Trafficking Updates and Helplines

[escapefromstress]

Incident at Windsor hotel leads to sex trafficking charges

http://windsorstar.com/news/local-ne...icking-charges

A man from Quebec is facing sex trafficking charges after Windsor police investigated an incident involving an 18-year-old female at a local hotel — and uncovered a relationship described as controlling and manipulative.

Police were called around 6:15 a.m. Monday about a disturbance at a downtown hotel. Officers arrived to find a teenage female with visible injuries. Hotel staff told police that the young woman had been assaulted by the man she was staying with at the hotel.

The officers went to the room and arrested a 27-year-old man from Laval, Que.

As police investigated, the 18-year-old victim confessed that she was being manipulated in her relationship with the man.

Police learned that the two had met last June, and the relationship had developed into the man controlling many aspects of the victim’s life. The girl told police it was the man who ultimately directed her into the sex industry — dictating her finances, clientele, and movements throughout Ontario and Quebec.

Police subsequently charged the man. Yves Castor, 27, faces one count of human trafficking, one count of material benefit resulting from trafficking in persons, two counts of assault with a weapon, and one count of common assault.

The 18-year-old female has since been connected with community organizations that will assist in her recovery.

Windsor police emphasized they are committed to fighting human trafficking through the gathering of information, enforcement efforts, and working with other agencies.

“Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, or harbouring of persons for the purpose of exploitation — typically in the sex industry, or for forced labour,” said Windsor police spokesman Sgt. Steve Betteridge. “Exploitation — that’s the key element of the offence.”

Betteridge declined to provide further details about the victim, citing the need to protect her identity.

Last October, Windsor Police Service took part in a nationwide initiative to help the victims of human trafficking. Operation Northern Spotlight came to the assistance of 18 women in Windsor believed to be involved in the sex trade.

Earlier in 2016, Tracy MacCharles, Ontario’s minister responsible for women’s issues, described Windsor as “a hub for this activity.”

Two weeks ago, Essex County OPP Detachment Commander Glenn Miller announced provincial police are implementing a new strategy to combat human trafficking and support those trapped by the crime. “Why am I speaking about this? Because the reality is that it’s occurring right here in Essex County,” Miller wrote. “We reside along the busiest border point in North America.”

Asked how prevalent sex trafficking is in Windsor, Betteridge said the crime is “borderless,” difficult to measure, and often underreported. “It’s something that is cultivated over time,” he said. “(The victims) may not even notice or understand because it’s happening daily and throughout their lives … The message we want to push out there to them is that help is available.”

Betteridge said Windsor police have laid the charge of human trafficking about a dozen times since 2013.

Anyone who is a victim or knows of a victim of these crimes is encouraged to call investigators at 519-255-6700 ext. 4343.

Anonymous tips can be made via Crime Stoppers at 519-258-8477.

(They list a "catchcrooks" reporting website in the article but I get a malware notification when I click on it.)

 

[hungry101]

In the state I live in, several politicians ran and won their re-elections based on an anti-sex trafficking message. Funny, in the circles I travel, no one can give me an example of one incident of sex-trafficking happening here. This is no hobby MECCA. I think this is another example of politicians feeding the public some over-hyped, sensationalized garbage like fish to the penguins. When my niece was traveling to Europe everyone of her friends and many of her relatives said you are going to end up like the girls on the movie "Taken."

The movie "Taken" was the most God-awful movie ever produced. The entire plot was absurd with actors "indicating" etc. But the worst aspect of that bad movie was not the horrendous acting by Liam Nesson who is probably the worst actor of modern time. The worst aspect of that movie was the false information that was spread to the masses about sex trafficking.

A few years prior, I watched a news report on Fox News about a woman claiming that there were 1000's of under aged women escorting in the Atlanta area alone. The woman said that girls start out dancing in clubs at ages as young as 12 years old. From there they would start escorting at 14 years of age. I remember posting a link to this article in The Erotic Review. This was laughed at by escorts and hobbyists alike. The fact is that everyone in the club that dances in Atlanta has a license that hangs in the managers office. The license is to prevent under aged girls from dancing. Sure girls slip through the cracks but do you think that we hobbyists couldn't tell the difference between a 12 year old girl and an 18 year old girl? And to say that 1000's of under aged girls are running around dancing at 12 years old and escorting at 14 years old? This is absurd.

These are the problems that politicians invent. Why? Because these are the only types of problems that politicians can fix: Problems that do not actually exist or barely exist.

