Snoop Lion used to be known as Snoop Dogg. Apparently, he re-tooled himself. His name is Snoop Dogshit as far as I’m concerned. A recent Rolling Stone article featured Snoop bragging about trafficking women and girls without a shred of remorse:

“Snoop had already been a platinum selling rapper for ten years when he turned his pimping fantasies into a reality. For Snoop, it “was never about the money; it was about the fascination of being a pimp.” He says he would let the girls keep the money after they, um, performed their services. He added, “as a kid I dreamed of being a pimp, I dreamed of having cars and clothes and bitches to match.”"

Now, here’s the real crime of it all: Snoop, like other rich pimps and traffickers NEVER suffered ANY of the social costs as exploiters of women and girls. Only the poor marginalized trafficked women and girls did—that is, for those who survived. Many either ended up dead from suicide, drug overdoses, murder at the hands of johns, or dead from untreated HIV/AIDS.

How can ANYONE claiming that they care about, or claiming that they support, sex trafficking victims/survivors sit by quietly and NOT demand that Snoop’s CD’s, videos, T-shirts, etc. be removed from store shelves?

How can people be silent instead of demanding that Snoop make reparations for the completely destroyed lives of those women and girls?

What kind of people applaud the fame and fortune of rich pimps and traffickers while leaving poor, marginalized trafficking survivors to rot in total social exclusion with NO social and economic support, and NO restorative justice?

Where is the deafening moral outrage from the anti-trafficking movement, the feminist movement, and the class justice movement?

Where is the richly deserved social stigma for pimps and traffickers?

Poor marginalized trafficking and prostitution survivors suffer social condemnation and rejection (and outright bullying) and utter poverty for the rest of their lives in many cases. Many whom are now older women fear for their grandchildren being tormented and bullied at school because “Grandma was a ho”—regardless of how or when “Grandma” got pressed into prostitution (and subsequently exited), be it from being trafficked by a criminal gang or be it from being forced into it by the gun of poverty aimed squarely at their heads—while those who exploited them, who profited from their rapes, torture, forcible infection with fatal STD’s and other forms of brutal treatment are treated as super stars.

Where is the moral outcry about that?

So far, the ONLY organization that is publicly expressing any outrage and demanding any restorative justice on behalf of the pimped and trafficked women and girls whose lives were ruined in order for some gangster rapper to fulfill his fantasy is Trafficking and Prostitution Services (TAPS)—I am still waiting to see what response, if any, TAPS will get to this letter:

Jody Williams
Trafficking and Prostitution Services
www.traffickingandprostitutionservices.org
(888) 253-9619 Toll Free or (702) 416-5224
sexworkrecovery@yahoo.com

Hugh Hefner, Founder
Playboy Enterprises
Theresa Hennessey, Public Relations
via email theresah@playboy.com

Snoop Dogg
c/o Jay Bird, Agent
William Morris Agency
Via Email jjb@wmeentertainment.com

Kamala Harris
California Attorney General
Fax (916) 323-5341

Catherine Cortez Masto
Nevada Attorney General
Fax 775-684-1108

Rolling Stone Magazine
Via rseditors@rollingstone.com

Gloria Allred, Esq.
Attorney at Law
Via Fax (323) 653-1660

Yvonne Williams
Trafficking In America Conference
Via Email

Polaris Project
Via Email

Luis C De Baca
US Dept. of State
Via Email

Congressman Joe Heck
Via Email

Tom Ragan
Review Journal Newspaper
Via Fax

To All Addressed Above:

I read the recent article Snoop Dogg published about his time “living out his fantasy to be a pimp”. In most of society, when you want to live out a sexual fantasy, you get your partner to play out this fantasy with you that’s mutually agreed upon. In some cases, a man might even hire a prostitute or a dominatrix where they describe this fantasy to them. They then agree upon a price for this fantasy – and then live it out.

In this Rolling Stone article – Snoop says that he essentially went from town to town playing out his “fantasy to be a pimp”. He did this by “selling pussy” to professional sports players across the USA to prostitutes. Prostitutes he then says weren’t “really” paying him as a pimp because he “gave the money back” after the act was done.

First of all, if I had a fantasy about robbing a bank and then went about actually robbing a bank – giving the money back to the bank after I’d just robbed them doesn’t make the criminal act that I’ve just committed go away. Now if I had a friend who owned a bank who let me stage a “fake robbery” that everyone knew about ahead of time was a “fake” – then that could be called a “fantasy”. But Snoop clearly states that he committed everything during this tour a pimp does – then somehow giving the money back in an “April Fool’s” gesture (or so he says is what happened here) is supposed to make this all “good clean harmless fun”.

