SPOTLIGHT CASE Human Trafficking Awareness Thread

[ClementineK]

* Within 48 hours of hitting the streets, one third of these children are lured or recruited into the underground world of prostitution or .

THAT just blew me away. I have NEVER heard that before….I'm so surprised. You would think that the public would be more aware of these horrible statistics. You hear about runaways all the time, and information about missing teenagers, especially. But that just ups the seriousness of the danger they are in SO much. Oh my God.

 

[ClementineK]

That HAS to also effect the number of children/young people who may be deceased, and whether that's known or not known,...never identified….
They could be a John or Jane Doe that was transported far, far away from home …..

 

[dotr]

http://www.680news.com/2014/09/15/b...ed-on-30-charges-including-human-trafficking/

'VANCOUVER – A British Columbia man who lured teenage girls into prostitution has been convicted of 30 charges including human trafficking, believed to be the first such conviction in the province.

Reza Moazami was charged with 36 counts that also included living on the avails of a juvenile, sexual assault and sexual interference"

<<<Snip>>>

"Court heard a girl who&#8217;d become addicted to crack cocaine at age 12 allegedly began working for Moazami when she was 16 after meeting him at a shopping mall food court"

 

[dotr]

http://www.680news.com/2014/10/07/n...harges-in-nationwide-human-trafficking-sting/

"ORILLIA, Ont. – Police say a 12-year-old Winnipeg girl was among 18 people who were brought to safety during a nationwide human-trafficking investigation.

They say 33 charges have been laid against nine people, including forcible confinement, making and distributing child , assault and trafficking in persons.

Twenty-six police forces were involved in Operation Northern Spotlight, including those in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Halifax and Quebec City"

 

[dotr]

Thanks to poster TedMac for link..

http://www.wbtw.com/story/27777761/sc-ag-wants-new-law-to-fight-human-trafficking
rbbm

"South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is calling on state lawmakers to pass a new law to fight human trafficking in the state. "We have a human trafficking problem in South Carolina. It is very real. Modern-day slavery is alive and well here in our state," he told reporters at the Statehouse Tuesday.

The bill he wants lawmakers to pass would give the state grand jury the power to investigate human trafficking cases. Now, while human traffickers cross city, county, and state lines, investigators can work only on the crimes that happen within their jurisdictions.

North Charleston Detective Charlie Benton says, "Once I'm able to establish a good rapport with a victim and they're talking and they're disclosing very, very graphic, very painful details about their victimization, I don't want to have to stop them and say, 'That's great that you're telling me all this, but I can only work with what you've told me has occurred within my jurisdiction.'"

Wilson says there's no accurate number available for how big the problem is in South Carolina."

 

[Frigga]

God bless Charlie Benson and all of the others who are fighting the good fight for these victims. I am grateful to hear anyone refer to this as human trafficking and NOT prostitution.

I attended a talk last spring at Poly High in downtown Long Beach and it was terrifying but informative.

My heart breaks for these victims- especially the youngest ones. Some are just too vulnerable to ever recover and the help that comes after the rescue is often times slim to none.

Thank you for this thread- the articles and conversations. I am learning a lot.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Holly Austin Smith thought she was running away from her Tuckerton home to a better life. She found, instead, a life of forced prostitution on the streets of Atlantic City.

There are nearly 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, including hundreds of thousands of victims in the U.S., according to estimates by the Switzerland-based International Labour Organization. Some are taken for prostitution. Others work as slaves.

"It (human trafficking) is all around us," Smith said. "It's in our restaurants. It's in our communities. It's in our homes."

Runaway and homeless youth are particularly at risk, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. A 2000 study by the Center for Impact Research, a now defunct Chicago-based nonprofit working to combat poverty, found that 72 percent of the girls interviewed who had engaged in prostitution before the age of 15 in the greater Chicago area had run away from home.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/st...itution-pinelands-grad-warns-others/21465205/

 

[lovinlife83]

http://www.abc6onyourside.com/news/...ex-Trafficking-Busts-69045.shtml#.VLsLj8bWvG5

Eighteen woman who were reportedly sex slaves inside several Central Ohio massage parlors were rescued Wednesday by law enforcement, after a sweep of area businesses.

Members of the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force raided businesses in Powell, Columbus, and Worthington, after receiving tips illegal sex acts were being performed by women forced into sex trafficking, and that many of the victims may have been living inside the locations.

&#8220;They were sleeping on tables, there were refrigerators, food, surveillance revealed they did not leave the locations,&#8221; said Powell Police Chief Gary Vest.

