FBI: Kids as young as 13 forced into prostitution for Super Bowl
Source: Associated Press
Sixteen juveniles forced into working as prostitutes for the Super Bowl were rescued in the New York City area by the FBI in the weeks before the game, the agency said Tuesday.
Officials said the children, some of whom had been reported missing by their families, ranged in age from 13 to 17. Six were found in Newark, N.J., six in New York City and four in New Haven, Conn.
One of the minors, a 17-year-old girl, had spent the past two years with her pimp, said Michael Osborn, chief of the Violent Crimes Against Children unit at the FBI.
More than 50 adult women who were forced to work as prostitutes were also rescued. More than 45 pimps were arrested and numerous guns seized, according to investigators.
Read more: http://lasvegassun.com/news/2014/feb/04/fbi-kids-forced-prostitution-super-bowl/
PeteSelman
(1,508 posts)This goes on every single day in New York City and other places. What they really mean is they actually did something to have a showing for the Super Bowl. The rest of the time it's a lower priority or something glossed over.
You can literally buy anything at any time in New York.
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,678 posts)Look at the drugs Mr. Hoffman was able to purchase
In many respects he is a victim of such a system
But you are correct
The Big Fish never fry
warrant46
(2,205 posts)Well at least he had the $$$ too keep the Small Business Sector of the city running.
jsr
(7,712 posts)Herself
(185 posts)and somethings it's easier in the south.
the faux "christian" bible belt!
PsychGrad
(239 posts)that this was a "thing" at all. I guess, maybe because I don't watch football or care about the Superbowl, but, does anyone have any idea WHY this is a thing? I mean, is it just because there are so many people in whatever place the SB is being held? I am more than disturbed that there is such a market for minors. *sigh* Sometimes, I just get really sad about humanity - but, I am glad that some of these children and women were found and saved.
geomon666
(7,512 posts)Like someone said earlier, it happens every single day, including right now as I type this.
PsychGrad
(239 posts)that it happens. I just didn't realize that there was a "thing" about it during the superbowl - which apparently is a "bigger" time for it, or at least a time that it consistently happens instead of just randomly.
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)testosterone-charged horny guys in town. Make that DRUNK testosterone-charged...
obxhead
(8,434 posts)The only thing exceptional about this story is that TPTB did something about a horrible trade in human flesh.
Now that the game is over, the trade can resume as normal with little or no rescue of children from its destruction of life, liberty, and well being.
I had no idea. I mean, I was aware that it happens, and on a larger scale than most people know, but had no idea that it was any more prevalent during the superbowl.
obxhead
(8,434 posts)it always exists. The only reason this has been brought to attention is because a massive police state was brought to the area due to the event.
The event has passed, now the trade can resume without any "rescue" by the authorities.
PsychGrad
(239 posts)It apparently IS a thing done for the superbowl specifically. Not that it doesn't happen at other times too, but this is actually a "thing".
You have a product that can generate a higher demand during a special event. Business sense tells you to move the merchandise to the event to increase sales.
For Fucks Sake.
Prostitution of young women and children is a daily occurrence. This "rescue" was just part of the massive police state that was enforced for the area during the week before the game. The game is over, the police state returns to normal patrol levels.
Situation normal, the "product" can now be redistributed abroad as it has always been.
Had it been the Super Bowl or a Harry Potter convention, pimps would have moved their women and children into the area to generate income.
PsychGrad
(239 posts)I'm not a business person, nor am I a pimp, and I had no idea. Now I know, and I'm glad that I know. I KNOW it's a daily thing. What I didn't know is that during large events like this, that pimps congregated their slaves into the areas of said events. I did not know that occurred - it would never occur to me that it happened. Some of you are REALLY being rude and hateful simply bc I stated I wasn't aware that this was a thing during big events - as if that somehow means I think it ONLY happens during big events.
obxhead
(8,434 posts)I'm frustrated by the several articles and news reports that seem to indicate this was an event purely due to the game.
It leads to people thinking this was influenced by football. It wasn't it was just a gathering by profit driven slave traders.
Another really upsetting aspect of the reporting is how these girls were "rescued." In this circumstance maybe they were, but in day to day life they would have been incarcerated for their abuse. These reports make people believe that when the police get involved there are rainbows when in reality they just become the next abuser.
PsychGrad
(239 posts)I hear you loud and clear. I guess for me, it was just surprising in that I didn't realize that pimps "moved merchandise" for big events like this. Like I said, I don't think like that, so it just NEVER occurred to me that it happened. I see what some people are upset about, but I am in no way under the impression that this ONLY happens during big events - I just had no idea that "supplying" this for big events was a thing.
