they hesitate to report the crime to the police for fear of reprisals

The surprising revelation comes after Newsom signed Senate Bill 357 in July 2022, which went into effect last year and repealed the law that banned loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution.

Since Newsom repealed the law banning loitering and walking on the streets, San Diego and the neighboring city, home to some of the U.S. Navy’s most prestigious units, have seen a significant increase in the number of sex workers.

Although prostitution is illegal in the state of California, sex workers and pimps have become so brazen that they openly threaten business owners in the region.

“If you’re going to look at me, you have to pay me,” prostitutes are said to have said intimidatingly to businessmen.

The unnamed entrepreneur said of pimps: “They control the neighborhood.”

The business owner further revealed that his employee’s 18-year-old daughter recently almost became a victim of sex trafficking.

The daughter “walked outside to get something from her car, was approached by a pimp, threatened and (the father) had to walk out to save her,” the business owner said.

When conflicts arise, local residents hesitate to detain police because they fear physical attacks, property destruction or theft by pimps and prostitutes, the business owner said.

Another law bans police from citing people suspected of soliciting sex based on their appearance, allowing prostitutes to walk the streets in small clothing.

The business owner claimed that before Newsom signed the bill, the number of sex workers was only about five to ten percent of what is seen in the city now.

“They weren’t bold and encouraged. They would hide behind the cars or… they would just come out at night,” the business owner recalled.

Since Newsom repealed the law banning loitering and walking on the streets, San Diego and the neighboring city, home to some of the U.S. Navy’s most prestigious units, have seen a significant increase in the number of sex workers.

The business owner further revealed that his employee’s 18-year-old daughter recently almost became a victim of sex trafficking

When conflicts arise, local residents hesitate to alert police because they fear physical attacks, property destruction or theft by pimps and prostitutes, the business owner said.

San Diego has been a hot spot for prostitution, with the latest investigation finding that a local massage parlor is being used as a front for an illegal prostitution ring, disrupting nearby church services with “loud moaning.”

The complaints, the city’s civil action says, began in 2018, when locals reported “traffic at all hours of the day, sexual noises coming from the property that are audible to nearby businesses, and female employees who wore sexually explicit clothing’.

An extensive sting ensued, with undercover police detectives spending around 125 hours last year alone gathering potentially damning evidence about the inner workings of the salon.

This, prosecutors explained, proved enough to make four arrests, involving all the spa employees who offered sex for sale to the undercover officers.

These spa employees have yet to be named, but two of the arrests occurred as recently as December, officials said.

During their civil law enforcement action, staffers from Elliott’s office revealed how investigators were “not convinced” the women prostituted themselves willingly – instead hinting that someone had trafficked and coerced them beforehand.

The same document revealed that the spa had distributed more than 1,270 advertisements soliciting sex online over the past five years – during which time the Bible study, a children’s music school and a dentist operated on the same floor as the massage room.

“Neighboring businesses complained that the location was a source of pedestrian traffic at odd hours, people had intercourse in parked cars and made sexual noises loud enough to disrupt a nearby church service,” officials wrote.

“After receiving numerous complaints from the community regarding illegal sexual activity at Ocean Spa, including criminal, nuisance and lewd activity, the SDPD Vice Unit began an extensive and thorough investigation into these complaints.”

The complaints, they said, ranged from “sexual noises” disrupting church services to locals seeing people having sex in cars.

San Diego has been a hot spot for prostitution, with the latest investigation finding that a local massage parlor is being used as a front for an illegal prostitution ring, disrupting nearby church services with “loud moaning.”

The complaints, the city’s civil action says, began in 2018, when locals reported “traffic at all hours of the day, sexual noises coming from the property that are audible to nearby businesses, and female employees who wore sexually explicit clothing’.

An extensive sting ensued, with undercover police detectives spending around 125 hours last year alone gathering potentially damning evidence about the salon’s inner workings.

Newsom promised that the Safer Streets for All Act would not legalize prostitution, but as soon as he signed the bill, prostitution began to expand in the state.

Footage from DailyMail.com from last year shows women, alone or in pairs, hanging out in the parking lot, blowing their hair and making eye contact with passing cars.

One woman, wearing a fluorescent pink outfit that exposed her buttocks, walked with another woman whose jean shorts left little to the imagination.

The women, who paraded down the industrial street, were seen waving at passing cars until a police vehicle appeared.

One woman gave a male driver a hand signal, and he drove around the corner to a spot under a bridge and she skipped off to follow.

When DailyMail.com spotted the six or so women in National City, they approached the windows of some passing trucks before retreating.