Well it wasn’t all “good clean harmless fun” nor just a “fantasy” from some of these womens’ perspectives who clearly were engaging in acts of prostitution. Acts that just because Snoop decided he wanted to give the money back after the women committed these sexual acts doesn’t make it all okay.

During this infamous Playboy tour, I received a call from Joe Heck about a case of a pregnant prostitute. The family had contacted him asking for help to get their daughter away from this violent pimp who was not letting their daughter escape his grip. He told me he couldn’t find anyone else in Nevada that would help in such a situation and asked me to help the family get their daughter free.

I contacted the family who then described to me what was going on. This pimp had been arrested before and had a history of violence. The girl was a few months pregnant, and afraid to leave for fear her family would be killed. I was able to make contact with the girl and find out what was going on.

Snoop Dogg did have this Playboy Tour going on where he was the “lure” if you will for these hardcore pimps that were right behind him. He would be the glitter and the glitz to bring the girls to them from the club to backstage. There they would receive drugs and then be “turned out”. Once they had gotten a taste of coke and celebrity and “broken in”, they would then be transferred like “hand me downs” to the hardcore traffickers. In this girl’s case, she was told that if she left that her family would be killed. Since these pimp knew where they lived – she had reason to believe the threats were real.

I convinced the family to move to a new location – and not tell the girl where the pimp could overhear the new location. Then I had it set up so that she’d get arrested on some minor charge where she wasn’t really arrested – just held. As she came out of the police station (knowing that no pimp is going near the police station) I was able to make contact with this girl and let her know that her family had moved, they were safe, and to come with me now to go to them.

We had her to her family in a short time. A few months later I received baby photos of the girl with her four month old baby girl safe and sound. This was not a woman who had been prostituting pregnant because she wanted to be – but because she clearly was afraid that her family would have been killed if she had tried to leave. This was made clear by the fact that once she knew her family was safe – she was out of there and with them.

However, this left a problem of what to do with the other girls being trafficked left behind and who were going to be going into this trafficking factory. The police didn’t want to get involved in this. No one wanted to go up against Snoop Dogg and all of the whole rap entertainment community. I certainly couldn’t make any public charges about him being part of a trafficking ring without risking defamation charges and a team of lawyers coming after me either.

All we could do was rally around our members who are nationally distributed. As the tour would come into a town – we knew that Snoop would be using the concert to lure in new victims. We would then do our best to get at the girls on a “one on one” basis to either prevent them from getting lured in – or when they would get entangled – take them out the back door to safety.

No one wanted to make a police report against a trafficking ring that was under the “wing” of protection of the music industry afforded by not just Snoop Dogg – but his “athletes.” What isn’t being understood in this article was that these were huge professional athletes. There were young girls who weighed maybe 110 pounds and not all of them were 18 years old either. Some of them lied about their age to get into these concerts. They were asked backstage to meet celebrities, athletes and musicians. Next thing they know, they’re having a door shut behind them where Snoop is then living out his “fantasy” of “selling” their “pussy” to these huge 200-300 pound athletes who are famous and wealthy who are all standing there in the room together getting high, drunk, and negotiating over their bodies like they were car parts.

They can’t exactly say “no”.

Would you? Just imagine you’re an 18 year old (if that) thin female who is suddenly asked back stage after a concert to meet Snoop Dogg and all of his friends and other musicians that were with him, and visiting him backstage during one of these events. You’re asked back into a party room where everyone is drinking and getting high which Snoop and his friends are notorious for doing after a show. There are also professional athletes there who are not the size of jockeys. These are huge, muscular athletes who are also wealthy, powerful and famous.

Snoop said clearly it was “his” fantasy to “sell pussy” to these athletes – not that these women had that fantasy and that he was fulfilling “their” fantasies for them when he did these things. As he also admits selling these women to more than one athlete in more than one city – he talks about how he “gave the money back” to the women when they gave it to him. If you act this out – it means the athletes are giving the money to the women, having sex with them, and then the women are giving the money to Snoop – all within the same area at the same time in order for Snoop to be giving it back to them.

We’re not talking that these men took them back to their hotel rooms for the night then to do this – or they would have had to go all the way back through security just to turn the money. That’s not going to happen. She’s not going to be partying, having sex with this famous athlete in his hotel room, and then going all the way back to wake Snoop up the next day to pay him his money. No – this was all taking place at the same time and location.

Again, robbing a bank and then giving the money back after – doesn’t make it okay. A bank robber can’t go “April Fool’s” and get out of an armed bank robbery charge. Why would what Snoop did here not be considered an act of sex trafficking? Especially when there is no proof offered that these women where (1) over 18 years of age, (2) consenting to this, (3) actually did return the money? Were receipts and copies of the ID’s of these women kept on file to verify any of this?