I will not, in the future, posts my thoughts on things that I was unaware of.
obxhead
(8,434 posts)welcome to DU. It can be a rough place to hang sometimes.
Sorry if you felt personally attacked. I was frustrated by the reporting I heard on the subject is all.
PsychGrad
(239 posts)I remember quite clearly my frustration when Hurricane Katrina happened and people were so involved that ONE time - but then just seemed to ignore the inequality and such that happens every day in this country. I get it, I do. I've been on DU for a while, just don't always post much - maybe there was a reason for that, eh?
BainsBane
(53,141 posts)It amounts to human trafficking.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)away from their pimps. You just don't hear about them. The problem with girls being rescued in NY (the laws may have changed in the last couple of years) but if they are arrested at 14 they are incarcerated with no help in reentering society and pretty much thrown to the wolves. Some have no choice but to go back into the sex trade.
If it is a foreign girl arrested at the same time, at the same age, she gets an apartment, college tuition, living expenses because she is considered trafficked. NY girls are criminals. Vast double standard.
Like I said the laws may have changed recently but it definitely like that a couple of years ago.
obxhead
(8,434 posts)The children and young women are brutalized. Regardless of the circumstances, this was a "one time" sting to show how effective law enforcement can be.
The "rescue" by the FBI ended when the final whistle of the big game was blown. The trade will resume as normal now.
Edit to add:
I think we're nearly on the same page here. Attention has been drawn to the horror of the trade through the police state brought upon the area by this event (the superbowl) but now it will fade back into the dark underworld that it has always existed in.
Help is there and further brutalization of these young girls and women will again be perpetrated by law enforcement through criminalization of misfortune.
It is ugly and there are no real answers to address the brutality.
BainsBane
(53,141 posts)who prey on underage girls. They are sexual predators who endanger society.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)I guess im just confused.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)for the sooper bowel.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)The headline is shit.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Bait and switch, or whatever that particular kind of scamming would be called.
progressoid
(50,058 posts)
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John1956PA
(2,688 posts)Thanks.
BainsBane
(53,141 posts)That slavery continues to exist within our nation and that young girls are bought and sold by sexual predators?
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)At least some of the evidence clearly does not support that claim.
BainsBane
(53,141 posts)http://www.antislavery.org/english/
And the police made an arrest. It is no more likely to be false that a report of a stick up at a convenience store. Why on earth should you disbelieve it?
If a person is enslaved for a period of two years that covers Superbowl Sunday, she was enslaved on Superbowl Sunday. You want to quibble about a preposition rather than focus on a serious human rights concern?
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Orrex
(63,334 posts)happyslug
(14,779 posts)The body of the story contain FACTS that this was NOT a one time law enforcement event:
The Super Bowl crackdown came on the heels of the FBI's largest such effort in June, in which the agency said 105 children were rescued and 150 pimps arrested.
And that the Super Bowel was the draw, but it is one among many that draws this traffic:
"We're constantly evaluating intelligence to determine where the biggest threats are," Osborn said. "Large sporting events draw a lot of people into a compressed area with a lot of disposable income and as part of that you attract a certain criminal element."
In simple terms, the FBI and local officials are trying to control prostitution AND are going after the people who cause the most problems, the pimps. Even the UN, which had adopted a policy of making prostitution LEGAL, want to keep PIMPS and other procurers criminal (See the following Comments on the 1949 Convention):
1949 UN Convention on Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the exploitation of the prostitution of others:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/trafficpersons.pdf
List of Countries that had ratified the above convention (Does NOT include the US or Canada):
https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=VII-11-a&chapter=7&lang=en
Remember the Mann Act is considered to be the most effective anti-prostitution law the US has ever passed. It does NOT make prostitution illegal, it makes it a federal crime to transport women for that purpose. It is aimed at the pimps and other procurers as opposed to the prostitute:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act
Now, there has been problems with the Mann Act, for it was written broadly, when it people looked at how to narrow it, they kept on running across the problem that pimps will use those changes in their own defense. Thus it took to 1986 to change the term
http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/The%20Mann%20Act%20(1910).pdf
The wording remained the same from 1910 to 1986. In 1986 some slight changes in the wording of the law occurred:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2421
Notice the changes, first is the Mann Act of today is sex neutral, second the terms "Debauchery" is replaced with the phase "or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense". The 1986 changes made the Mann Act much more in line with the 1949 UN Convention for it is aimed at pimps and procurers.
get the red out
(13,468 posts)in the death penalty for trafficking children. Nothing and no one will make me feel otherwise. There is no excuse for people who do this to remain alive on this earth.
I believe in life in prison for pimps who force (notice I said FORCE) adults into prostitution.