HOW TO ADVANCE YOUR CAREER USING VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING - EXPLOITING THE EXPLOITED
What do sex traffickers do? They exploit their victims, make money off their pain and work, then after they're used up and broken, they go out and get a new fresh victim to exploit - casting aside the used up broken down one because their usefulness is gone. Right? Isn't that the difference between a "sex worker" and a "trafficking victim"?
I want to point you to the career of Gypsy Rose Lee. This was a woman who had a mentally ill mother. Her sister was known in films as "Baby June". She was the "ugly duckling" that the mom would dress up as a back-up dancer on Vaudeville when they'd tour to do shows which advanced Baby June's career. Their mom was getting all the money also. The whole story was turned into a film with Nataliee Wood playing her, and then later redone with Bette Midler playing the mother.
They were desperate financially at one point as Vaudeville was dying. There was always the cash cow of stripping - but Gypsy felt she was tall, ugly, not sexy at all. What she did know was the audience. So instead of "stripping" - she focused on the "tease" in "strip tease". She also knew about marketing, packaging, press, and that men always want what they can't have and turned on by the "forbidden" and "unseen". So Gypsy embarked upon a tour where the audience would talk for days about whether or not they actually "saw" anything with her hiding behind curtains, feathers, and bodysuits.
Then she wrote a book about her life. She started giving workshops to wives about "how to strip for your husband" and classes in the "tease of strip tease" to strippers. This led to a Broadway play, a film with Natalie Wood playing her, etc. She used stripping to become wealthy and famous. Meaning Gypsy Rose Lee was a stripper - but she was not a "trafficking victim" nor did anyone exploit her but her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_Rose_Lee
Meaning that there's a difference between a "sex worker" or someone in some part of the sex industry - and a "trafficking victim". Victims are exploited, used, and cast off. Something that I witnessed happen to Linda Lovelace in the 1980's by the anti-porn people. Before I started our movement to help us, and empower us, and to change how society responded to the plight of victims - I watched Linda step up to speak about how she had been forced to film "Deep Throat" by her pimp, Chuck Traynor. The film was financed by the mob and while it cost a few thousand to make - the film made millions for the mob.
Now when Linda stepped up to tell the world about how when this gun was pointed at her on the set no one stepped up to help her - her story was picked up by these anti-porn people. The "religious right wing pro-life people" scooped her up to do all these lectures, fund raisers, events, etc. calling out to stamp our pornography. NOTHING was done to set up a system whereby future victims on sets who were having guns pointed at them would have a way to call for help.
The closest I've seen to anything being done to change THIS - is when Polaris got a law passed requiring signs with the National Trafficking Hotline be posted in offices like the porn agencies. https://oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking/sb1193 Granted, no one is following up on the law from what I can see. I've now called the top five porn agencies in Los Angeles asking if they have this sign posted in their lobby. They had no idea what I was talking about. I have had a few of them agree to meet with me to talk about posting the signs in their lobby - but I have to get my car repaired first in order to get to these meetings. But this is another blog post -
I watched these "feminists" and religious people exploit Linda in the SAME IDENTICAL MANNER CHUCK HAD. They made press for their cause and money for their pockets but I didn't see anyone setting up Linda in her own foundation, paying for her a college degree, or even giving her a job for that matter. These advanced their careers. They got on TV. They set up nonprofits. Politicians used Linda to get voted into office. The press was used to advance their companies like Ms. Magazine to name one.
Linda had been forced to use drugs by Chuck, and kicked in the kidneys a lot during beatings. The stress of this public speaking and travel to speak out against pornography caused her health strains. She didn't have a job so she didn't have health insurance. When she needed a transplant and $10,000 for the surgery - I watched her ask these same people for help who turned on her and abandoned her. I watched as Linda had to make another XXX film to make the money to pay for her medical care. The film didn't make money because the porn people felt she'd turned on them when she let these people use her to try and stamp them out of work. I remember watching the porn industry shout out "no one forced her to make this film" and basically they used Linda's film return as a "denial" about her stories about what happened with her and Chuck.
Shunned by both sides of the issue - she wound up using and drinking again. Dying from wrapping her car around a pole while drunk driving. So do you know what happened here to Linda Lovelace? After she left Chuck, like an alcoholic who stays sober but doesn't work on their recovery and thus becomes a "dry drunk" - she found a new kind of pimp. She found a whole group of people more than willing to exploit her, use her up, and cast her off - just as Chuck and the mob had done. Now I ask you - did it have one bit of impact on porn? If anything - porn is now MORE common and in more homes than in 1980 when Linda first released her book "Ordeal".