 

[lovinlife83]

The Polaris Project, an anti-human trafficking organization based in the District of Columbia, for seven years has operated a national hotline for victims to call when they're in desperate need of help. The hotline has received more than 75,000 calls, and specialists manning it previously had to navigate between a caller's location on Google Maps, a Microsoft Word document detailing 215 protocols for handling specific situations and a list of nearly 3,000 resources &#8211; including shelters, legal services and local law enforcement agencies &#8211; available to victims through Polaris' network.
...
Within a few weeks, Palantir had created software that streamlined Polaris&#8217; network of resources into a single dashboard for call specialists to use.

&#8220;What Palantir does is sit on all those different data sets &#8211; the location information, it has those protocols, it has all 2,700 resources &#8211; and the call specialist says, &#8216;This is where my crisis is happening,&#8217;&#8221; Kimball says. &#8220;You&#8217;ll basically click a button and it will show you, 'OK, here is the way to respond in that area.'&#8221;
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles...g-used-in-the-fight-against-human-trafficking

 

[imamaze]

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/...ed-sex-trafficking-hits-home-carmel/21935273/

'My world just stopped': Sex trafficking hits home in Carmel

t was the day after Christmas in 2012, and Sandy was hunting for a wooden salad bowl at the outlet mall in Edinburgh when her cellphone rang. The Carmel woman dug the phone from her purse and glanced at the caller ID.

She didn't recognize the number.

Sandy almost tossed the phone back in her purse, but something made her hesitate. She decided to listen to the voicemail.

A man identified himself as Detective Chad Opitz, part of an FBI task force in the Portland, Ore., area.

 

[dotr]

http://news.yahoo.com/lured-off-str...topstories.html;_ylt=A0LEVj.aMMNU9NQAr0YnnIlQ

"In his upcoming PBS documentary, “A Path Appears,” New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof says it’s time we acknowledge sex trafficking as an American problem, and that we take a hard look at prostitution and the notion of choice, especially by women.

“It's basically seen as a public nuisance issue, rather than as a human rights problem,” Kristof said. “And the person the police and prosecutors go after is the victim, is the 16-year-old girl, rather than the perpetrator, the pimp, or the customer.”

The average age for young girls to enter into prostitution is 12 to 14 years old, according to a University of Pennsylvania study. So many of these women, Kristof said, start off as young runaways. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimates that in 2013, one in seven endangered runaways reported to them were likely sex trafficking victims, and a huge number of them are foster care kids".

 

[ask2wilson]

We are not pointing to people of any country, but making the point in the increase of Human Traffacking, be it to make slave or for sex market. The main point is there is a rise and one should be aware, that in such a developed country like US, Human Traffacking is increasing at at rapid pace. Hope the awareness spreads and people come into action, to stop this evil thing.

 

[chipmunk]

Hello Everyone,
I always thought trafficking of mostly young girls is done by Russian criminal gangs and apart from my own community. Most of us think of prostitution as a person voluntarily selling themselves. Tonight I watched a PBS program " A Path Appears" which can be seen through February 16 online at your leisure. It'a about missing girls, forced drugs to control the girls and how and why it is so difficult to escape. You have to see the entire episode to understand it. Truly enlightening. I urge everyone to watch it, parents, Law Enforcement personnel, teachers and anyone who cares about the missing. This video also provides examples for LE to reduce the problem. Keep in mind most of the girls shown are of a lower class but it happens across all classes, especially to run a ways. Some are approached in malls, many online.

In some of the missing threads I've read people disregard the possibility of trafficking. This will change your mind. Here's the video link:

http://video.pbs.org/program/independent-lens/

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/...n-helps-bust-human-traffickers-290008671.html

The mother of a runaway teen is being credited with breaking up a Puget Sound human-trafficking ring. Two suspects have been arrested and the state patrol is asking for help in arresting a third, 18-year-old Mikael Williams of Tacoma...

Charging papers say the three operated a sophisticated human trafficking ring using motels along the I-5 corridor mainly in Tacoma, but stretching from Everett through Olympia. Police say they use the marketing website backpage.com and craigslist to market the girls for sex. The mother of one of those victim's found her daughter's photo on backpage.com and took it upon herself to get her daughter back.

"She really kind of did her own sting and located the hotel they were using and set up a 'meet' and recovered her daughter," said Lt. Ron Mead of WSP Missing and Exploited Children's Task Force.