I'm sorry...where do they get this crap? Look for someone sharing an orange juice or having someone interpret for them? What nonsense. How about the following:

* Girls putting mustard on French Fries.
* Ordering desert before the main course.
* Walking cats on a leash as if they were dogs.
* Putting the onions and relish underneath the hot-dog.
* Ordering pizza without cheese.
* Wearing their underwear over their jeans.

All these civilians are saying Ahhhh to themselves right now after reading the above.

There is another thread floating around MERB about escorts with day jobs or something like this. I have met women from all walks of life. College grads with no debt. Girls with high paying day jobs. Girls that own condos free and clear. Girls that have traveled all over the world and take exotic warm weather vacations in January and February. Girls with multiple sports cars with names that I can't even pronounce. Women that put their children through private parochial schools and pre-schools.

I do know that there are girls with drug problems out there. Could we do something to help them? I know this isn't a very sexy problem but it still is a problem. Why not try to help them?

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

Hunger101, with your above post, I have read your previous post about debunking the Taken movie. Of course it was embellished as all movies are but to dismiss that as false info is completely wrong. Google sex slaves in eastern Europe and you will find pages and pages on that problem there, it is not false.

 

[hungry101]

Salty - Google Sex trafficking in Atlanta. Or any place for that matter...and they think it is a bad problem.

Oh...and that movie - like it's star Liam Neeson - is low grade dog shit. Of course every movie that that guy is in sucks balls.

 

[CaptRenault]

Hunger101, with your above post, I have read your previous post about debunking the Taken movie. Of course it was embellished as all movies are but to dismiss that as false info is completely wrong. Google sex slaves in eastern Europe and you will find pages and pages on that problem there, it is not false.

STN, I took your advice and googled sex slaves eastern europe and I found the article below (along with a lot of sensationalistic articles making wild, unsubstantiated claims about hundreds of thousands of Eastern European sex slaves.)

I would add that I have had many (probably about 25) encounters with Eastern European sex workers (from Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia and Poland) in FKKs in Germany and Austria and I have never met a girl who even remotely resembled the imagined "sex slave" of movies and anti-prostitution propaganda.

On the other hand, I have heard some believable stories from the girls about lives of poverty or challenging financial circumstances. Those stories sometimes came up in the course of conversations with the girls during our encounters. I felt sorry for the girls that the countries in which they happened to be born had suffered decades of communism and domination by the Soviet Empire. The effects of those decades of tyranny had lasting negative impacts on their countries and their lives, even though most of the girls had been born after the fall of the Soviet Empire.

Happy hookers of Eastern Europe
5 April 2003
The Spectator
Phelim McAleer reveals the truth behind the myth of sex-slave trafficking
Bucharest

The reports of Eastern European women being forced into prostitution in the West are as numerous as they are horrific. They have worried the government so much that the Home Office has plans for a new scheme to provide ‘safe-houses’ for the victims of sex trafficking. But for many who work with these ‘sex slaves’ the women’s accounts are just that – stories. It is seldom reported, but widely known, that most women volunteer for the trip westward because of the money they can make.

The sex-slave stories are suspiciously similar. The women are usually from some deprived backwater. They have naively answered advertisements for jobs as waitresses or nannies in the West. However, when they arrived to start their new life, their documents were confiscated, they were beaten and raped into submission, and forced to become prostitutes. They then claimed to have been kept as sex slaves, sometimes chained to beds, terrified and servicing as many customers as the brothel owner demanded.

According to the International Office of Migration which rescues and shelters these women, there are an estimated 400,000 enduring this existence. But as anyone who works closely with the prostitutes and who isn’t infected with victimitis knows, the IOM version of events is nonsense.

Take Assistant Chief Constable Andy Felton, a British police officer who has been working in Romania for the past three years. Most of his time has been spent on Project Reflex, a unique Romanian/British venture to stem illegal immigration into the UK. As part of the initiative, Felton has interrogated those deported from the UK. ‘Some are tricked into becoming prostitutes, but the overwhelming majority of girls going to the West understand before they leave that they will be working in prostitution,’ says Felton.

He has found that far from being gullible peasant girls, as portrayed by the IOM, most were seasoned prostitutes before they left. For brothel owners ‘experience is essential’; it makes poor business sense to trick unsuspecting girls into the trade. Those without experience but who still want to go are tried out in the nearest big city to avoid making a dud investment.