So keep in mind that when I stepped up in 1987 to announce our hotline, our program, and what WE were doing - I swore I wasn't going to let us be used and exploited like I'd watched them do with Linda. It's one reason I liked the 12 step philosophy - I wasn't going to get sucked into the same arenas as Linda by either side. The only thing I wanted to focus on was getting help to those who needed help. Then to show these victims how to not be exploited by ANYONE.
Because keep in mind I saw how Linda had turned around to be pimped by the feminists (supposedly) and the religious faction because she didn't have a chance to work on her "recovery" from being a "victim". Which as you can see by her case - if these women don't - then they just get scooped up by another type of pimp. The first big case we worked on were women who were being exploited by the Church of God cult. I had been hearing that this church was getting all these women out of prostitution - so I went to interview them before opening our program. What I found was shocking - this cult leader had these women out prostituting for him. There was no difference other than he was calling himself a "pastor' instead of a "pimp". That was the only difference in the Children of God case. So actually our first biggest case wasn't getting women off a street corner or away from a trafficker - but away from the leader of the Children of God cult who had the women doing what he called "flirty fishing" to bring donors into the fold.
So these "anti" people have this down to a system now. Just as pedophiles and rapists look for someone who has already been "broken in" or "groomed" - so too do these people know how to find someone like Linda and exploit them for their ends also. End result? Linda is dead and the porn industry is even bigger. A system I'm now seeing crank them out like an assembly line. Look at Annie Lobert for example. When I met her - she wasn't working a job. She was out shilling money for Pastor Benny Perez who then after raising millions to open "Destiny House" filed bankruptcy, pocketed the money, and then started to walk away. They're back working together now - but that's because Annie married a relative of Benny's. I can't remember if he's a brother or cousin - but again isn't that how pimps work? Most pimps get their victims knocked up so they can't leave. In Annie's case - Benny had her marry a relative so she couldn't bail when she learned the truth.
It's a system that I'm seeing being duplicated all over this country now - let me show you. This article speaks about two politicians who got a lot of press off writing a letter to Backpage because of a woman who was murdered. How easy this is to write a letter to Backpage - and turn it into press for yourself - http://wpri.com/2015/07/09/attorney-general-calls-for-crackdown-on-online-sex-ads/
Now let me ask you - does Backpage get upset at this type of media? They charge on average (until recently) about $25 per ad. When they see these articles that say "hey people are promoting prostitution over here" that's free advertising for them. Then they get a whole slew of new customers buying ads at $25 a shot. So they could care less. As PT Barnum would say "just spell my name right".
Maybe they don't charge for the adult ads anymore. So what? You know what? If these "career climbers" had spoken to me - I would have kept BP charging for the ads. You know why? Because in future cases of other murders or maybe if there is a pimp involved - that payment on that ad ties back to a real person, bank information, and details that could be used to stop predators from abusing these victims.
Now with a free ad? Anyone can run an ad now and so what? If a woman is murdered now - so what? There's no bank information on the payment for the ad. I'm pointing this out to you to show why if people really do care about this issue and really do want to make an impact on trafficking THEN THEY NEED TO INVOLVE US. I mean Sex Workers Anonymous has now been dealing with this issue for 30 years now. I think we might know a few things. But no one wants to hear that when these people started cracking down on Craigslist - I lost the ability to easily find a lot of missing kids.
Did anyone care? Nope. I told these people I could show them case after case after case where our hotline would get a call about a missing son or daughter. I'd ask for a photo. Then in about two hours online - I could find their kid. Then I'd call up a SWA member in that city and ask them to set up a "fake appointment" to flush the kid out. Problem solved.
Now? Now the traffickers are mostly off line. They're in the strip clubs and massage parlors (google Chris Butler or the DEA owned strip club in New Jersey to see what I mean). Those who advertise online now pretty much use stolen or stock photos - not real pictures anymore. But this is my point. If they cared about these kids - they would have come talk to me about how our system the way it was - was finding kids in two hours and bringing them home.
Now? Everyone who attacked Backpage has advanced their career - and now I find that the traffickers have been driven so far off the internet that it requires now "boots on the ground" investigation which is almost impossible to do. I can get someone to help me look for pictures of a missing girl online easily. What's almost impossible to get is someone who will walk into the strip clubs, the massage parlors, etc., and look around the rooms or the street corners at 2:00 a.m. for these kids physically.