 

[monster]

As a truck driver who has been to every state (not Alaska or Hawaii), every highway, every truck stop, non of this comes as surprise to me. It's not becoming a increasing problem it's has been an epidemic for some time now. I've seen hundreds of females and males being trafficked. Society needs to stop tuning this issue out as well as law enforcement agencies. Made several complaints about girls, boys, and adults of both genders being sold not once did anyone ever come, and it hurt my soul.

Some of yall might be in the industry, or just travel for fun. This website offers great tools to help someone's situation. You can also hear the stories about the men and women who have been bought and sold like a commodity, and how they are transported as such.

www.truckersagainsttrafficking.org/

 

[MyBelle]

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/...ed-sex-trafficking-hits-home-carmel/21935273/

'My world just stopped': Sex trafficking hits home in Carmel

t was the day after Christmas in 2012, and Sandy was hunting for a wooden salad bowl at the outlet mall in Edinburgh when her cellphone rang. The Carmel woman dug the phone from her purse and glanced at the caller ID.

She didn't recognize the number.

Sandy almost tossed the phone back in her purse, but something made her hesitate. She decided to listen to the voicemail.

A man identified himself as Detective Chad Opitz, part of an FBI task force in the Portland, Ore., area.

That is an excellent article and it should be required reading for every parent of a teenage daughter. Predators are on the prowl.

The link listed for restoredindiana.org doesn't work but sounds like a very necessary resource dedicated to help these young women and their families. Kudos to them.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.kgw.com/story/news/crime...support-lawsuit-against-backpagecom/22082225/

A website police and lawmakers say is a big part of human trafficking cases is now facing a federal lawsuit.

Now, the city of Portland is about to join in the fight against BackPage.com. City commissioners say they expect a unanimous vote to file a legal brief of support in their council meeting Jan. 21st. The city of San Francisco is doing the same.

The lawsuit involves three Massachusetts girls who were allegedly trafficked on the site. It seeks damages for the girls, and a change in practices for how Backpage.com operates. The lawsuit says the site "promotes, supports and benefits from child sex trafficking."

https://www.techwire.net/san-francisco-file-brief-support-federal-suit-online-advertiser/

Attorneys from Portland and San Francisco are preparing a joint brief to support the plaintiffs in Jane Doe No. 1, et al, v. Backpage.com, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in fall.

&#8220;The City of Portland should support efforts to provide remedies for victims of human sex trafficking against those who knowingly profit from promoting this unlawful activity,&#8221; according to a resolution that Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Dan Saltzman will present to City Council on Wednesday.

A similar case came before the Washington Supreme Court in October and is awaiting a decision.

 

[GigTu]

On a positive note:
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/20/so...-enforcement-in-finding-victims/?ncid=tcdaily

Rescue Forensics builds search software that helps law enforcement officials collect and document online evidence that could be used to prosecute traffickers in court.

Rescue Forensics provides a way to document and manage listings that can quickly pop up and disappear on Craigslist or other listing sites across an entire region.

Dalton said that so far, nine victims have been rescued.

When he got a call about the very first one, he was in tears. She was a 16-year-old who was being moved around from Dallas to San Antonio and then Amarillo, Texas.

&#8220;Using Rescue Forensics, they were able to track her movement, plug in her phone, find her location, conduct a sting and rescue her,&#8221; he said.

Hamric and Dalton are offering the software for free. They now have a few hundred state and local agencies using it across the U.S. and Europe.

https://www.facebook.com/RescueForensics

http://www.rescueforensics.com

 

[dotr]

http://www.cp24.com/news/arrests-ma...tel-and-forced-to-work-in-sex-trade-1.2261833

" Two men and one woman are facing a combined 30 charges after a 14-year-old girl was held in a downtown Toronto hotel room for a week and forced to provide sexual services for money.

Security guards working at a hotel in the vicinity of Bay and Dundas streets responded to a noise complaint on Friday and found the victim in the room."
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Horrifying!
Glad this 14 year old girl has been safely returned to her family.


http://torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/31237
rbbm.

"she was invited to a hotel by the offenders, then forced to provide sexual services over the course of a week

- she was forced to turn over all the money to the offenders

- she was confined in a hotel room, her personal belongings were taken, including her cell phone, and the hotel room phone was disabled

- the offenders placed advertisements for sexual services on the internet, and made arrangements with clients

- the 14-year-old girl feared for her safety and was not able to leave"

 

[Wondergirl]

On a positive note:
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/20/so...-enforcement-in-finding-victims/?ncid=tcdaily



https://www.facebook.com/RescueForensics

http://www.rescueforensics.com

Unbelievable. Thanks for posting. That's incredible