8mm
Posted on 07/28/2007 7:31:52 AM PDT by wagglebee
First it was tattoos; a pimp put his name on the shoulder of his “girls” as indication that they “belonged” to him. Now, unbelievably, those guys are branding their “babes.” It’s happening not in a foreign underdeveloped country but right here in America. Earlier this month, a 40-year-old man, Shawn Bailey, and a 22-year-old woman were arrested in Phoenix for actively pimping girls aged 14-17.
The charges against the man included aggravated assault because one of the girls had been branded! Appalling! Those of us who work to combat sex trafficking are aware that the horrendous act of branding is going on, but actually knowing of a perpetrator and victim makes the crime even more abhorrent.
I talked about this problem with Kristy Childs, founder and executive director of Veronica’s Voice, a safe haven and a voice for the sexually exploited in Kansas City. Kristy was coerced into prostitution at age 12 and didn’t come out completely until she was 36, after overcoming the emotional and psychological bondage that is so addictive. She knows the life –– the fear and the cruel exploitation –– from personal experience as well as from the rescued victims who are clients at Veronica’s Voice.
Kristy says that looking at the Phoenix particular case is instructive –– a 40-year-old man is working with a 22-year-old woman. The age difference between the two indicates that, earlier on, the woman was probably one of his below-age prostitutes. She could have been working with the pimp since she was 12 or she could have been traded to him by some other exploiter or several exploiters during her teens.
Obviously, the three teenage girls are being sexually exploited. Chances are the girls are run-aways or troubled youths who were easy prey for a smooth-talking pimp. Kristy explained to me that the girls have probably been shuffled from city to city to isolate them from family and friends. In such cases, a pimp uses violence and brainwashing to control his victims. Kristy said that pimps even charge their “girls” for lodging, food and condoms to keep them in debt and under the pimp’s control. The traffickers threaten the women with physical harm to them or their families if they try to leave.
Kristy said, “I've seen a lot of women, including myself (through commercial sexual exploitation) be charged booth rental fees, late charges, fines for various reasons, tips for door men, DJs, and bartenders. In fact, the pimp would get money from us any way they could –– money we women made –– so that we had no personal resources and were totally dependent. Keep in mind, we didn’t have a salary or hourly wage, let alone have any employee benefits!”
Like other safe havens, there are tragic examples of young victims at Veronica’s Voice. Kristy said, “A young woman like the 22-year-old and the teenagers in this case could be there because of fear. Fear of Shawn and fear of leaving. If they left, they would have to survive the only way they know how to, knowing the possibility of Shawn finding them would be in his favor. Fear of possibly ending up in a worse situation than they had with Shawn.” Kristy added that for many girls caught in prostitution, “The unknown can be more frightening than a current situation, even if it is bad.”
The girls don’t try to get out because they don’t see themselves as victims. Kristy knows how the girls feel. She said, “Part of my survival in prostitution was convincing myself that I wasn’t a victim. Being in the place of being a victim was too painful. The women I work with at VERONICA'S Voice do not self-identify as a victim. For most of them, it takes some time to get to that point.”
The Phoenix case represents one of the newest advances in the prosecution of pimps and, more importantly, in protecting those forced into prostitution. The police were able to charge Shawn Bailey because he “received earnings from prostitution.” Eliminating the requirement to prove force, fraud or coercion is a major improvement in the ability of prosecutors to protect vulnerable girls from predators and pimps. Obviously, girls in such situations are being exploited. Worse, they are being used as commodities; they are being sold and re-sold repeatedly for the financial benefit of unscrupulous men.
Increasingly, we are able to convince local police that the girls and women in prostitution are victims and not criminals. Increasingly, the police are taking the prostituted women to safe havens where they can receive shelter, food, clothing and counseling. Once they are safe, they can decide whether to cooperate with the police investigations.
The crime of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation is going on every day in every city of the United States. It is important for us to be aware and to recognize what we are seeing. As the crime gets more profitable –– it is a $10 billion a year industry –– the competition among the pimps is getting more fierce and the mistreatment of the victims is getting more vicious and inhumane.
The branding of human beings is beyond the pale; we must prosecute the pimps and end the scourge of commercial sexual exploitation before more girls are victims of this heinous crime.
I guess the fact that the Netherlands is now seeking ways to limit/eliminate prostitution and drug use interferes with your kumbaya approach to things.Not at all. Just because they're changing it now has very little to do with the success of the past 30+ years.
Not the moment for the cliche, "Been there, done that" :-)
I don't know, 18 is usually the agreed upon age for adulthood.Not according to the Libertarian Party:
To a hardcore LP type, economic independence = adulthood. Prostitution = economic independence in their twisted, morality free minds.Children are human beings and, as such, have all the rights of human beings.
We recognize that children who have not reached maturity need guardians to secure their rights and to aid in the exercise of those rights. We hold that guardianship belongs to those who most love and value the child and his or her development, normally the parents and never the state.