This article is two Attorney General's. One is Peter Kilmartin from Rhode Island and the other is Maura Healey. What I don't understand is why THIS case is being used to attack Backpage on the claim it's "promoting sex trafficking". Because here's what happened in this very case they're grand standing on - http://wpri.com/2015/07/07/man-indicted-in-providence-murder-already-in-federal-custody/ It says that 24 year old Ashley Masi was advertising for escorting on Backpage when Daniel Tejeda answered her ad. It says that Ashley's two minor children were in the home when Daniel murdered her. The children are now in the state's custody - meaning she had no family to turn to (obviously or she might not have been hooking off Backpage).
Excuse me - but where's the "trafficking" in this case? They think shutting down Backpage is going to somehow have prevented her murder? Here's what I see that's been left OUT of this story. The fact that I wonder if they might have only caught Daniel because of the ad he responded to. That left a trail for police to follow in her murder. I wonder if she'd been hooking on a street corner and brought this guy home - would police have been able to catch him? They shut down Backpage - and then what would Ashley do?
I'll tell you what Ashley would do. She'd go out on a street corner where the TRAFFICKERS ARE. She'll go out on a street corner where there's no bread crumbs or trails to follow when the customers murder the prostitutes in an alley and leave their body there like trash. In every case these people use to cite about some murder connected supposedly to Backpage - I think that's marketing. Because the way I see it - is that they're able to find out who murdered these prostitutes because of those sites. If those same women were working on a corner and turning tricks in an alley or hotel - there would be no trace. Their bodies would be found with the police having no clue to follow up on to find out who murdered them then.
OR they go to work for traffickers and when her body is found dead - they tell the john to give them some more money to clean up the mess. They then sell the prostitutes' body for parts on the black market, blackmail the murderer maybe for some extra cash - and I assure you the traffickers are not going to go to the police and identify who murdered one of their prostitutes.
So who is behind this attack on Backpage claiming that the murder of a prostitute warrants attacking Backpage to "end trafficking" (is anyone else confused here?). Anyway, Maura Healey is an Attorney General with her eye on way more than just being an Attorney General. She's now used the press and her position to become a "campaign surrogate for Hillary Clinton". https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/01/maura-healey-doesn-like-lose/70oImi0CqhdMhyor9o25WK/story.html So she's a political climber on the rise. The article even says she "didn't meet a camera she didn't like".
Peter Kilmartin was running for his second term as Attorney General in Rhode Island. He started out as a cop, then a DA, and now is on his second term as AG. This article here states that despite his platform of "going against anyone who does crime" - he's not prosecuted one felony case. The article also accuses him of being a "climber" career wise also. http://www.coalitionradio.us/david-fisher/an-indictment-against-ri-attorney-general-peter-kilmartin
Now the fact he's from Rhode Island caught my eye. I thought to myself "isn't prostitution legal in RI?" So I went to look it up on Google. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-rhode-island-accidentally-legalized-prostitution-2014-7 Yes - it WAS legal it appears from 2004 to 2009 to engage in "indoor prostitution". So in reality Mr. Kilmartin - Ashley's death is not because of Backpage - but because your state made prostitution ILLEGAL again causing her to advertise on Backpage. An ad that again I wonder if you would have been able to catch her killer if not for that ad leaving bread crumbs to him.
Now am I saying that Peter and Maurey are bad people? Not at all. But how easy is this? Get some press about writing letters and going after Backpage like that has anything to do with sex trafficking. It goes over well with the voters who generally think this is actually having some kind of impact. Here's the impact it has - if you give a lot of press to busting a bootlegger who "operates a still right outside of town" - guess what happens? Anyone who wants booze is going to now know where to find it.
I watched a documentary once about bootleggers who would actually PAY politicians to do campaigns to attack alcohol, support prohibition ,and even of course arrest their COMPETITOR bootleggers. Because every time they would arrest and shut down one of their competitors - guess what? You got it - they got their customers and made more money.
Here's the reality of the sex industry - "independents" or "rogues" or "outlaws" or whatever word you want to call someone who is NOT being trafficked by traffickers advertise on Backpage. Who advertises on Backpage are single moms, transgenders doing sex work to raise money for their sex change, runaways who can't get a job because they're too young, or don't have an ID, drug addicts trying to use prostitution to support their habit, or lure in a "john" so they can roll him for his wallet, etc.