Prostitution is still illegal anywhere but in a small county in Nevada. What Snoop did here – whether he gave the money back or not – the act having been committed – was still prostitution. Therefore, even having given the money back – he’s still guilty of pandering. Even if these women didn’t commit prostitution. Even if he didn’t commit an act of pimping. He is clearly guilty of pandering – even this article is an act of pandering.

Our group and its members had to execute more than one rescue to get these women away from the pimps who were tagging around behind Snoop’s protective wings of his celebrity, money, status and power – as well as his connections. They also used him to hook them up with clients – such as the professional athletes – even by his own admission.

These women were young – many of whom didn’t have jobs. They didn’t have health insurance. They didn’t have any money. So I had to provide them with support services at no expense to them. I had to provide emergency shelter to these women while we got them back home. I had to provide transportation to them to get them back home once they’d been transported across state lines. I had to help some of them get into drug treatment. I had to sit up with them for hours at night sometimes while they were having nightmares, and flashbacks – and being scared to death that they’d be “found” again. Many of them were so traumatized by the experiences and the ordeal – they report they can’t even go to any concerts any more.

I had to keep our overhead on to answer these calls. Which meant I had to pay for our website, our phones, our toll free service, our fax line, our internet, our hosting service, our cell phones, cars, gasoline, insurance, and even tickets to get into some of these concerts so we could be there to help those who were being targeted by this sick, criminal fantasy of his. I also had to pay for the airplane tickets, the bus tickets, and the hotel bills while we were arranging to either get these women home, into a treatment program, or onto their own feet again away from this whole “system”.

How am I supposed to apply for a grant for this or even ask for any donations for this rescue work we were having to do – when no one would believe us if we told them before this confession of Snoop’s himself about what he was doing back then?

While he was living out his fantasies, and making all that money, and laughing about how he’s just “handing back the money” because this was all one big game to him – I was the one having to pay the check on this big banquet he was having. Certainly no one else was going to. We couldn’t even ask for help from some of the trafficking programs – because no one was going to go into these locations back stage to find these girls to help them get out the back doors when people still think most trafficking is only happening on street corners – and not right on the main stage with wealthy celebrities, musicians, and athletes.

Which is why many of these victims couldn’t even ask for help with traditional therapists. No one would have believed them. They would have thought they were being “crazy” and “paranoid” and maybe even tried to lock them up for observation. As it was, for those who did feel betrayed by their own society when these famous men turned them out like objects and treated them like trash – and then turned them over to violent pimps to continue the abuse – so I was having to verify this really happened to these victims just so they could get counseling and not be locked up for psychiatric observation.

While Snoop now gets to joke around about what “fun” the whole thing was in Rolling Stone? If you allow this to be viewed as something of a “boys will be boys” oh this is just the way “men act on tour” kind of thing – while I’m having to live on $710 a month in Social Security disability and trying to figure out how to network all of these resources needed to help rescue and take care of these women and let’s face it “girls” that were victimized and damaged for life by this tour – then you become a part of one of the largest trafficking rings that ever operated across the USA in history.

Mr. Hefner, you gave $1,000,000 to Lois Lee with Children of the Night because they help young prostitutes and trafficking victims. They do excellent work. Any girl affected by prostitution and trafficking can call their hotline 24/7 and get to safety and help – while if a woman happens to be a day over 18 years of age and therefore an adult – she gets to call a hotline that I have sitting on a table I bought at Wal-Mart for $20 that’s answered on an 800 number I have through Vonage because I can pay $15 for that phone number and barely squeeze out that bill on my income.

The victims of this tour are guaranteed their “anonymity” through our program and I’m not going to trot them out on some dog and pony show now that he’s’ confessed in order to get a donation when I actually think I’m entitled to damages for the expenses I incurred having to help these women to escape and recover because Snoop had a “fantasy” he wanted to live out without any thought about the after-effects or the full consequences of his actions on this “pimp” tour of his.

But isn’t that just exactly how a pimp thinks? That there are no consequences or “real damage done” or after-effects to what he’s done to his victims? That it was all just a “victimless crime” because everyone is left with all their fingers and toes now?

Not all damage is seen – and I can testify that some of these women have been damaged for life from what they went through connected with a whole process that he started rolling when the wheels of that tour bus hit the road. Since I posted something about this on my facebook – I’m even getting letters from other victims I wasn’t even aware of writing me who have been damaged by this man, or connected with the whole process he set up in this tour that he was the figurehead and the ringleader of.

