Smith Invading the Darkness

Inside the Historic Fight Against Child Sex Trafficking in the United States
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9896451-6-4
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 286 Seiten

An eye-opening inside look into the historic movement to stop the injustice of sexually trafficked children in America, Invading the Darkness highlights who these modern-day abolitionists are and how their strategic work shaped the fight to stop the injustice of child sex trafficking in our nation. Meet key leaders from the U.S. Department of Justice, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and beyond. Discover how nationwide advances in victim-identification, justice, and prevention initiatives solidified over the last two decades from authoritatively sourced interviews, government archives, research, police records, and more. Come face-to-face with the victims and learn how Shared Hope International is raising the voice of the voiceless across America.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smith, Linda

Leseproben

1 Cries from
the Shadows Linda Smith, U.S. Congress 1995-99, Washington State Senate/House 1983-94, Founder and President of Shared Hope International “For God’s sake do something!”– 1910 quote by General Booth, founder of the Salvation Army



American kids are being sold for sex. This isn’t a new problem in our country. Back in the early 1900s, General Booth of the Salvation Army gave this call to action to “do something!” During this time, a movement had risen up across the United States of America in response to hearing about girls and women being forced or coerced into prostitution — what we now call sex trafficking. These were often young women of humble means given promises of good jobs in the cities. They were immigrants arriving from Europe seeking a better life in America and met at the docks by respectable-looking people promising to help. They were young women courted by dashing young men from out of town who made promises, to both them and their parents, of a wonderful future together. Young women at ice cream parlors, railway depots, fruit stores … the accounts reveal stunningly similar tactics and methods used by traffickers today. Even in the 1900s, the network was methodical and organized. But then people rose up to try saving these young women. The crusaders were judges, prosecutors, missionaries, suffragettes, police captains, politicians, pastors, charity groups, and other individual activists who wanted to stop the deception and betrayal. At that time, sex trafficking was often referred to as the “white slave trade.” Today, we understand the implications of that era and would put no emphasis on a particular ethnic group when seeking to save all exploited children. Invariably, the media did what they could to sell papers, which drove public hysteria. But exaggeration wasn’t necessary. The true stories were heartbreaking and often tragic, recounted by ministers and volunteers who went into the streets to find these young women, or by law enforcement, families whose daughters never returned, and the few girls rescued or able to escape, often returning home where they could never overcome their status as an immoral woman. Some called it the greatest crime in the world’s history. However, more than 100 years later, American girls and boys are still being forced into sex slavery, sold to satisfy someone else’s depravity. In this beautiful country of baseball and apple pie, the land of the free and home of the brave, it’s stunning to discover that our children are being victimized in such a heinous manner. This is the underbelly of American culture that few people have known existed. For a long time, I was one of them. The Mann Act of 1910 The crusaders of the early 1900s helped enforce the passage of The Mann Act of 1910. Signed by President Taft, The Mann Act made it a crime to transport women across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or any other immoral purpose. It was the first law in U.S. history to address trafficking in such a way. Unfortunately, the wording of The Mann Act left room for abuses over the years. In 1913, it was used to prosecute a black boxer for riding with his white girlfriend across state lines. Charlie Chaplin and Chuck Berry were two famous personalities prosecuted erroneously under the intent of the Act as well. Consensual sexual relationships were prosecuted because of the “immoral purposes” wording of the Act. It took amendments in 1978 and 1986 to specifically apply the law to transportation across state lines for prostitution or illegal sexual acts. Despite these instances, it is still a phenomenally useful law. Its passage marked the very first U.S. law to protect those we now call sex-trafficking victims. It gave law enforcement and prosecutors the ability to arrest pimps, whom we call traffickers today. Yet, despite The Mann Act and its improvements, something happened and the momentum of this cause in America diminished. Along the way, the message was lost. Just a few years after The Mann Act of 1910 passed, America would get pulled into the first World War. Next came the Great Depression and World War II — changing the landscape and borders of nations all over the globe. Beginning in the ’50s and extending into the ’60s and ’70s, America saw the Civil Rights Movement, the women’s movement, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and incredible cultural changes. The voices calling out the injustice of trafficking victims dwindled to near silence. And that is where this book begins. In our world right now, there are regions and countries where humans are considered expendable. Governments brutalize their own citizens, hungry families sleep on the streets without hope for help, and children are considered commodities. But the heart of America breaks when it hears about suffering. Our giving in charitable donations rivals all nations in the world. We have countless non-profits and religious groups whose mission is to help people. We are a nation of freedom fighters, a nation that cares. When we learn about the sexual victimization of innocent children — any child from any nation — there is no argument about right or wrong. There’s no discussion over politics or whether it should or should not be stopped. We are enraged. So why are American kids still being bought and sold for sex to predominantly American men? Why would this happen in a country that deeply cares about its children? It has taken time for me to discover the complexities and depravities of the child sex-trafficking industry in America. Even while serving as a Congresswoman, and years into our work at Shared Hope International, I had no idea that children were being sold in the truck stops, motels, back alleys, and strip clubs of cities and towns across my beloved country, and even most recently through online facilitators. This was happening in the shadows beyond my initial sight. And it’s still happening. I’ve never been able to turn away from hurting women and children. While a Washington State Senator, I chaired the State Senate Children and Family Services Committee. In that role, I oversaw programs that focused on the protection and restoration of women and children — including adoption, child welfare, drug rehabilitation, and homeless child services. However, my first real introduction to sex trafficking didn’t occur in the United States. That would remain hidden from me for years. It would be hidden from the other people you’ll meet in this book as well. My introduction came on a trip to Mumbai, India, that changed me forever. It began the journey that eventually unveiled what was happening right here, under our noses, in America. In 1998, I was serving as United States Congresswoman of the 3rd Congressional District of the State of Washington. I lived in Vancouver, Washington, as I do now, where my other hats include wife, mother, and grandmother. My husband, Vern, and I were active in our church and have often had foster children in our home who’d come from troubled situations. The faces of children had kept me awake at night for years before this trip to India, but soon, my life would change profoundly because of the young women, kids, and especially one little girl I was about to encounter. “I want you to see for yourself what is happening here,” a missionary told me when he invited me to Mumbai. Mr. Grant had heard me speak at a General Council Meeting of the Assemblies of God Church and knew that we shared the belief that every person is uniquely made by God. India would be a research trip to experience what I’d been hearing about when it came to international sex slavery. A 2010 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report estimates that globally 79% of identified victims of human trafficking were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 18% for forced labor, and 3% for other forms of exploitation. I wonder if this is how the crusaders of the early 1900s spread their message, by asking another person to come see what was happening? It most certainly worked for me. During the daytime, the streets in Mumbai were crowded with people, tuk tuks, motorcycles, and vehicles. My nose was filled with the smell of diesel from the traffic, incense and curry wafting from buildings and outdoor stalls, and, at times, a whiff of garbage. As night fell, Falkland Road’s cloak was ripped away — the truth revealed. I walked down that road with a small group including K.K. Devaraj, the founder of Bombay Teen Challenge, and my friend Susan. I wanted to cover my mouth and nose from the stench of sewage along the gutters of the street, but I clenched my teeth and kept my face from showing the emotions surging inside. Women and girls looked out from windows or stared from between the bars of bottom-story windows. In the background, I could see their owners watching over their human products. Quite a few of these young girls were from Nepal, more than a thousand miles away, where their families had sold them to traffickers or had been tricked into believing their daughters were being given a great opportunity to work in a carpet factory or as a house servant and would be sending money back home to the family. Instead, the girls were...