Now - let's look at a real case of sex trafficking. This is a ring I've been trying to have some impact on for some time now. This case here has three of the pimps being sentenced. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/24/gary-kidgell-yan-zhang-sex-trafficking-kansas_n_3647993.html These people did not advertise on Backpage. This ring operates a string of massage parlors all over this country. The women who are being trafficked by men like Liang Yaohui from the age of 8 years old on - hit 40. When they hit 40 years old - they're then sent to America. If you google photos of the women who are being arrested in these parlors - you'll see they're all over 40 years of age.
The reason is because once they get here - they then have their family back in China they can threaten. That's one reason they do this. The women freed when these 9 parlors were shut down thanked the court for their freedom. They're very lucky actually the police and courts and judge did their job there in Wichita. I learned that they had received a grant the year before this operation started to do something about corruption - and I know that's why this case happened.
Why? Because the officer who made the arrests has said in interviews that he tried going after this ring back in 2005 originally when he was a cop. Only he kept getting threatened by other cops on the force to "back off". He tried to get an arrest against them in 2009 - but it was shot out of court for a "lack of evidence". Then Officer Jim Stewart realized while he was a cop - he's never be able to shut this operation down in Wichita. So he waited until he retired and then got a job in the zoning department. While there - he was able to nose around until he got enough evidence for this arrest in 2013. Arrests which now got him, and the judge, death threats.
I can't speak for Jim Stewart - but I'd be willing to say that shutting down Backpage in his opinion would not help "fight trafficking". I think he'd say what would "help fight trafficking" is doing something about the police corruption that forced him to have to bid his time from 2005 until 2013, have to wait until he retired, got a job with the zoning department, and THEN he was able to get these 9 parlors shut down. So if you would ask him about what would help - I think he'd agree with me that doing something about police corruption would help. Because again I wondered why he was successful at getting the case in front of a judge while this same ring isn't getting any cases against them in these other cities - and that's what I found was different. http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article1268462.html It appears that a grant was issued to investigate corruption with respect to ACORN - http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/20100218followthemoneyacornseiuandtheirpoliticalallies.pdf of which a committee was set up in Wichita, Kansas for a while that appears to be why this case made it through the courts - whereas in cities like Pasadena, Long Beach, San Diego, etc. I can't get so much as a return phone call!
Now - note there are other parlors owned by these people spoken about in this article that confirms this ring has parlors in other cities besides Wichita - which if you google it - you'll see no one else is talking about anywhere! Maybe because the HEAD of this whole operation resides in Pasadena. I have paperwork tying Gary Kidgell to property in Pasadena, and yada yada yada.
This is the case I got called into a few years ago when one of the women related to some of the people at the top of this ring decided she wanted to retire. She told them she was now in her 50's and wanted to quit - and she was then carted off out of her home by two Pasadena cops and slapped with two fake prostitution cases. She was further told if she didn't stop giving them a hard time - she'd get a third charge and deported back to China where she would then face Liang Yaohui. Mind you this man wasn't arrested until a few months ago - and is a part of the Chinese government. Here's more on this case I can't get anyone to even talk to me about while 1/2 of the country is "suing Backpage" - http://sanitytodayonline.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-sound-of-music-and-pasadena.html
Now - as for Peter Kilmartin or Maura Healey - before you took on this platform I would have liked to see you get onto Google like I did just now about Rhode Island laws with respect to prostitution, see that I'm the founder of this movement, and leader of the largest and oldest program for adult survivors like Ashley was, and give me a call to ask me what we think would help the situation before you went off on this whole Backpage campaign. That's what I would have liked to have seen you do before using this movement to advance your careers - because I'm sure as hell not seeing how we get anything out of you suing Backpage.
Because what I would like the most right now is for someone, anyone, to talk to me about this trafficking ring that's operating right now all over this country. Has been since at least 2004 from what I can document and my own experiences with them. Now I've seen cases like Wichita - where a few people in the machine are thrown in for good measure - but the whole operation just continues rolling along without even a hiccup. I want to see the whole thing shut down. I have enough witnesses, and information, and evidence to do that also right now in hand. Have for a while - only I can't get anyone in offices like yours to talk to me about the case.
I've heard all the excuses. One being that "there aren't the right laws in place yet that allow us to take this ring on". Wrong. I've spoken to the author of the RICO act itself who told me that I have enough evidence to go after the heads of this operation under the existing RICO laws. No new laws have to be written. No task forces need to be funded. No grants need to be written. Meaning if I can get someone to look at the information I have right now today - we could do something to shut this whole thing down.