He is a criminal. He should be treated no different than any other pimp in this country. As an American citizen, I demand a full criminal investigation be done against this man and everyone connected with this tour he’s confessed to “playing pimp”.

If we tolerate this – then we’re saying that men and “play murderer” or “play rapist” or “play bank robber” and that it’s all okay if you tell the reporter that you “gave the money back” and then try and laugh it off like it’s all a big joke.

If this is a joke – then Auschwitz is hilarious.

Yvonne, you’re organizing a Trafficking in America Conference on May 24-25th. I’d like you to sign a petition I’ll be sending over to your attendees that any outlet that carries Snoop Dogg’s music stop carrying it based on the fact that he’s admitted to being a human trafficker. Giving the money back doesn’t make the act go away that he’s admitted to performing on that tour besides his musical act.

If Snoop wants to laugh and give the money back – I’d like to know when he’s going to compensate me for the damages I incurred in my expenses in taking care of these women’s rescue and the work with their recovery after these experiences. He’s certainly going to be making money from the sales of his albums off the press he’s receiving from making such statements – and from his providing of sexual favors for professional athletes.

Mr. Hefner – I’d like to know what you’re going to do about the fact that you support Children of the Night’s work. This means you understand the horrible damage these girls go through when they’ve been pimped and trafficked. I want to know what you’re going to do about the sponsoring of someone who has admitted now that he’s a human trafficker. Again, just because he gave the money back doesn’t make the act go away.

I have an interview up on my radio show at www.blogtalkradio.com/stopsextrafficktalk

where I have an interview with a man who was a pimp for over 30 years. In this interview, Derek Williams reports that the reason why he was a pimp was because “that’s all he saw” in the urban community was pimps, drugs dealers, and the mistreatment of women. To him, seeing this kind of thing was “normal”. In other words, no one showed him this mistreatment of women was wrong.

A lot of young men, soon to be pimps, up and coming pimps, and old gentlemen pimps read your magazine Mr. Hefner. I’d like to know what your publication is going to do about showing these men that this is not “normal” and in fact downright a “wrong” way to treat and view women.

Something has to be done about this. I can be reached at the above contact information.

Sincerely,

Jody Williams

The kicker is he didn’t do it for the money. He did for the FUN of it! He totally destroyed the lives of countless women and girls FOR FUN! He was already a rich rap star when he began fulfilling his “fantasy” of pimping women and girls. Selling an unwitting and duped 110 lb woman/girl to a room full of 200-300 lb football players for them to rape for money—and this was “fun” for Snoop.

Ask my colleagues and friends Jody Williams and Amy Schwartz at TAPS about just how “fun” it was for members of TAPS—a non-wealthy, non-government, non-charity, self-sustaining survivor-run org (on a shoestring budget)—to have to go and rescue some of those victims (with NO help or cooperation from police) from brutal traffickers who followed Snoop Dogg’s tours like maggots drawn to rancid meat. Yeah, it was real fun alright…

Since Snoop had his “spiritual transformation”, like so many other misogynists who sacrificed the lives of women and girls on the altar of the Almighty Phallocracy ‘just because’, he gets a free pass and celebrity treatment. And society reaffirms that he deserves his wealth and success and whatever other sick, twisted sexually sadistic benefit he got from inflicting harm and death on the girls he pimped for “fun”—society gave Snoop full approval by according him all of life’s social prizes and rewards while giving nothing but poverty, total marginalization, stigmatization and destruction to the women and girls who emerged as broken human wreckage from Snoop’s “fantasy.”

And for those who were swept away by the vicious human traffickers that were part of Snoop’s fun-filled tours, only to end up either murdered by johns or infected with HIV/AIDS? Too bad for them. But all is good—all Snoop had to do was hit the “Jesus Forgives Me” reset button and all is cool.

The P.A.T.H. campaign involved trivia questions and bulletin boards about human trafficking, a showing of Taken, an information session specifically about Maryland trafficking, an immersion tent, a donation drive for the Samaritan Women house, and two days of volunteer work at the house itself.  To honor and remember victims of human trafficking, the staff also wanted to plan a Candlelight Vigil.  This is where I fit in.

Planning the event was frustrating at first since I had never planned an event on campus—I didn’t know who to talk to about what.  Once I used my connections with Residential Life, I was able to reserve the Harbor Courtyard for the event.  Guest speakers needed to be booked for the event as well.  A fellow staff member—Kathy—took charge of this task.  She found a sex trafficking survivor named Stacy Jewell Lewis online and contacted her about speaking at the Vigil.  I helped by obtaining funding from Women Involved in Learning and Leadership (WILL) and Residential Life to cover the costs of the speaker’s fee.  Susquehanna’s partnership with the Samaritan Women also allowed for a representative to come and talk as well.  Candles were purchased with the help of Residential Life’s funding.  Lighters, audiovisual equipment, and extension cords were all free and borrowed from various sources on campus.

