‘This Could Be Your Kid’

Newsweek online ^ | .08.10.03 | By Suzanne Smalley

[mlmr]

Aug. 18 issue — Like many teenage girls in Minneapolis, 17-year-old Stacey liked to hang out after school at the Mall of America, Minnesota’s vast shopping megaplex. Cute, blond and chatty, she flirted with boys and tried on the latest Gap fashions. One day last summer, Stacey, which isn’t her real name, says she was approached by a man who told her how pretty she was, and asked if he could buy her some clothes. “He was an older guy, dressed really well,” she recalls. “He said he just wanted to see me in the clothes.” Stacey agreed, and went home that night with a $250 outfit.

[mlmr]

This is what happens when a culture lacks anything but street standardsa and treats its children like sex objects

[demkicker]

No, this could never be my kid. What an idiotic title.

[xm177e2]

There is a simple way to put a stop to 90% of this, and that is to legalize prostitution for women over 21. It would be regulated, there would be health standards, the state would bring in lots of revenue, and most men who would ordinarily go for 17-year-old girls would switch to the 21-year-olds because they wouldn't have to risk jail time. The only way to stop teen prostitution is to legalize it for 21+.

[RonHolzwarth]

C'mon, c'mon, it's gotta be the homosexuals' fault somehow,,,

[eno_]

Why is the FBI working this?

Smells like underemployed FLEOs looking for work.

[John Lenin]

This is sick and scary if you have a young daughter.

[Nachum]

Your reply reminds of an argument I had with someone from Biola University here in southern California many years ago. I told her that there could be drug usage there. She vehemently said that it could never be at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.

Later on I had the experience of having a good friend who was the administrator of a well known drug program. I visited him at the site too. Let me tell you that there were lots of people from varied backgrounds there- including those from religious homes. It put the fear into me. My opinion is that one never knows.

[duckman]

Products of the 'If it feels good do it.' generation of the 60's. IMHO please no flaming.

[bigfootbob]

As a father of two girls 21 & 12 it screams to me a lack of parental involvement and moral grounding. This will never happen at my house.

[Howlin]

I agree. I've had five of them; it just didn't happen here.

[The Brush]

Good point, if there are no crimes there are no criminals.
Of course you'd have some kids lying about their age so eventually we can lower the age to say... 15 then 12..

That's how it starts, we lower the bar a little and soon there is no bar, anything goes.
At this rate we can end up with gay bishops.

[PLK]

‘This Could Be Your Kid’

No it couldn't. But the liberals would like us to believe it could. Our social landscape is littered with the sad results of "free love" and "do whatever feels good." Children from broken homes and those who have been left to fend for themselves while Mommy is gone from home building her "career" are wandering the malls looking for something. I guess these girls have found it, or so they think.

[AD from SpringBay]

So I guess this objective journalist never told Stacie's mom & dad? How wonderfully liberal. I hope someone someday returns the favor.

[squidly]

Some activists put the blame at least in part on a culture that glorifies pimping. The new song by superstar rapper 50 Cent—”P.I.M.P.”—is about as subtle as the title suggests. Sample lyric: “Bitch choose with me, I’ll have you stripping in the street/Put my other hoes down, you get your ass beat.” Rapper Jay-Z’s hit song “Big Pimpin’ ” goes like this: “I thug ‘em, f—- ‘em, love ‘em, leave ‘em/Cause I don’t f——in’ need ‘em/Take em out the hood, keep ‘em lookin’ good/But I don’t f—-in’ feed ‘em.”

There's your answer.

[EggsAckley]

Let's see.....the teenager comes home with expensive clothes from the Mall. Does Mom/Dad ask her where she got the money? Do they ever look at the receipts to see how much she's spent? Do they even care?

[demkicker]

Snicker if you want, but you're dead wrong on this one. This could NEVER be my kid. I know her inside and out. You don't.

[John Robertson]

"Everyone thinks they are runaways with drug problems from the inner city,” says Andy Schmidt, a Minneapolis detective who helped bust a major Twin Cities prostitution ring."

Don't take this the wrong way, anybody and everybody, but that quote--and the citation of one "Annika" in the piece--tells us this is a problem affecting black kids more than white ones. Or at least, that's a reasonable inference.

What inferences may we draw? I'm still processing.....

[KC_Conspirator]

No, this could never be my kid. What an idiotic title.

This is exactly one of the problems Bernie Goldberg wrote of in Bias - the attempt by the media peddle their liberal causes by using white middle America as a case study. They did the same thing with AIDS and homelessness(bums); where the media go looking for the white middle America victim to carry the flag for the dregs of soceity.

[KC_Conspirator]

See post #18. You are right on.

[Old Professer]

“Compared to three years ago, we’ve seen a 70 percent increase in kids from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds, many of whom have not suffered mental, sexual or physical abuse,” says Frank Barnaba of the Paul & Lisa Program, which works with the Justice Department and the FBI in tracking exploited kids

This is a powerful quote, but the story doesn't back it up. They do throw this in:

.” Officials in Las Vegas say they’ve seen a steep rise in the number of teen-prostitution cases.

In 1994, 24 juveniles were arrested for prostitution. By 2002, that number had risen to 125.

Had they focused on this they could say that teen-prostitution had increased 400%, but instead of using the hard numbers, they chose to use an unsupported quote from people who themselves are exploiting other people's children for their personal gain (have no doub't, all organizations created to interfere with the behavior of others has a personal agenda).

Somebody had a deadline to meet.

The real story buried here is the insidious influence that "gangsta' rap" has on young people:

Some activists put the blame at least in part on a culture that glorifies pimping. The new song by superstar rapper 50 Cent—”P.I.M.P.”—is about as subtle as the title suggests. Sample lyric: “Bitch choose with me, I’ll have you stripping in the street/Put my other hoes down, you get your ass beat.” Rapper Jay-Z’s hit song “Big Pimpin’ ” goes like this: “I thug ‘em, f—- ‘em, love ‘em, leave ‘em/Cause I don’t f——in’ need ‘em/Take em out the hood, keep ‘em lookin’ good/But I don’t f—-in’ feed ‘em.”

I ask you, where is the "socially-redeeming value" in this?