In the meantime Mr. Kilmartin and Ms. Healey - would you like to see what Backpage is actually doing to help fight trafficking? SWA runs ads in their adult sections like this one - http://lasvegas.backpage.com/FemaleEscorts/want-out/17591107 Meaning if you shut this down - I lose a means to reach out to offer help to adults in the sex industry to leave.
As for teens - http://lasvegas.backpage.com/FemaleEscorts/want-out-national-free-help-247-1-800-551-1300/8920108 They run ads for Children of the Night. They help teens get out of the sex industry. www.childrenofthnight.org opened their doors in 1979 - when programs like Covenant House were refusing to admit prostitutes into their programs. I know because I used to get the calls from their shelters to try and place the kids because they didn't want to admit them. Of course that was before we got federal recognition, cough cough - money.
Exploiting the exploited is when politicians use this issue to advance their careers and do nothing to actually help us help these victims or change the situation. So which are these two? No idea. I've written them today, October 10, 2015, and we'll see if they answer. I do hope they won't join the ever growing list of people I'm building who are using this issue to advance their careers - and then when I call and say I'd actually like some real help on this issue I can't even get a return phone call. I'll keep you posted on their response.
By the way - does anyone know if these two Attorney General's who are using Ashley's death to advance their careers helped to pay for her funeral or are they looking in on her kids to see how they're doing in the care of the state? Because if they are going to win any money in this case against Backpage - I think it should go into the care of Ashley's kids. I also think the state needs to examine what NOT involving groups like ours in their anti-trafficking work is costing them. Ashley's life aside - these two kids are now being care for by the state.
That's expensive. Honestly - if we'd been called in to get involved more in this issue there before her death - I would have liked to have think we could have prevented her death. You don't care about her or her kids? Multiple the cost of these kids' care by how many kids are in the system - and then come back and tell me you're being even "cost effective" by not involving us in your planning on these issues?
I want to point you to the career of Gypsy Rose Lee. This was a woman who had a mentally ill mother. Her sister was known in films as "Baby June". She was the "ugly duckling" that the mom would dress up as a back-up dancer on Vaudeville when they'd tour to do shows which advanced Baby June's career. Their mom was getting all the money also. The whole story was turned into a film with Nataliee Wood playing her, and then later redone with Bette Midler playing the mother.
They were desperate financially at one point as Vaudeville was dying. There was always the cash cow of stripping - but Gypsy felt she was tall, ugly, not sexy at all. What she did know was the audience. So instead of "stripping" - she focused on the "tease" in "strip tease". She also knew about marketing, packaging, press, and that men always want what they can't have and turned on by the "forbidden" and "unseen". So Gypsy embarked upon a tour where the audience would talk for days about whether or not they actually "saw" anything with her hiding behind curtains, feathers, and bodysuits.
Then she wrote a book about her life. She started giving workshops to wives about "how to strip for your husband" and classes in the "tease of strip tease" to strippers. This led to a Broadway play, a film with Natalie Wood playing her, etc. She used stripping to become wealthy and famous. Meaning Gypsy Rose Lee was a stripper - but she was not a "trafficking victim" nor did anyone exploit her but her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_Rose_Lee
Meaning that there's a difference between a "sex worker" or someone in some part of the sex industry - and a "trafficking victim". Victims are exploited, used, and cast off. Something that I witnessed happen to Linda Lovelace in the 1980's by the anti-porn people. Before I started our movement to help us, and empower us, and to change how society responded to the plight of victims - I watched Linda step up to speak about how she had been forced to film "Deep Throat" by her pimp, Chuck Traynor. The film was financed by the mob and while it cost a few thousand to make - the film made millions for the mob.
Now when Linda stepped up to tell the world about how when this gun was pointed at her on the set no one stepped up to help her - her story was picked up by these anti-porn people. The "religious right wing pro-life people" scooped her up to do all these lectures, fund raisers, events, etc. calling out to stamp our pornography. NOTHING was done to set up a system whereby future victims on sets who were having guns pointed at them would have a way to call for help.
