Source: reason.com 10/21/24 Polk County, Florida, continues to be one of the worst offenders for sham efforts to combat human trafficking. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) is publicizing “Operation Autumn Sweep” as a “human trafficking operation” that netted 157 arrests, including 25 arrests of illegal immigrants. But the vast majority of those arrested are accused not of anything the average American would view as trafficking. Instead, they were allegedly either soliciting prostitution or offering to commit prostitution. After posing online as either (adult) sex workers or prospective customers, cops…
Read MoreTag: sex trafficking
CA: Gov. Newsom signals support for bill targeting consumers of child sex trafficking industry
Source: kcra.com 4/18/24 SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signaled his support for a proposal targeting the consumers of child sex trafficking in California, but he suggested he has concerns about changes that were abruptly made to the proposal this week. “I look forward to getting this bill on my desk in a way that I’ll sign it, but we have some work to do,” Newsom said in a virtual news conference Thursday in response to KCRA 3’s question on the proposal. Republican State Senator Shannon Grove introduced the…
Read MoreCA: Bill to make purchasing children for sex a felony in California moves forward, but with some changes
Source: kcra.com 4/16/24 SACRAMENTO, Calif. —A key California Senate committee on Tuesday moved forward with a proposal to make purchasing a child for sex a felony in the state, but it was not necessarily a smooth process for the bill’s author. Because of that, it raises new questions about the future of the proposal. Democratic committee members forced Republican author State Sen. Shannon Grove to make changes to Senate Bill 1414 to only allow the felony classification for the purchase of minors under the age of 16. The Senate Public…
Read MoreCA: Purchasing a child for sex is a misdemeanor in California, lawmakers to debate classifying it as a felony
CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED INFORMATION (as of 4/16/24) Source: kcra.com 4/13/24 SACRAMENTO, Calif. —California lawmakers next week are set to debate a proposal that would ramp up the consequences for consumers of the child sex trafficking industry. Under California law, purchasing or soliciting a child for sex is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of up to a year in jail, or a minimum of two days in jail, and a $10,000 fine. Republican State Sen. Shannon Grove is trying to change that with SB 1414, which would classify…
Read MoreBan Government Involvement In Sex Trafficking
Source: public.substack.com 1/9/24 It sounds like a Hollywood movie. Government intelligence agencies, perhaps CIA and Mossad, use sex with dozens of teenage girls to blackmail some of the world’s most powerful people, including Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and Bill Clinton. But it’s not a movie. It appears to be what New York investor Jeffrey Epstein did from the 1990s until 2018. One year later, he died in jail, either by suicide or murder. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about this case. The truth is that we don’t have…
Read MoreFBI finds 200 sex trafficking victims, 59 missing children in two-week sweep
Source: nbcnews.com 8/1/23 The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday. During “Operation Cross County,” the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children. The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers. Read the full article
Read MoreThe Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic
Source: theatlantic.com 12/9/21 A poster in the window of Cahoots Corner Cafe—great potatoes, good coffee—advertised a family event at the Oakdale, California, rodeo grounds. There would be food trucks, carnival games, live music, a raffle, and the opportunity to support the cause of “freeing child sex slaves.” The event, called the Festival of Hope, was a fundraiser for the anti-child-sex-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad, which was founded in Utah in 2013 and has achieved immense popularity on social media in the past year and a half, attracting an outsize share…
Read MoreFL: Police Arrest Teen Accused of Helping GOP Strategist’s Underage Sex Trafficking
Source: thedailybeast.com 8/14/21 Shortly after arresting GOP strategist Anton Lazzaro for underage sex trafficking, police say they’ve caught up with his 19-year-old associate, who now faces the same charges. Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter Law enforcement in Florida has arrested Gisela Castro Medina, a 19-year-old accused of helping a wealthy, young Republican strategist in Minnesota prey on girls and recruit them for paid sex. She faces the same criminal charges as her alleged pal, GOP operative Anton Lazzaro: sex trafficking of a minor, attempt to commit sex trafficking, and obstruction…
Read MoreOR: Former Oregon Democrat House Majority Speaker Arrested For Human Sex Trafficking
[thegatewaypundit.com – 5/3/21] Former Oregon House Speaker and current Clackamas Community College board member Dave Hunt has been arrested and charged by Portland police in an undercover sex traffic sting operation. Hunt, a Democrat, voted for the 2011 bill that he is charged under. Read the full article Look up bad sex-related bills in your state so you can fight them!(select your state and type “sex” in the search)
Read MoreMichael Hobbes: No, The Government Did Not Break Up A Child Sex Trafficking Ring In Georgia
[huffpost.com – Michael Hobbes – 9/7/20] Human trafficking has been having an eventful summer. In July, internet sleuths accused online retailer Wayfair of selling missing children in overpriced cabinets. In August, QAnon supporters (along with some well-meaning if ill-informed influencers) held nationwide “Save the Children” rallies. And last week, there was the trailer story. “U.S. Marshals Find 39 Missing Children in Georgia During ‘Operation Not Forgotten,’” proclaimed the government’s official press release. Federal agents and local law enforcement, it said, had rescued 26 children, “safely located” 13 more and arrested…
Read MoreSeattle Police “Rescue” 26 Sex Workers. But Did They Want to Be Rescued?