So the sad and perhaps unpalatable fact is that most Eastern European women working abroad as prostitutes do so out of choice. This choice may be dictated by appalling poverty and lack of opportunity in their home countries but it is, nonetheless, a choice.

The minimum salary in Romania is $50 a month – even less in Moldova and Ukraine. It is not surprising that many women become sex workers, if only to support their families. But if the punters are all living on tiny wages, the amount left over for prostitutes will also be small. No wonder the temptation to do the same work in the West for $100 a client proves just too tempting.

In the sex-slave myth, the recruiters scour Eastern Europe with smooth talk and big promises. These latter-day big bad wolves lure women with offers of jobs and a bright future. A frightening scenario, indeed. It just isn’t true. ‘There is no huge international prostitute recruiting team travelling around Central and Eastern Europe. There is no fleet of Mercs with blacked-out windows and a madam in the back luring women abroad,’ says Felton.

His investigations have found that almost all the women’s westward journeys were arranged by someone they know. ‘This tends to be a family member, or a local person, or someone who has herself been a prostitute in the West.’
Then there are the traffickers/brothel owners: a particularly well-organised bunch – normally the Albanian mafia – we are told. Again, nice story, nice villain, but just not true. ‘It’s more a case of, I know someone with a bus in Timisoara and somebody else knows somebody in Italy who will meet them. It is a loose alliance of contacts. There is no huge criminal structure with a mafia godfather running it,’ says Felton.

He wishes it were that simple. ‘One of the problems tackling these networks is that they are so loose they can easily fall apart,’ he says.

Accounts of widespread cruelty by brothel owners are easy to believe, but do not stand up to scrutiny. The owners are in a business that thrives on the customer who visits regularly and very often has a ‘relationship’ with his favourite girl. No doubt a small number of men get a kick out of seeing women chained to beds or battered and bruised, but for most it would be a turn-off. That is not to say there are not bad and crooked brothel owners. But the women come West voluntarily, and very quickly learn through word of mouth which establishments to avoid.

Despite seldom being reported, Felton’s findings are not news to his Romanian counterparts. Major Marin Banica used to be Romania’s most senior police officer investigating ‘women trafficking’. ‘Very few go abroad without knowing exactly why they are going,’ he says.

However, the Eastern European prostitute as victim is a powerful image, and ever more influential NGOs are reluctant to let the truth get in the way of their story. Take the case of the Cambodia Seven. In 2001, seven Romanian ‘sex slaves’ were found in Cambodia. Their rescuers, who included the IOM, reported how they had been offered jobs as dancers but were then forced into prostitution. Their plight received international media coverage and was mentioned by Brunson McKinney, the IOM director, at an anti-trafficking conference in Bucharest. He said it was an indication of the growing problem.

Yet, according to Banica, the full story of the Cambodia Seven was not told. Before the Romanian authorities could reach Cambodia to organise bringing the women home, one managed to slip away from her ‘rescuers’. Banica does not know where she ended up, but believes she returned to prostitution. Legitimate job opportunities for Romanian women in Cambodia are limited.

Banica does know what happened to the six who returned. ‘Within weeks three of the women had gone to work in Albania – again as prostitutes,’ he says.

The sex-slave myth also portrays Eastern European women as idiots. Banica asks how hundreds of thousands of women from the same pockets of the country could have been repeatedly tricked. For this to be true, it also means no duped woman has ever come home and, if they have, they have never talked to family and friends about their experiences.

To accept the sex-slave myth, one must also accept that none of the women or their families or friends has ever read a newspaper or watched Romanian television, where the story is given widespread and often sensational coverage. Or maybe they do and that is exacerbating the problem.

A recent Romanian television public-awareness campaign shows faceless men recruiting naive women while salivating over the massive sums of money to be made. The emphasis on the huge amounts of cash available could be all the encouragement that some women need.

Phelim McAleer is the Financial Times correspondent for Romania.

 

[escapefromstress]

Human trafficking law starts from scratch, without tougher sentencing provisions

Conservatives accuse government of giving perpetrators of 'unspeakable crimes' a break

By Kathleen Harris, CBC News Posted: Feb 09, 2017 5:48 PM ET Last Updated: Feb 09, 2017 5:50 PM ET

The Liberal government has retabled legislation to clamp down on human trafficking — nearly two years after a previous bill passed in Parliament but was never brought into force.

But the new bill, which will start from scratch in the legislative process, will exclude the tougher sentencing provisions in the original legislation.

According to background material provided by the government, the consecutive sentencing requirement was removed because it could result in "disproportionately lengthy sentences" when combined with other penalties for human trafficking offences.