The closest I've seen to anything being done to change THIS - is when Polaris got a law passed requiring signs with the National Trafficking Hotline be posted in offices like the porn agencies. https://oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking/sb1193 Granted, no one is following up on the law from what I can see. I've now called the top five porn agencies in Los Angeles asking if they have this sign posted in their lobby. They had no idea what I was talking about. I have had a few of them agree to meet with me to talk about posting the signs in their lobby - but I have to get my car repaired first in order to get to these meetings. But this is another blog post -
I watched these "feminists" and religious people exploit Linda in the SAME IDENTICAL MANNER CHUCK HAD. They made press for their cause and money for their pockets but I didn't see anyone setting up Linda in her own foundation, paying for her a college degree, or even giving her a job for that matter. These advanced their careers. They got on TV. They set up nonprofits. Politicians used Linda to get voted into office. The press was used to advance their companies like Ms. Magazine to name one.
Linda had been forced to use drugs by Chuck, and kicked in the kidneys a lot during beatings. The stress of this public speaking and travel to speak out against pornography caused her health strains. She didn't have a job so she didn't have health insurance. When she needed a transplant and $10,000 for the surgery - I watched her ask these same people for help who turned on her and abandoned her. I watched as Linda had to make another XXX film to make the money to pay for her medical care. The film didn't make money because the porn people felt she'd turned on them when she let these people use her to try and stamp them out of work. I remember watching the porn industry shout out "no one forced her to make this film" and basically they used Linda's film return as a "denial" about her stories about what happened with her and Chuck.
Shunned by both sides of the issue - she wound up using and drinking again. Dying from wrapping her car around a pole while drunk driving. So do you know what happened here to Linda Lovelace? After she left Chuck, like an alcoholic who stays sober but doesn't work on their recovery and thus becomes a "dry drunk" - she found a new kind of pimp. She found a whole group of people more than willing to exploit her, use her up, and cast her off - just as Chuck and the mob had done. Now I ask you - did it have one bit of impact on porn? If anything - porn is now MORE common and in more homes than in 1980 when Linda first released her book "Ordeal".
So keep in mind that when I stepped up in 1987 to announce our hotline, our program, and what WE were doing - I swore I wasn't going to let us be used and exploited like I'd watched them do with Linda. It's one reason I liked the 12 step philosophy - I wasn't going to get sucked into the same arenas as Linda by either side. The only thing I wanted to focus on was getting help to those who needed help. Then to show these victims how to not be exploited by ANYONE.
Because keep in mind I saw how Linda had turned around to be pimped by the feminists (supposedly) and the religious faction because she didn't have a chance to work on her "recovery" from being a "victim". Which as you can see by her case - if these women don't - then they just get scooped up by another type of pimp. The first big case we worked on were women who were being exploited by the Church of God cult. I had been hearing that this church was getting all these women out of prostitution - so I went to interview them before opening our program. What I found was shocking - this cult leader had these women out prostituting for him. There was no difference other than he was calling himself a "pastor' instead of a "pimp". That was the only difference in the Children of God case. So actually our first biggest case wasn't getting women off a street corner or away from a trafficker - but away from the leader of the Children of God cult who had the women doing what he called "flirty fishing" to bring donors into the fold.
So these "anti" people have this down to a system now. Just as pedophiles and rapists look for someone who has already been "broken in" or "groomed" - so too do these people know how to find someone like Linda and exploit them for their ends also. End result? Linda is dead and the porn industry is even bigger. A system I'm now seeing crank them out like an assembly line. Look at Annie Lobert for example. When I met her - she wasn't working a job. She was out shilling money for Pastor Benny Perez who then after raising millions to open "Destiny House" filed bankruptcy, pocketed the money, and then started to walk away. They're back working together now - but that's because Annie married a relative of Benny's. I can't remember if he's a brother or cousin - but again isn't that how pimps work? Most pimps get their victims knocked up so they can't leave. In Annie's case - Benny had her marry a relative so she couldn't bail when she learned the truth.
It's a system that I'm seeing being duplicated all over this country now - let me show you. This article speaks about two politicians who got a lot of press off writing a letter to Backpage because of a woman who was murdered. How easy this is to write a letter to Backpage - and turn it into press for yourself - http://wpri.com/2015/07/09/attorney-general-calls-for-crackdown-on-online-sex-ads/
Now let me ask you - does Backpage get upset at this type of media? They charge on average (until recently) about $25 per ad. When they see these articles that say "hey people are promoting prostitution over here" that's free advertising for them. Then they get a whole slew of new customers buying ads at $25 a shot. So they could care less. As PT Barnum would say "just spell my name right".