We oppose all laws that empower government officials to seize children and make them "wards of the state" or, by means of child labor laws and compulsory education, to infringe on their freedom to work or learn as they choose. We oppose all legally created or sanctioned discrimination against (or in favor of) children, just as we oppose government discrimination directed at any other artificially defined sub-category of human beings. Specifically we oppose ordinances that outlaw adults-only apartment housing.
We also support the repeal of all laws establishing any category of crimes applicable to children for which adults would not be similarly vulnerable, such as curfew, smoking, and alcoholic beverage laws, and other status offenses. Similarly, we favor the repeal of "stubborn child" laws and laws establishing the category of "persons in need of supervision." We call for an end to the practice in many states of jailing children not accused of any crime. We seek the repeal of all "children's codes" or statutes which abridge due process protections for young people. We further favor the abolition of the juvenile court system, so that juveniles will be held fully responsible for their crimes.
Whenever parents or other guardians are unable or unwilling to care for their children, those guardians have the right to seek other persons who are willing to assume guardianship, and children have the right to seek other guardians who place a higher value on their lives. Accordingly, we oppose all laws that impede these processes, notably those restricting private adoption services or those forcing children to remain in the custody of their parents against their will.
Children should always have the right to establish their maturity by assuming administration and protection of their own rights, ending dependency upon their parents or other guardians and assuming all the responsibilities of adulthood.
See 124. And we will keep praying for you to open your heart to the Love of God.
Why is it that every time I go out to dinner I miss all of the fireworks?
So, do you deny that libertarians want to legalize prostitution (as well as maintain legal infanticide, advance militant homosexualism, legalize narcotics, etc.)?
And what was I trying to “wiggle out of”? The libertarian movement agrees with conservatism on gun ownership rights, property rights and taxes. Aside from that it is pure liberalism.
“How is prostitution any different from picking up a chick at a bar and taking her home?”
You need someone to actually explain that to you?
Please keep in mind that libertarians can’t agree on anything. As a libertarian I have no problem with a moral compunction in human society.
And the selling of one’s body at any age is in fact morally degrading to all involved.
Of course that’s not a souless libertarian position but some do advocate it wholeheartedly regardless.
Steetwalking is an entirely different can of worms.
Nonetheless, the LP has always advocated both legal prostitution and emancipation on economic independence. Thus child prostitution and child porn are logical derivatives of their odd point of view.
You’re right about the LP of course. But as in much political thought, there is a gap between common sense morality and humanity at times.
You point to a glaring one in the LP philosophy applied in the extreme.
I expect most who consider themselves libertarian by nature still see limites. You could fill threads discussing each issue, line item by line item.
The reason your approach bothers me is b/c you find the most vile things that nobody would expect to be legal except for the most extreme nutjobs, and then paint all libertarians as being in agreement.
What you do is wholly dishonest and disgusting. Quite frankly, the things that anti-libertarina people like you accuse people like me of frequently in these forums would earn you a sound beating on the street. The only way you get away with it is because you can hide behind your keyboard.
You know full well what you are doing too. That, or you are as ignorant as your arguments make you out to be.
Taking a persons position and stretching it to the philosophical extreme is dishonest, in both directions. You should do less of it and you will likely find a more receptive audience and more converts.
All you really do with your approach is piss reasonable people off and make yourself look like a dishonest fool that is more concerned with winning arguments and slandering people than you are with the actual issues being discussed. Maybe that's all you really care to do. Perhaps it is just a game to you and you have decided that logic or intellectual honesty is not in your game plan.
Bad choice of words on my part. I forgot that Liberals co-opted the "freedom of choice" concept and have applied it to abortion. I guess I was thinking about "Free to Choose" by Milton Friedman or something.
For the record, I think abortion is an abomination and that it should be outlawed (I believe there are already laws on the books for murder afterall), or at minimum, severely restricted to extreme cases where both mother and child were going to die during pregnancy or birth. Saving one life rather than losing two would be a legitemate time to terminate the pregnancy. I'm not sure I find many other valid reasons to kill a baby.
Nor will I play your game. As I originally stated, this article was not about prostitution. It was about the vial practice of disgusting pimps branding their slaves.
Your response to the article implied that libertarians would approve. It was dishonest. The fact that you won't address my comments in this regard suggest to me that there is a serious defect impacting the logic portion of your brain.
I will grant that libertarians do not endorse slavery or child abuse; however, the FACT remains that they do not oppose the cultural problems (prostitution, pornography, drugs) that lead to these things.
Thank-you. That is all I was seeking.
however, the FACT remains that they do not oppose the cultural problems (prostitution, pornography, drugs) that lead to these things.
And it is here that we could delve into splitting hairs, and discussing degrees of tolerance.
We could debate whether a missile is a weapon "protected by the 2nd amendment," whether a Victoria's Secret catalogue is "pornography" or whether Beer is a "gateway drug that destroys society," until we are both dead and buried.
Those are discussions where we can find common ground and heated disagreements both. I get bored before those discussions are complete, because they are never complete.
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