"There is a significant risk that this could amount to cruel and unusual punishment contrary to Section 12 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," the government briefing reads.

The sentencing provision in the former bill, which required judges to impose consecutive sentences for other offences related to the trafficking events, will be considered as part of a broader review of the criminal justice system, including mandatory minimum sentences, by Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Law never brought into force

Bill C-452 was a private member's bill from former MP Maria Mourani and received royal assent in June 2015, but was never brought into force before Parliament was dissolved in 2015 for the election, or after.

The bill contained a provision that it would be in force by an order in council, or decision by cabinet, rather than on a specific date.

The new legislation tabled today, Bill C-38, aims to reduce the likelihood that victims of trafficking would have to testify in court, puts the onus on a convicted offender to prove their property is not proceeds of crime, and makes it easier for the state to seize the proceeds of crime.

"What we sought to do was to support the reintroduction of this piece of legislation, ensuring that it is charter compliant, and in doing so, providing additional tools for law enforcement and prosecutors to make it more easy to be able to prosecute in this area," Wilson-Raybould told CBC News in an interview.

'This is unbelievable'

But Conservative justice critic Rob Nicholson accused the government of giving a "break" to human traffickers who commit multiple crimes.

"This is unbelievable," he said during question period in the House of Commons. "This bill says people convicted of human trafficking will not have to serve consecutive sentences when they commit additional unspeakable crimes against victims. Why is it that the Liberals are always so worried about giving a break to criminals? Why don't they start sticking up for the victims for a change?"

Human trafficking can include forced labour, forced prostitution and other sex-related work.

According to the government background material, the bill will:

• Help prosecutors prove one of the elements of the trafficking offence, that the accused exercised control, direction or influence over the movements of a victim, by establishing that the accused lived with or was habitually in the company of an exploited person.
• Put the onus on offenders convicted of human trafficking offences to prove that their property is not proceeds of crime in certain circumstances.
• Correct a technical discrepancy between the English and French definitions of the term exploitation for the purposes of the human trafficking offences.

Former Conservative MP Joy Smith, who pushed two laws on human trafficking in Parliament, said removing the consecutive sentencing provisions reflects a "philosophical change" by the Liberal government that puts offender rights ahead of the victims. She said the bill was already scrutinized for constitutionality and approved by MPs from all political camps.

"To gut it and start over again, they will wind up with a piece of paper, not an effective bill in any way, shape or form," she told CBC News.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/huma...eral-1.3974776

 

[escapefromstress]

No Super Bowl Sex-Trafficking Hordes in Houston

Where were all the Super Bowl 2017 sex-traffickers? Living only in activist and law-enforcement imaginations, it seems.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown|Feb. 7, 2017 8:30 am

In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the usual cabal of activists, government officials, and click-hungry hacks in the media began their annual process of entirely fabricating an epidemic of Super Bowl-related sexual violence. Once upon a time, the (wholly unsubstantiated) rumor was that domestic violence spiked during big sporting events like the Super Bowl, but for the past decade or so the hysteria has coalesced around sex trafficking. To hear the hysterics tell it, thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of sex-selling women will flock like cockroaches to cities where sports-fans gather, and only some will be there willingly; the rest, including many children, are trucked in by opportunistic pimps and traffickers.

As ample people have pointed out—see these pieces from author and sex worker Maggie McNeill, theology scholar Benjamin L. Corey, sports writer Jon Wertheim, and journalist Anna Merlan, for starters, or check out this 2011 report from the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women—there's not a shred of evidence to support this rumor about sports-related spikes in sex trafficking. Any examinations of actual arrest data in Super Bowl cities shows no corresponding spike in sex trafficking, compelling prostitution, or any other similar charge—despite the verifiable spike in law-enforcement and media attention to the issue. Sometimes we see spikes in the number of women arrested for prostitution, but this could be attributed as much to an uptick in vice stings around Super Bowl as an increase in local prostitution levels (and is, regardless, not the same thing as a spike in sex trafficking).

Super Bowl 2017 was held in Houston, which sits in Harris County, Texas. Each day, the county posts its previous 24-hours worth of arrests on the Harris County Sherrif's Office (HCSO) website. The arrest report for February 6, 2017, contains more than 11 pages of arrests, including 12 for prostitution, a lot of DUI and driving-on-a-suspended-license charges, some marijuana possession, several assaults, theft, forgery, driving without a seatbelt, one "parent contributing to truancy," and a few for racing on the highway. The February 7 HSCO arrest log shows three arrests for prostitution. But neither reveals a single arrest for sex trafficking, soliciting a minor, pimping, promoting prostitution, compelling prostitution, or any other charges that might suggest forced or voluntary sex trade.

