Just as an aside here, it's worth noting that hardly anybody lived in the meat packing district at that time. I lived not far from the area for most of the '90s, and I often had occasion to walk through on my way somewhere. The streets were deserted at night, generally, and few lights ever shined from residential buildings. The rare people who lived in the neighborhood were artists or other Bohemian types who converted industrial building space into lofts for themselves.

When the NYPD launched occasional campaigns to arrest and jail trans sex workers, they were not responding to community pressure, and what they were doing did not improve anybody's quality of life.

It was PR, pure and simple. "Look at us going after the deviants! Support your police!"

Very, very ugly stuff.