(07-16) 13:01 PDT OAKLAND -- More than 130 suspected pimps, prostitutes and their customers were arrested last week in the Bay Area during "Operation Strikeout," which was scheduled to coincide with the crowd-drawing festivities around Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in San Francisco, investigators said today.
At a press conference in Oakland, the FBI and several police agencies involved in the sting called the sexual exploitation of child prostitutes an epidemic in the Bay Area and countered what they said was a perception that prostitution is a victimless crime.
They said they arrested four girls under 18 -- including one who brought her 8-month-old child with her to work -- who will face charges but will be steered toward programs in an effort to help them.
The operation began when Oakland police officers at last year's Hot August Nights car show in Reno noticed many Oakland pimps and prostitutes. Pimps, police said, move their women and girls to well-attended events around the country, including the Super Bowl and the All-Star Game.
Undercover officers trolling on the street and the Internet made the arrests July 6-12 in areas including Oakland, San Francisco, South San Francisco, San Jose, Campbell and Fremont.
Officer Roland Holmgren, an Oakland police spokesman, said the city had become one of the worst for prostitution in the western United States.
Nola Brantley, who co-directs a nonprofit group in Oakland that helps sexually exploited youth, said she has seen an increasing number of underage prostitutes in recent years. Their movements, she said, are often controlled by violent pimps - an increasing number of whom are also women.
Brantley said more resources need to be directed at underage prostitutes and called for the creation of special facilities for girls who have been arrested. Now, she said, girls frequently return to their victimizers, including family members. In some cases, pimps take them from group homes and put them back to work.
At a press conference in Oakland, the FBI and several police agencies involved in the sting called the sexual exploitation of child prostitutes an epidemic in the Bay Area and countered what they said was a perception that prostitution is a victimless crime.
They said they arrested four girls under 18 -- including one who brought her 8-month-old child with her to work -- who will face charges but will be steered toward programs in an effort to help them.
The operation began when Oakland police officers at last year's Hot August Nights car show in Reno noticed many Oakland pimps and prostitutes. Pimps, police said, move their women and girls to well-attended events around the country, including the Super Bowl and the All-Star Game.
Undercover officers trolling on the street and the Internet made the arrests July 6-12 in areas including Oakland, San Francisco, South San Francisco, San Jose, Campbell and Fremont.
Officer Roland Holmgren, an Oakland police spokesman, said the city had become one of the worst for prostitution in the western United States.
Nola Brantley, who co-directs a nonprofit group in Oakland that helps sexually exploited youth, said she has seen an increasing number of underage prostitutes in recent years. Their movements, she said, are often controlled by violent pimps - an increasing number of whom are also women.
Brantley said more resources need to be directed at underage prostitutes and called for the creation of special facilities for girls who have been arrested. Now, she said, girls frequently return to their victimizers, including family members. In some cases, pimps take them from group homes and put them back to work.