It takes a long time to post fliers around this campus.

Prior to the event, P.A.T.H. created a facebook page specifically for the Vigil.  Fliers were posted in almost every academic and residential building on campus (admittedly, I forgot Public Policy).  A host script was written and memorized (though later forgotten and ad-libbed) and other staff members were recruited to help work the event.  A PowerPoint presentation was put together by various staff members as well and was played during the candle lighting portion of the evening.

The Vigil itself consisted of an introduction by myself, an informative speech by a Samaritan Women representative, and a spoken word piece and speech by Ms. Lewis followed by the candle lighting.  Everything went well except for what felt like hurricane-force winds.  The sun went down in time for the PowerPoint presentation to play and the crowd came together for the candle lighting.

After the Vigil, Ms. Lewis stated hopes of partnering with UMBC in the fall to perform her plays about trafficking.  The Vigil also increased excitement about the volunteer opportunities over the following two days, allowing us to go to the Samaritan Women with more helping hands.  I think the greatest accomplishment was the awareness many in the audience gained.  For example, one of my friends (originally from Estonia) expressed his surprise that human trafficking even occurred in the United States.  I felt like the Vigil served its purpose after hearing this.

Subduing the winds

As a whole, I thought the P.A.T.H. campaign not only raised awareness but showed freshmen (the vast majority of Susquehanna residents) that they too can create a change.  Many were unaware that the Samaritan Women is a volunteer site offered through the Shriver Center each semester.  This project also taught me the importance of collaboration and asking for help when it is needed—without the help of Kathy, WILL, and Residential Life the Vigil would not have come together at all.  That said, I also learned that micromanaging can be a good thing with such a large event.  If I were to plan an event on campus again, I would start planning earlier and collaborate with even more groups on campus to lighten the load on myself.  In all honesty, I would purposefully choose my next topic so I truly feel passion for what I’m doing.  If I were to plan another event, it would definitely involve mental health and suicide risk as I have been heavily involved with a friend’s treatment this semester.  I feel like I could really make a difference on campus in this area, a feeling I could not have had without planning this Vigil.  I have always wanted to make a difference…now I know how.

Stacy Jewell Lewis’ spoken word piece at the Vigil:

http://www.crowdrise.com/somalymam-RFW

BENEFITING: Somaly Mam Foundation

EVENT: The RaiseForWomen Challenge

EVENT DATE: Jun 06, 2013

THE STORY:

Related articles

• Happy Birthday, Somaly Mam ~*~ (missrosen.wordpress.com)
• Hudson students teach each other about human trafficking epidemic (metrowestdailynews.com)
• Life Preservers Project: Fundraiser for the Somaly Mam Foundation (sarahknowsthings.com)
• Google, Palantir, Salesforce Fight Human Traffickers (fastcompany.com)

Emmy is an amazing young woman, who devotes her time to a Not For Profit organisation she founded a few years ago, working with women and children affected by the international sex trade; “inspiring” doesn’t quite cut it, but it gives you an idea!

In a bizarre and uncanny case of “hitting right where it hurts”, Emmy was subject to the kind of personal violation that is, sadly, becoming prevalent in our society today: her computer was hacked, and she was exposed to some very unpleasant hack behaviour, centering around (grotesquely) using her computer’s web cam to watch her in the privacy of her home.

Emmy felt helpless.  And we, her friends, felt helpless in trying to comfort her: this kind of violation is nuanced and quiet; it does not usually result in physical wounds; it claws its way into our minds and leaves shadowy footprints there in our sacred spaces, rather than the muddy ones a physical threat might leave under the windowsill.

And yet, this threat WAS, most assuredly, a real one.

In “breaking in” to Emmy’s world via her technological connection to it, this threat attacked her basic and instinctual needs for security, safety, and independence.  And in so doing, this threat attacked her right for the same.

As a woman who actively and passionately seeks to uphold and advocate for the rights of women who are robbed — physically, emotionally, spiritually — and left voiceless by the international sex trade, Emmy felt keenly this violation of her own space and identity.

And as I looked on and watched her come to terms with her experience, I felt That Urge (you writers out there know EXACTLY what I’m talking about), and the following resulted.  It is my contribution to the war against a system that permits the mistreatment and violation of women anywhere, and in any setting, for any reason.

It’s pretty epic, so apologies for the length!  But I hope, if you stick with it and have a read, that you find something in it to prompt or stir your own voice, which may also have been silenced before now.