The Houston Police Department (HPD) does not post arrest logs online, and I unable to obtain any numbers from them directly. I spoke with HPD's public affairs office Monday morning and was told someone would get back to me once the vice department had tallied the numbers, but I have yet to get a response. But the public affairs officer also pointed me to the Harris County District Clerk's Office, which contains case information for people arrested by all in-county police departments, including HPD. Between the Saturday before the Super Bowl and the Tuesday morning after, no criminal complaints were filed against anyone for sex trafficking, soliciting a minor, pimping, promoting prostitution, compelling prostitution, etc.

Searching police statements and Houston media likewise turns up no post-Super Bowl mention of sex trafficking, though the subject made plenty of news just before the big game. "As Houston starts to party, there are extra eyes on the crowds," KHOU news reported Thursday after talking to HPD Chief Art Acevado. "Undercover officers are looking for everything from prostitution to human trafficking." At that point, however, they had only made prostitution arrests, booking 22 people on prostitution charges on February 2. KHOU also reported that police "helped get three woman off the streets, one a 19-year-old."

In the days leading up to and following the Super Bowl, Houston Police shared crime info from the department's social media accounts, and Houston news outlets reported on multiple Super Bowl–adjacent shootings, robberies, and other incidents of crime and violence. Neither law enforcement nor the local press mentioned any incidents, investigations, or arrests related to sex trafficking.

In the end, the Super Bowl may have "brought attention to human trafficking," but attention in the absence of a problem isn't anything to celebrate. It's what people today like to refer to as "fake news," and the people who propagate it year after year—police departments looking to justify vice stings and asset forfeiture, missionary groups looking to fundraise or justify federal anti-trafficking grants, sensationalist media, and state and national politicians with human-trafficking measures to promote—are not brave human-rights pioneers and "abolitionists" but propagandists, plain and simple.

http://reason.com/blog/2017/02/07/su...icking-arrests

 

[escapefromstress]

I Am Jane Doe - opened in select US cities on Feb. 10/17


ABOUT THE FILM

I Am Jane Doe chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex-trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the Village Voice. Reminiscent of Erin Brockovich and Karen Silkwood, these mothers have stood up on behalf of thousands of other mothers, fighting back and refusing to take no for an answer.

I Am Jane Doe is a gut-wrenching human story and fresh look at a social and legal issue that affects every community in America.

Advance praise: “a gripping legal thriller” (Esquire); “a powerful call to action” (The Los Angeles Times); “a viscerally emotional case” (The Washington Post); “a powerful piece of work” (Elle), “striking, powerful” (The Film Journal).

50% of all profits from this project will be donated to organizations which serve Jane Doe children.

Film trailer here: http://www.iamjanedoefilm.com/

 

[gugu]

Gee, escapefromstress, why do you select articles that spread so much bullshit? What's your point?

This film is about propaganda that justify closure of Internet sites like the one you are posting in right now.

Are you trying to preach us something? I'm asking because the more posts you do, the more the trend becomes obvious.

I'd suggest that if your purpose is to show the dark side of this business, you could select source that are a bit less ideological. Hint: criminology.

 

[escapefromstress]

Gee, escapefromstress, why do you select articles that spread so much bullshit? What's your point?

This film is about propaganda that justify closure of Internet sites like the one you are posting in right now.

Are you trying to preach us something? I'm asking because the more posts you do, the more the trend becomes obvious.

I'd suggest that if your purpose is to show the dark side of this business, you could select source that are a bit less ideological. Hint: criminology.

.

Myself and reverdy will continue to post all articles we find that are relevant to trafficking in Canada and the USA.


You know, I've thought about what type of people are most likely to protest LOUDLY about this thread. You know who?

Traffickers, pimps, gang members and their friends who profit from trafficking and pimping, because they obviously don't want the subject to be discussed.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

.You know, I've thought about what type of people are most likely to protest LOUDLY about this thread. You know who?

Traffickers, pimps, gang members and their friends who profit from trafficking and pimping, because they obviously don't want the subject to be discussed.

Yup, hit the nail on the head, Gugu, grand pimp daddy, making a killing off trafficked girls ound:

 

[escapefromstress]

Yup, hit the nail on the head, Gugu, grand pimp daddy, making a killing off trafficked girls ound:

.