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 3/13/19] The Seattle Police Department, along with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, say they arrested five people and “rescued 26 victims of sex trafficking” earlier this month during raids of nearly a dozen businesses in the Chinatown-International and Beacon Hill districts. The Seattle Times broke the story last Friday, reporting that the owners of these so-called “massage parlors” were illegally selling sex acts and are suspected of recruiting women, mostly Chinese nationals, to come to the U.S. to work in them. Nearly 200 law enforcement officers…
Read MoreCA: Abused then arrested: inside California’s crackdown on sex work
[theguardian.com – 11/28/18\ Willia will never forget the feeling of police officers’ hands on her body. The 37-year-old Sacramento woman says she can’t escape memories of policemen following her down the street or questioning her choice of clothing, scolding her for being outside, threatening her, grabbing her, forcing her into their car, and searching her. Willia is a survivor of abuse and sexual exploitation. But because she has also been a sex worker, she says police have only ever treated her as a criminal. Get Society Weekly: our newsletter for…
Read MoreHouse Judiciary Committee Falsely Claims Credit For Stopping 90% Of All Sex Trafficking Because Of FOSTA
[techdirt.com – 7/24/18] For no clear reason at all, the Republicans* on the House Judiciary Committee released a video on YouTube earlier this week praising themselves for stopping online sex trafficking via FOSTA/SESTA. It’s… quite something. The video makes a number of blatantly false claims from various members of the House Judiciary, but let’s focus mainly on the claims of Ann Wagner, whose original bill kicked off the process that became FOSTA/SESTA. She’s been spreading moral panic nonsense about sex trafficking and the internet for ages, so it’s no surprise…
Read MoreCA: San Diego DA Candidate Summer Stephan’s Bad Day
[sandiegofreepress.org 5/3/18] Wednesday, May 2, wasn’t a good day in appointed interim District Attorney Summer Stephan’s quest to win her first election in the June Primary. In Justice Today, a leading publication in the field of criminal justice reform called out Stephan’s claims about human trafficking, suggesting she’s used inflated numbers to bolster her political and professional profile. And Genevieve Jones-Wright, Stephan’s opponent in the upcoming June primary, has asked the State Attorney General’s office to investigate ten alleged violations of state law prohibiting employees–in this case, local law enforcement–from…
Read MoreThe Sex Trafficking Panic Is Based On Myths
[buzzfeed.com 4/18/18] As they crack down on sex workers and pass outrageous new laws, our politicians and moral crusaders make some bold claims: Hundreds of thousands of children are at risk of sex trafficking is one oft-cited figure. Kids are entering sex work at an average age of 13, says another. But is any of this true? Good data is hard to come by in an industry kept largely in the shadows. That’s why, from 2012 to 2014, we spent nine months walking a stretch of road in Las Vegas…
Read MoreUS Senate pass measure to fight sex trafficking, bill heads to Trump
[abs-cbn.com] WASHINGTON – The US Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday aimed at countering sex trafficking that allows victims of such exploitation to seek justice against website owners who knowingly promote or facilitate it. Senators voted 97-2 to pass the measure, which cleared the House of Representatives last month and now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. Supporters hailed the passage of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) as a major victory, but the measure is not without its critics: some say it would undermine…
Read MoreHouse passes anti-online sex trafficking bill, allows targeting of websites like Backpage.com
[UPDATED links 2/28/18] [floridaactioncommittee.org and The Washington Post] The House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that gives prosecutors, state attorneys general and sex trafficking victims a clearer route to pursue legal action against websites hosting advertisements for prostitutes, which advocates have long argued are a hive for trafficking children. The bill now goes to the Senate, which already has passed a similar version out of committee. If approved, it would go to the White House, where supporters are hopeful that President Trump will sign it. His daughter, Ivanka Trump,…
Read MoreInternet Censorship Bills Wouldn’t Help Catch Sex Traffickers
[Electronic Frontier Foundation] In the most illuminating part of last week’s House subcommittee hearing on the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865), Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent Russ Winkler explained how he uses online platforms—particularly Backpage—to fight online sex trafficking. Winkler painted a fascinating picture of agents on his team posing as johns, gaining trust with traffickers, and apprehending them. His testimony demonstrated how, with proper training and resources, law enforcement officers can navigate the online platforms where sex work takes place…
Read More