***

In solidarity we stand
Stronger for the many
We share our flesh
Our name
Our voice
We speak as one
We walk as one
We will be seen
We will be heard
We will stir action
And ears
And hearts
And guts
You will not sleep
Without first seeing our face
You will not dream
Without first hearing our voice
We are the one
In the many
The many
In the one.

In solidarity we stand
Unified by our essence
We grasp our naked breasts
And demand that you look
We clutch our naked belly
And demand that you stare
In horror
And shame
You have taken these from us
You have made us flat
Inhuman
You have cursed our name
And wounded our flesh
Our spirit
Wounded us with your intent.

In solidarity we stand
Rebellious to your desires
Courageous
And tall against a dark sun
We will not be consumed
You will listen
For fear of losing yourself
In the horror you have enabled
Your night is of your own making
And in it there are no stars
No Lady Moon to guide you
Here, there is no comfort
No rest
For eyes that have taken
Have raped
Have devoured.

In solidarity we stand
Clean
Strong
Not forgotten
For here we are
You Will See Us As We Are.
We Will Not Be Ignored.
We cry out
To haunt the nights
Of your brethren
Our spirit wails and mourns
For her innocence
And Truth is ripe
For the declaring.

***

Let our words and our lives reflect the hard-won freedoms we enjoy.
S.

I was reading an email and the above sentence jumped off the page at me! Do you know what the recovery programs mainly consist of that people are taken through who have gone through sexual, mental or emotional abuse?

They restore value, dignity and give them a new identity of BEING valued and loved. Christian based programs teach in an experiential way the love that CHRIST has for them. They are given community and chance for honorable opportunities to become a neccessary part of community and they are offered protection. All these things were formerly foreign to them.

Now, in essence they are MADE NEW! They are learning TO BELIEVE IN LOVE AND BE LOVE!

We are made righteous in Christ, given a new name, a new family, a new postion, and a new destiny. The old has gone a the new is here!

Do you feel like the old won’t let go? Stand back in faith and watch the deliverance of the Lord!!!! Jesus has made us NEW and others will see it!

Every single time you give in prayer or in finances to Pearl Alliance you are helping to rescue and restore another person’s life! I invite you today to get involved:

http://messengerinternational.org/get-involved/pearl-alliance/

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/17/walmarts-human-trafficking-problem

Common facilitators on which traffickers frequently rely include:
Hotels and Motels
Landlords
Labor brokers
Taxi and other driving services
Airlines, bus, and rail companies
Advertisers 
-Online websites like Craigslist.com and Backpage.com
-Phone books
-Alternative Newspapers (and some mainstream newspapers)
Banks and other financial services companies
In some cases, businesses are aware of their involvement in trafficking, and the profits they generate outweigh reservations they may have about their role. In other cases, businesses are unaware and find it difficult to know which of their customers are human traffickers.

http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview/the-facilitators

Common places where forced labor has been found in the United States include domestic servitude and small-scale “mom and pop” labor operations, to more large-scale operations such as farms and factories. Certain labor brokers that supply labor to multinational corporations have also been identified as an emerging type of labor traffickers. Sex trafficking includes commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), as well as every instance where an adult is in the sex trade as the result of force, fraud, or coercion. Sex trafficking occurs within numerous venues in the broader sex industry, commonly found in street prostitution, online escort services, residential brothels, and brothels disguised as massage businesses. Under U.S. and international law, commercially sexually exploited children found in the sex trade are considered to be victims of trafficking, even if no force or coercion is present.

Victims of human trafficking in the United States include U.S. citizens or foreign nationals, adults or minors, and men or women. Foreign-born victims in the U.S. may be either documented or undocumented.

Because human trafficking is considered to be one of the fastest growing criminal industries, the U.S. government and academic researchers are currently working on an up-to-date estimate of the total number of trafficked persons in the United States annually. With 100,000 children estimated to be in the sex trade in the United States each year, it is clear that the total number of human trafficking victims in the U.S. reaches into the hundreds of thousands when estimates of both adults and minors and sex trafficking and labor trafficking are aggregated.

http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview

You can make a difference by being a sponsor.

I am part of a fundraiser for Love 146, and have committed to swim 700 laps or 72,800 feet.

Since May 1st, I have swum 315 laps.

Be a voice for the voiceless. Even a few dollars will help – all monies go to help the children.

Please join me: http://www.stayclassy.org/loveswims

Help end slavery: Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. (Proverbs 31:8-9, NLT).

