Shocking Editorial

I don't know what's more shocking: the subject of Bob Herbert's editorial in NYTimes today, or my response to it.

The usually tangled Herbert hits hard on the tepid public response to a disgusting crime by one of New York's finest:

According to the Queens district attorney’s office, the detective, Wayne Taylor, and the girlfriend, Zalika Brown, would parade the girl at parties and other places where adult men had gathered and force her to have sex with them for money — $40 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse. The child was an investment. The couple allegedly told her that she had been purchased for $500 — purchased, like the slaves of old, only this time for use as a prostitute.

Shocking.

Several orders of magnitude below, it's shocking that Bob Herbert wrote a column the entirety of which I agree with. He slams the justice system for often picking on the young victims of pimps, rather than the pimps and johns themselves. It's a no-brainer that a teenage girl owned by a pimp should be cared for, not incarcerated, by the state, and the pimp should be sent to the Big House.

Of course, this is Herbert, and in his Herbertitude he manages to pick the most inapposite example to prove his point: in this case, the justice system seems to be functioning perfectly, apart from the corrupt cop who (allegedly) perpetrated the crime.