I'm honestly not familiar with who does what in the Quebec market, but I'll take your word for it.


Seriously people, I have Fred's blessing, the Mods blessing, and reverdy's help posting this information on review boards across Canada. We're not going to stop because it makes a few people feel uncomfortable.

 

[hungry101]

You know STN....I met Gugu at backyard barbecue. What tipped me off wasn't the purple velvet suit and matching derby with the pheasant tail feather. Nor was it the fact that he was adorned in gold and and each finger was adorned with a diamond ring...nor was it the pimp cane inlaid with gold and ivory....it was the fact that he was sitting next to a girl reading a book upside down!!!!

But seriously Escape From Stress, Gugu is known to be a scholar that has devoted part of his life to scholarly study of prostitution. When you say, what you said in bold....this amounts to a type of McCarthyism...this is the same way that Stalin consolidated his power with the purges of 1937 and 42 and after.

"You mean you challenge my assumptions about Trotsky etc.???? Then you must be one of them?" Off to the Gulag you go.

Gugu pointed out that you are posting nonsense and therefore propagating a falsehood. I don't disagree. Please tell me where I am wrong. I want to catch these bastards too but this is BS. Please educate us by posting something that isn't nonsense. I want to help.

 

[escapefromstress]

You know STN....I met Gugu at backyard barbecue. What tipped me off wasn't the purple velvet suit and matching derby with the pheasant tail feather. Nor was it the fact that he was adorned in gold and and each finger was adorned with a diamond ring...nor was it the pimp cane inlaid with gold and ivory....it was the fact that he was sitting next to a girl reading a book upside down!!!!

But seriously Escape From Stress, Gugu is known to be a scholar that has devoted part of his life to scholarly study of prostitution. When you say, what you said in bold....this amounts to a type of McCarthyism...this is the same way that Stalin consolidated his power with the purges of 1937 and 42 and after.

"You mean you challenge my assumptions about Trotsky etc.???? Then you must be one of them?" Off to the Gulag you go.

Gugu pointed out that you are posting nonsense and therefore propagating a falsehood. I don't disagree. Please tell me where I am wrong. I want to catch these bastards too but this is BS. Please educate us by posting something that isn't nonsense. I want to help.

.

Where did I say I agreed or disagreed with any of the theories or stats presented in these articles?

I've been in the industry for over 12 years myself and am quite aware of the propaganda and conflated stats presented by the media and anti-sexwork activists.

All I'm doing is posting the articles, not endorsing them, as reverdy so eloquently wrote earlier in this thread.

I agree with you completely gugu and hungry101. The movie is bullshit, and educating people in our industry so they can learn to tell the difference between the truth and the bullshit is a good thing, so THANK YOU for your comments and critiques, and please continue.

:smile:

I guess what I'm saying is, "Don't shoot the messenger." Criticize the articles, rather than criticizing me or questioning my motives for posting this thread. reverdy and many others can vouch for my integrity and dedication to making our industry safer for everyone.

 

[gugu]

.

Traffickers, pimps, gang members and their friends who profit from trafficking and pimping, because they obviously don't want the subject to be discussed.

That was gross. Even here some have had enough of me discussing it all the time.

The difference between you and Reverdy, is simply that Reverdy was part of many discussions and he is well known to be particularly lucid in his vision of the sex work scene. He sees it as it is, not with pink glasses . What he posts is usually what's in the main press, indiscriminately, so yes mostly the newspaper bullshit. It is indeed very useful when you follow closely the information trends.

Ok, Ive been rude again, and I apologize. I follow Laura Agustine on Facebook. Everyday, she posts three or four quotes or titles and she shows how the readers are literally indoctrinated in the big moral panic about human trafficking. The huge salvation business that was created with the help of massive public and private donations, is based on lies, uses a constructed vocabulary, trafficking the meaning of words. That's not denying the huge amount of exploitation in the business. It's denying the image made of it for pure funding reasons.

 

[escapefromstress]

That was gross. Even here some have had enough of me discussing it all the time.

The difference between you and Reverdy, is simply that Reverdy was part of many discussions and he is well known to be particularly lucid in his vision of the sex work scene. He sees it as it is, not with pink glasses . What he posts is usually what's in the main press, indiscriminately, so yes mostly the newspaper bullshit. It is indeed very useful when you follow closely the information trends.