It is absurd that Korean sex trafficking rings in America operate so smoothly and don’t have to do it very discreetly. I find it difficult to comprehend and accept how and why traffickers aren’t apprehended more often. There is an abundance of sex businesses such as room salons, brothels, and massage parlors all over Korea as well as in America where Koreans reside.

In Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, and all the cities where Koreatowns exist in America, these types of businesses may look low-key during the day, but they thrive at nighttime with huge signs and shady entry ways.

The point being–these businesses are extremely visible and aren’t tucked away at all in America where laws exist but aren’t being enforced properly. As a gyopo, I feel like we are either oblivious to our surroundings, are frolicking in the sex industry, merely criticizing, or simply just looking the other way while passing by these establishments daily in America and in Korea. So, despite the often extreme competitiveness and at times pretentious attitudes amongst each other in the Korean communities, some of us manage to stay loyal to our fellow Koreans in a totally misconstrued way–by turning a blind eye, rejecting reality, downplaying the enormity of the issues, and helping these businesses stay open. We desperately need change within the Korean community beginning with the source of sex trafficking into the States, and this source is Korea. The U.S. State Department’s annual report on human trafficking points to Korean men as being one of the main clients of child prostitutes in Asia, and states that the Korean government has yet to crack down on offenders or attempt to enforce stricter policies. http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192596.pdf Since Koreans are accustomed to frequenting these places and using prostitutes so often, habitually, they seek these types of establishments outside of Korea as well. Just like any other successful business, the seller and buyer relationship is built and maintained carefully in the sex trafficking ring as it starts in Korea and exports its workers, systems, and processes into America.

1. an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.

2. deliverance; rescue.

3. Theology . deliverance from sin; salvation.

4. atonement for guilt.

5. repurchase, as of something sold.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/redemption

Right now this very second people ARE being given their lives back. They are being given another chance to live. Someone right now this very second is restoring dignity to someone elses life. Someone is being a friend to the friendless, defender of the powerless, and redeemer of those in bondage.

Everything from human trafficking to the bondage of being without Christ the people need us and we need each other. I am asking you today if you have been ransomed in some significant way to consider using your voice or your resources to buy back someone elses freedom!

The best thing you will ever do with the resources you have been given is to buy back another persons life for them. Use your voice in prayer too that many would be saved from hell and the Devil. After all, how free is a person who has all rights to their life, but they are in bondage to sin, hell and death?

To get involved go to:

http://messengerinternational.org/get-involved/pearl-alliance/

Although many people think that slavery was eradicated many years ago, modern day slavery is very prevalent in our society, whether we see it or not. As you will see in the infographic below, human trafficking is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world and many of the victims are younger than 16 years of age, sometimes even as young as four. When someone gets sold or forced into this business, they are abused, raped, beaten, drugged, starved, and sometimes even killed. You cannot even being to imagine the effect that these traumatic events have on a child, that is why there have now been efforts to help recuperate the victims and get them on a good path to a normal life. With that, it is also very important that we raise awareness to eradicate this modern day slavery.

I have made a website for my expressive arts therapy class that talks about how art therapy is being used to help recuperate victims of human trafficking. Please visit it and help raise awareness! expressiveartstherapy.weebly.com

Overview

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery.
Human trafficking is prevalent in many countries around the world.
Cases of human trafficking have been reported in all fifty states of the United States.
Human trafficking is a market-based economy that exists on principles of supply and demand. It thrives due to conditions which allow for high profits to be generated at low risk.
What is Human Trafficking?

As defined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the legal definition of “severe forms of trafficking in persons” is: Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
Under the legal definition, trafficking victims in the US can be divided into three populations:
-Minors (under age 18) induced into commercial sex
-Adults age 18 or over involved in commercial sex via force, fraud, or coercion
-Children and adults forced to perform labor and/or services in conditions of involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery, via force, fraud, or coercion.

Victims are trafficked for a wide variety of purposes, such as commercial sex, agricultural work, or housekeeping
Trafficked persons can be rich or poor, men or women, adults or children, and foreign nationals or US citizens.
Traffickers include a wide range of criminal operators, including individual pimps, small families or businesses, criminal networks, and international organized criminal syndicates.
The Law

Human Trafficking is a crime under US and international law, as well as under many state laws.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 is the main US law on trafficking. It has been reauthorized in 2003, 2005 and 2008.
The “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children” is the main international law on the subject.
Myths and Misconceptions

Trafficking is not smuggling or forced movement.
Trafficking does not require transportation or border crossing, and does not only happen to immigrants or foreign nationals.
Trafficking does not require physical force, physical abuse, or physical restraint.
The consent of the victim is considered irrelevant, as is payment.

