Sex Workers Rally

(CBS) — About a dozen sex workers and their friends held a rally at Daley Plaza Thursday afternoon — in support of Alisha Walker, the prostitute who was sentenced a week ago to 15 years in prison for killing a man.

The sex workers were upset with a newspaper headline that referred to Alisha Walker as a “hooker.”

“How disrespectful. How gross. How whore-phobic that language is,” demonstration organizer Brit Schulte said.

But Schulte was asked about Alisha Walker’s own statement at sentencing when she reportedly said, “I shouldn’t have been selling myself.”

“Yeah, you say a lot of things when you’re trying to not get locked up for an indeterminate amount of time. I certainly would probably say a lot of things to get out of prison time,” Schulte responded.

Schulte says sex workers have to pay bills like everybody else.

“We want there to be safe working conditions. We want there to be protections. And then we want decriminalization now for our labor,” she said.

After the sex workers spoke to reporters, they wrote letters of support of Walker.

The 23-year-old was convicted of the 2014 stabbing death of Alan Filan, a Brother Rice teacher. Filan had summoned her and another woman to his Orland Park home after contacting them through an online ad. Walker claimed a dispute erupted with Filan, followed by violence.