Ok, Ive been rude again, and I apologize. I follow Laura Agustine on Facebook. Everyday, she posts three or four quotes or titles and she shows how the readers are literally indoctrinated in the big moral panic about human trafficking. The huge salvation business that was created with the help of massive public and private donations, is based on lies, uses a constructed vocabulary, trafficking the meaning of words. That's not denying the huge amount of exploitation in the business. It's denying the image made of it for pure funding reasons.

.

It might surprise you to know that almost every article I've posted so far was originally posted by reverdy, in the C-36 sticky thread above, or on another forum we both participate on. So I guess you're judging what's been posted by who posted it, rather than on it's own merits.

Part of the problem here might be that merb is much more familiar to me, than I am to merb.

I began posting on perb in 2010, and have posted on all 3 of Fred's boards over the years.

I'm on invisible mode all the time, so you don't realize that I've been helping to 'watch over' merb/terb/perb almost every day for the last 5 or 6 years. I care about the entire industry, not just my local board, so I watch for trolls and other criminals that want to hurt our members.

The mods and Fred can tell you that I've probably reported batman57 spam posts, PM's and new handles he's registered with, more than just about any other member on merb.

Up until last year, I was in regular contact with Fred and various mods, giving them intel about industry websites being hacked, spammed, DDoS'd or threatened by other website owners.

I'm partly responsible for getting the old 'gss' website taken offline because I volunteered my time to do countless hours of research, and paid my money to a lawyer so he could teach me how to use internet law to fight cybercriminals, and I've been teaching board members across the country how to deal with cyberbullying, defamation, outing, harassment, stalking, etc. ever since.

I understand you're an advocate for the industry gugu - and so am I. We're both fighting on the same side of the battle, so let's not fight each other.



Edit: Apology accepted, and I apologize also for inferring you might be a pimp.

eace:

 

[gugu]

I'm not an advocate of the industry. It's not mine, I have no interest in it. I don't want it to expand neither to shrink. It's what it is. No one can influence the industry significantly. My only participation in it is as a client and for some time as mod in the pink board providing huge amount of free time to provide the same sort of intel as you do. The reason I did it was to get some understanding of certain aspects of the industry. I would be an advocate if I was part of it or paid to do advocacy work. I'm neither. From now on, I'll stop intervening in this thread.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1016158/travail-sexe-prostitution-recherche-universite-victoria

 

[escapefromstress]

How One Woman Survived Sex Trafficking
KATHRYN LINDSAY
JANUARY 10, 2017, 6:00 PM

For most of Jessa Dillow Crisp's life, she faced sexual abuse. Her family was a part of a group who sexually abused her as a child, and after growing up in the world of child pornography, she was forced into sex trafficking. Crisp was taken to different cities and countries and sold to friends and pimps, and this is just the beginning of her story. She recently opened up about all of it in an essay and accompanying video for the "Real Women, Real Stories" project for Global Citizen.

The "Real Women, Real Stories" project seeks to promote awareness of women who fight their battles and have overcome significant hardship. "Significant hardship" sounds like an understatement for Crisp, who managed to escape the sex trafficking of her youth, only to be tricked back into it during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

While Crisp had entered a safe house in Vancouver after being rescued abroad, it shut down due to lack of funds, and she was once again on her own.

"A woman approached me, and the first thing out of her mouth was, 'Oh, I think you've been abused,'" Crisp remembers in a touching video (above). Crisp followed the woman back home where she found she had once again been pulled into human trafficking.

"The individuals who held me against my will were defining what was happening, and although I was the one experiencing the pain, they owned my body," she writes in her blog post.

Crisp didn't believe that her life could be anything more than the abuse she had already experienced, but after finding herself at a safe house in the US after her second trafficking experience, she heard the words she needed to hear: "If you can read, you can learn anything." Crisp wrote that on her arm in Sharpie every day for over a year.

Last May, Crisp was giving a speech as the valedictorian of her graduating class. She graduated with a BA in Clinical Counseling and went on to get married. She's currently pursuing a MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, a step towards her goal of obtaining a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology that focuses on trauma recovery.

"My past no longer has the power to hold me captive," Crisp concludes in the post. "I am a leader, I am an agent of change, and I am a confident woman who longs to make a difference in society."

View video here: http://www.refinery29.com/2017/01/13...a-dillow-crisp

 

[blkone]

In the state I live in, several politicians ran and won their re-elections based on an anti-sex trafficking message. Funny, in the circles I travel, no one can give me an example of one incident of sex-trafficking happening here. This is no hobby MECCA. I think this is another example of politicians feeding the public some over-hyped, sensationalized garbage like fish to the penguins.