With crippled economies and their peoples in terrible plight the solution for many village families is to send their children into the cities to make money.  Many times the situations that the children are going into are vaguely described, with the family being none the wiser of what is truly going on.  Other times the families are aware and will openly sell their children into sex slavery and trafficking.

Trafficking of peoples is a complete disrespect for basic human rights and goes against the dignity of a person.  It is often seen as a heinous crime with the U.S government stating that there are over 12.3 million victims of trafficking across the globe. (Zbigniew D., 2012) Through these drastic numbers is is evident that trafficking is a real global concern, one which actively needs to be addressed by the world governments as a whole.

To these women justice must be given on their behalf to the perpetrators and those affected must also be restored of their human dignity in order to bring them into complete health.  This is what many NGOs are trying to provide within Southeast Asia.  They set up safe houses and education centers in order to train the women and  children who have been in trafficked situations. There they are educated, kept safe and protected and given the opportunity in which to break out of the constricting bonds in which their poverty had placed them in.

Blackburn, A, G, Taylor, R, W, & Davis, J, E. (2010) Understanding the Complexities of Human Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation: The Case of Southeast Asia, Women & Criminal Justice, 20(1-2), 105-126. DOI: 10.1080/08974451003641099

Zbigniew D., (2012) Myths and Realities of Human Trafficking: A View from Southeast Asia,. Interdisciplinary Political Studies, 2(1), 59-66. ISSN 2039-8573

So… on with post 2, in response to many questions after the Cleveland rescue:

Captivity and Control:   What does captivity look like for human trafficking victims?

Once they are in relationship with a recruiter or trafficker, the trafficker knows it is important to keep them under their control and to make them think she is not in captivity.  While they sometimes do this through physical chains and enslavement, they also use much mind control.

Psychological Manipulation!  (Love!)  Many truly believe their trafficker is a lover.  He/she buys her nice things and makes her feel special.  In one of the many manuals teaching people how to traffic others, a pimp remarked:  “She loved to shop so much that I could manipulate her with shopping”.   Trauma bonding and Stockholm Syndrome are at the heart of why some victims never leave—and why many return to abusers.  That same pimp also coaches traffickers to look for a weakness:

“ most… have low self esteem for a reason.  A pimp [trafficker] looks for that weakness, and if it isn’t on the surface, s/he brings it out of them.  It doesn’t matter what her weaknesses are, as long as they have them.  Then he uses those weaknesses to his advantage… It is the best trait you can find in someone you want to control.    If you can’t find one, you have to create one. … tear someone’s ego down to nothing before they will start looking to you for salvation….  Show them it’s your program that takes them from darkness to hope…   you are their hero—even if the weakness you rescue them from is actually one you created”.

-Pimpology

Force!  One girl a few weeks ago said that her escort trafficker only used violence when she wasn’t submissive—so she avoided the violence by being compliant.   Other forceful ways to keep someone in captivity that we have seen in our town include cinder block cells, basements, and yes—ropes.   Traumatic Brain Injury is common in our ladies, as is PTSD from all of the violence.  I can’t stomach writing much more about this, but this article about one of the Cleveland girls illuminates the reality of abuse.

Drugs!  Addiction is a common way to enforce control and captivity.   Sometimes the young women have no addiction, and through coercion or as a way to numb the pain, they will partake in drugs provided to them by the trafficker.  Another pimp coaches the traffickers to find a highly addictive, expensive drug, so that she won’t escape.

Shame!  Shame is powerful.  Many women feel as though they have no worth outside of who this person has created them to be.   Shame is instilled early on in unsafe relationships, and at doma, we think it is critical to parent and to love others in a way that is free from shaming them.   If you’ve said to your children in frustration, ‘why in the world did you do that?’,  you might shame without recognizing it.  (We will be sharing more about parenting without shame at our one day Abo U.)  From day one with our ladies, the team of professionals AND our volunteers are taught how to love without judgment and to redirect feelings of shame toward self-compassion and ‘whole-heartedness’.

Harriet Tubman said she would have freed more slaves if only they knew they were slaves!  Many of our ladies don’t recognize themselves as victims until much time has passed away from their predator.

When asked how they felt at CATCH court last Thursday, our amazing survivors can identify with the girls who were rescued in Cleveland last week:

happy grateful, blessed, confident, grateful to be back, anxious, tired, determined, uncertain, feels good, clean and sober, inspired to be there today, grateful, blessed, cautious, capable, stressed, relaxed, excited, blessed, blessed, anxious, very grateful, determined, fearful, inspired, anticipating, excited, blessed, excited, tired, irritable, excited, anxious, faithful, mixed emotions, worried, , desperate, hopeful, free…