Maybe they don't charge for the adult ads anymore. So what? You know what? If these "career climbers" had spoken to me - I would have kept BP charging for the ads. You know why? Because in future cases of other murders or maybe if there is a pimp involved - that payment on that ad ties back to a real person, bank information, and details that could be used to stop predators from abusing these victims.
Now with a free ad? Anyone can run an ad now and so what? If a woman is murdered now - so what? There's no bank information on the payment for the ad. I'm pointing this out to you to show why if people really do care about this issue and really do want to make an impact on trafficking THEN THEY NEED TO INVOLVE US. I mean Sex Workers Anonymous has now been dealing with this issue for 30 years now. I think we might know a few things. But no one wants to hear that when these people started cracking down on Craigslist - I lost the ability to easily find a lot of missing kids.
Did anyone care? Nope. I told these people I could show them case after case after case where our hotline would get a call about a missing son or daughter. I'd ask for a photo. Then in about two hours online - I could find their kid. Then I'd call up a SWA member in that city and ask them to set up a "fake appointment" to flush the kid out. Problem solved.
Now? Now the traffickers are mostly off line. They're in the strip clubs and massage parlors (google Chris Butler or the DEA owned strip club in New Jersey to see what I mean). Those who advertise online now pretty much use stolen or stock photos - not real pictures anymore. But this is my point. If they cared about these kids - they would have come talk to me about how our system the way it was - was finding kids in two hours and bringing them home.
Now? Everyone who attacked Backpage has advanced their career - and now I find that the traffickers have been driven so far off the internet that it requires now "boots on the ground" investigation which is almost impossible to do. I can get someone to help me look for pictures of a missing girl online easily. What's almost impossible to get is someone who will walk into the strip clubs, the massage parlors, etc., and look around the rooms or the street corners at 2:00 a.m. for these kids physically.
This article is two Attorney General's. One is Peter Kilmartin from Rhode Island and the other is Maura Healey. What I don't understand is why THIS case is being used to attack Backpage on the claim it's "promoting sex trafficking". Because here's what happened in this very case they're grand standing on - http://wpri.com/2015/07/07/man-indicted-in-providence-murder-already-in-federal-custody/ It says that 24 year old Ashley Masi was advertising for escorting on Backpage when Daniel Tejeda answered her ad. It says that Ashley's two minor children were in the home when Daniel murdered her. The children are now in the state's custody - meaning she had no family to turn to (obviously or she might not have been hooking off Backpage).
Excuse me - but where's the "trafficking" in this case? They think shutting down Backpage is going to somehow have prevented her murder? Here's what I see that's been left OUT of this story. The fact that I wonder if they might have only caught Daniel because of the ad he responded to. That left a trail for police to follow in her murder. I wonder if she'd been hooking on a street corner and brought this guy home - would police have been able to catch him? They shut down Backpage - and then what would Ashley do?
I'll tell you what Ashley would do. She'd go out on a street corner where the TRAFFICKERS ARE. She'll go out on a street corner where there's no bread crumbs or trails to follow when the customers murder the prostitutes in an alley and leave their body there like trash. In every case these people use to cite about some murder connected supposedly to Backpage - I think that's marketing. Because the way I see it - is that they're able to find out who murdered these prostitutes because of those sites. If those same women were working on a corner and turning tricks in an alley or hotel - there would be no trace. Their bodies would be found with the police having no clue to follow up on to find out who murdered them then.
OR they go to work for traffickers and when her body is found dead - they tell the john to give them some more money to clean up the mess. They then sell the prostitutes' body for parts on the black market, blackmail the murderer maybe for some extra cash - and I assure you the traffickers are not going to go to the police and identify who murdered one of their prostitutes.
So who is behind this attack on Backpage claiming that the murder of a prostitute warrants attacking Backpage to "end trafficking" (is anyone else confused here?). Anyway, Maura Healey is an Attorney General with her eye on way more than just being an Attorney General. She's now used the press and her position to become a "campaign surrogate for Hillary Clinton". https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/01/maura-healey-doesn-like-lose/70oImi0CqhdMhyor9o25WK/story.html So she's a political climber on the rise. The article even says she "didn't meet a camera she didn't like".
