Recently, several hundred in our city attended a hard-hitting session on combatting sex trafficking. We learned that dozens of girls have been trafficked from our community alone in recent years, and sex slavery is on the rise in America and around the world. No family is safe from the impacts of trafficking.
After watching the short film Chosen, Benjamin Nolot, founder of the non-profit foundation Exodus Cry, spoke to the group. Exodus Cry produced the sex trafficking documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls. (See below)
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| This image of "GIRLS" deeply troubles me because it demeans my daughters, my sisters and my granddaughters. It makes them "meat". How many of the girls in the establishment that this points toward are sex slaves? I am asking myself.....why are we allowing these signs on public streets??? |
Pimps enslave girls and young women by preying on their vulnerabilities. They may shower them with affection, expensive gifts, and meals to gain their trust. Once they have sex, the girls are captured. Using promises of big money and threats of removal of affection, threats of violence against family members, or threats agains the girls themselves, they remove them from their family and social connections and move them into larger towns. There the girls are sold repeatedly for sex.
Sex slavery pays. Pimps can make more than $300,000 from a single girl, a Los Angeles study found. Making trafficking too risky to operate is one way of fighting back, Nolot says. Our county now has two staff in the District Attorney’s office assigned full time to sex slavery cases. The D.A.’s office reported life sentences have recently been handed down for sex trafficking convictions.
Education is another way of pushing back. Teaching girls in age-appropriate ways to detect lies in the culture and in entertainment is a first levels protection. Later we can teach them to detect the moves of pimps is important.
Dealing with the demand side is something we must manage as a wider society, he believes. If we abandon our young men's masculine education to the culture we are abandoning them to the pornographic culture…..and the pornographic culture feeds the social cancer of sex slavery. Pornography contributes to sex trafficking and the ruin of lives of young women. And.....prostitution is NOT a "victimless crime".
Education is another way of pushing back. Teaching girls in age-appropriate ways to detect lies in the culture and in entertainment is a first levels protection. Later we can teach them to detect the moves of pimps is important.
Dealing with the demand side is something we must manage as a wider society, he believes. If we abandon our young men's masculine education to the culture we are abandoning them to the pornographic culture…..and the pornographic culture feeds the social cancer of sex slavery. Pornography contributes to sex trafficking and the ruin of lives of young women. And.....prostitution is NOT a "victimless crime".
We must begin to see prostitutes as victims — no woman on the planet ever really wanted to be a sex slave. As long as we believe somehow in our hearts that prostitutes have thoughtfully chosen this lifestyle or that they are part of some lower class of humanity, they will continue to be bought and sold.
No one is safe from sex trafficking, Nolot said. Our daughters and the daughters of our families and friends are not safe as long as there is a demand for illicit sex and unscrupulous individuals are willing to prey on them for profit. Slavers prey on girls from good homes, not-so-good homes, rich homes, and poor homes. No one is immune.
We need a paradigm shift. Now more than ever our culture is increasingly toxic in the area of sexuality. Tens of thousands of young girls are enslaved because of our failure to confront these evils in our culture.
We need a paradigm shift. Now more than ever our culture is increasingly toxic in the area of sexuality. Tens of thousands of young girls are enslaved because of our failure to confront these evils in our culture.
You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know. ― William Wilberforce
I think that prevention looks like education. Recognizing the signs help. They are supplying because our town sadly has a demand. We are on an Interstate Highway corridor which is convenient to move these victims back and forth.
ReplyDeletePer previous pimp, we are a soft market because we are viewed as ignorant and uneducated. They are always on the move so they are never caught. They will advertise one individual in our town then in the next really big town down the road just days later making it hard for law enforcement (LE) to follow.
At our women's shelter we see a few girls come in every now and then and the first thing we do is contact LE then one of the anti-trafficking organizations we work with. They have many resources.
Get educated on the signs. They will rent houses or apartments (even nice ones) and move these boys and girls in and out constantly. I personally have seen high profile dark vehicles with dark windows (sometimes in multiples) parked in front of these places. Women dolled up with lifeless looks in their eyes and men who just act suspicious. All the "massage parlors", motels and hotels. Multiple men, even respectable-looking men, coming in and out of one room.
My suggestion is to call LE immediately and do not draw attention to yourself as being suspicious.