NO IT IS NOT! HUMAN SLAVERY HAS BEEN ON THE INCREASE SINCE THE BOSNIAN WAR AND WENT THROUGH THE ROOF AFTER THE TERRORIST ATTACKS OF 2001.

Sex-Slaves are real, I have seen them with my own eyes.

Not to mention clothes and electronics that are made by slave children. Little kids FFS!
I find it disgusting that we still import slave goods to be perfectly honest. Fuck slavery. Sex trade or otherwise. :rockon:

 

[escapefromstress]

Ashton Kutcher Claims He Helped Cops Save Way More Sex-Trafficking Victims Than Authorities Say They've Found

How can Kutcher's group have helped in dramatically more sex-trafficking investigations than were actually opened across America?

Elizabeth Nolan Brown|Feb. 15, 2017 2:30 pm

http://reason.com/blog/2017/02/15/as...-worker-savior

On Wednesday, actor Ashton Kutcher testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on behalf of Thorn, an anti-sexual exploitation organization he co-founded with Demi Moore. Thorn's main project is Spotlight, a cloud-based data-collection and analysis tool that purportedly helps police find sex traffickers. According to Kutcher's testimony before Sen. John McCain and other U.S. lawmakers, the app—funded by the McCain Foundation—has helped save more than 6,000 U.S. sex-trafficking victims, including 2,000 minors, in the past 12 months.

But there's something fishy about these and other stats put forth about Spotlight. According to Cloudera, the company behind Spotlight's technology, the app was used in 8,305 criminal investigations into sex trafficking between September 2015 and September 2016, identifying 4,624 adult victims and 2,025 minor sex-trafficking victims (defined in the U.S. as anyone under age 18 engaging in prostitution).

These numbers wildly outpace the average number of new criminal investigations into sex trafficking opened in the U.S. each year or average number of victims identified by U.S. law enforcement. For instance, between late 2009 and late 2015, FBI agents working with state and local police across America identified an average of just 175 minor victims per year, according to the Attorney General's 2015 Annual Report to Congress and Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The report also notes that in goverment fiscal-year 2015, the FBI identified around 672 adult and child victims of sex or labor trafficking. The FBI opened 802 human-trafficking investigations (resulting in 453 convictions) that year, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) opened 1,034 sex- or labor-trafficking investigations (and got 51 sex-trafficking convictions). In addition, Uniform Crime Reporting data from the states indicates that 744 investigations into state-level sex-trafficking offenses were opened in 2015.

There's almost certainly overlap between the FBI and state investigations. But even if we count all cases separately, we're looking at a toal of 2,580 investigations into sex or labor trafficking—5,725 less cases than Thorn allegedly helped identify in a one-year period.

While final state and federal data from 2016 has not yet been released, the Justice Department did put out a January 2017 report summing up the previous year's efforts to combat human trafficking. It mentions neither a significant increase in the number of victims identified or investigations opened in 2016. The FBI and its human-trafficking task force partners among state and local law-enforcement opened around 1,800 investigations into sex- or labor-trafficking last year.

How can Kutcher's group have helped in dramatically more sex-trafficking investigations than were actually opened across America? I can see two explanations. But first, it's important to note how Spotlight works. While no one involved will divulge specifics—Kutcher told Congress he "can't disclose exactly how it works," and my multiple attempts to communicate with Thorn have gone unanswered—what we do know about the app is that it collects and analyzes adult ads posted to Backpage and similar sites. Using proprietary techniques, Spotlight pinpoints ads allegedly likely to feature sex trafficking.

It's impossible to know how accurate their method is without more details. But the majority of adult ads on Backpage are posted by sex workers themselves, and the people arrested in cops' "human trafficking" stings based on these ads are predominantly sex workers and/or men looking to pay other adults for sex. Police might be looking for trafficking victims when they contact ads featuring young-looking women or certain supposed code words, but when their hunches don't pan out (and this is most of the time), they arrest the target for prostitution.

Considering the data we do have on state and federal human trafficking cases, the only way the numbers from Kutcher's group could make sense is if a) they're counting every red-flag ad Spotlight identifies, regardless of whether these tips are ultimately deemed worthwhile enough to prompt a criminal investigation, or b) they're counting cases of consensual prostitution between adults and lumping all adult sex workers identified into the "adult trafficking victim" numbers.