Vic†ims of a victimless crime

 If you know nothing else about the goings-on around here, you probably know that the owner of the New England Patriots has been charged twice for giving his custom to a brothel posing as a massage parlor. The brothel is called Orchids of Asia Day Spa. It's in  a strip mall.
 You probably know this is embarrassing for the 77-year-old football team owner, as well as for the retired Citicorp muckety-muck who also sought and bought the favor of a Spa girl. And if you read the sports pages, you know a burning issue of the day is what the "league" might do to its wayward owner. Who, btw, denies everything, but there are tapes.
 Prostitution is the quintessential "victimless crime." Well, those two guys, and the other johns who have been charged up and down three counties of Florida now consider themselves victims, but of police overreach. My former Palm Beach Post colleague, Frank Cerebino, provided a run-down yesterday of what the sex hobbyists are saying on the Web (yes!) site where they discuss their likes, dislikes and preferences.
 But the johns are not really the story. The real victims are the girls, imported from China in this case, on temporary work permits.

 The girls are not charged. Law enforcement in Florida, and growingly around the country, recognizes them as victims. After a bust, they even get a special immigration status (that Trump probably doesn't know about that, and let's not tell him). But they have problems. They don't know much English and they know even less about the legal system. That makes them ineffective witnesses. And in many cases, their families are part of the hostage system for their "good behavior."
 Pope Francis's February Apostolate of Prayer intention happened to be "For a generous welcome of the victims of human trafficking, of enforced prostitution, and of violence." But because of the conditions of the trafficked women, more than welcome is required, and that's where solutions are being found more slowly.
 The women who owned the spas will be charged. In this case, they probably will be convicted because the multiple police agencies involved in the crackdown took a lot of time and crossed all the t's. But everybody knows of other spas and "nail" services with the same business model as the Orchids of Asia. Busting them is another matter because the actual crimes are committed by the victims, and by the johns -- who just discovered what victims they feel like when their hobby is interrupted.
 It's hard to make a righteous bust.
 But when one is made, the last people to feel sorry about are the people of reputation who get caught.