Peter Kilmartin was running for his second term as Attorney General in Rhode Island. He started out as a cop, then a DA, and now is on his second term as AG. This article here states that despite his platform of "going against anyone who does crime" - he's not prosecuted one felony case. The article also accuses him of being a "climber" career wise also. http://www.coalitionradio.us/david-fisher/an-indictment-against-ri-attorney-general-peter-kilmartin
Now the fact he's from Rhode Island caught my eye. I thought to myself "isn't prostitution legal in RI?" So I went to look it up on Google. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-rhode-island-accidentally-legalized-prostitution-2014-7 Yes - it WAS legal it appears from 2004 to 2009 to engage in "indoor prostitution". So in reality Mr. Kilmartin - Ashley's death is not because of Backpage - but because your state made prostitution ILLEGAL again causing her to advertise on Backpage. An ad that again I wonder if you would have been able to catch her killer if not for that ad leaving bread crumbs to him.
Now am I saying that Peter and Maurey are bad people? Not at all. But how easy is this? Get some press about writing letters and going after Backpage like that has anything to do with sex trafficking. It goes over well with the voters who generally think this is actually having some kind of impact. Here's the impact it has - if you give a lot of press to busting a bootlegger who "operates a still right outside of town" - guess what happens? Anyone who wants booze is going to now know where to find it.
I watched a documentary once about bootleggers who would actually PAY politicians to do campaigns to attack alcohol, support prohibition ,and even of course arrest their COMPETITOR bootleggers. Because every time they would arrest and shut down one of their competitors - guess what? You got it - they got their customers and made more money.
Here's the reality of the sex industry - "independents" or "rogues" or "outlaws" or whatever word you want to call someone who is NOT being trafficked by traffickers advertise on Backpage. Who advertises on Backpage are single moms, transgenders doing sex work to raise money for their sex change, runaways who can't get a job because they're too young, or don't have an ID, drug addicts trying to use prostitution to support their habit, or lure in a "john" so they can roll him for his wallet, etc.
Now - let's look at a real case of sex trafficking. This is a ring I've been trying to have some impact on for some time now. This case here has three of the pimps being sentenced. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/24/gary-kidgell-yan-zhang-sex-trafficking-kansas_n_3647993.html These people did not advertise on Backpage. This ring operates a string of massage parlors all over this country. The women who are being trafficked by men like Liang Yaohui from the age of 8 years old on - hit 40. When they hit 40 years old - they're then sent to America. If you google photos of the women who are being arrested in these parlors - you'll see they're all over 40 years of age.
The reason is because once they get here - they then have their family back in China they can threaten. That's one reason they do this. The women freed when these 9 parlors were shut down thanked the court for their freedom. They're very lucky actually the police and courts and judge did their job there in Wichita. I learned that they had received a grant the year before this operation started to do something about corruption - and I know that's why this case happened.
Why? Because the officer who made the arrests has said in interviews that he tried going after this ring back in 2005 originally when he was a cop. Only he kept getting threatened by other cops on the force to "back off". He tried to get an arrest against them in 2009 - but it was shot out of court for a "lack of evidence". Then Officer Jim Stewart realized while he was a cop - he's never be able to shut this operation down in Wichita. So he waited until he retired and then got a job in the zoning department. While there - he was able to nose around until he got enough evidence for this arrest in 2013. Arrests which now got him, and the judge, death threats.
I can't speak for Jim Stewart - but I'd be willing to say that shutting down Backpage in his opinion would not help "fight trafficking". I think he'd say what would "help fight trafficking" is doing something about the police corruption that forced him to have to bid his time from 2005 until 2013, have to wait until he retired, got a job with the zoning department, and THEN he was able to get these 9 parlors shut down. So if you would ask him about what would help - I think he'd agree with me that doing something about police corruption would help. Because again I wondered why he was successful at getting the case in front of a judge while this same ring isn't getting any cases against them in these other cities - and that's what I found was different. http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article1268462.html It appears that a grant was issued to investigate corruption with respect to ACORN - http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/20100218followthemoneyacornseiuandtheirpoliticalallies.pdf of which a committee was set up in Wichita, Kansas for a while that appears to be why this case made it through the courts - whereas in cities like Pasadena, Long Beach, San Diego, etc. I can't get so much as a return phone call!
Now - note there are other parlors owned by these people spoken about in this article that confirms this ring has parlors in other cities besides Wichita - which if you google it - you'll see no one else is talking about anywhere! Maybe because the HEAD of this whole operation resides in Pasadena. I have paperwork tying Gary Kidgell to property in Pasadena, and yada yada yada.
This is the case I got called into a few years ago when one of the women related to some of the people at the top of this ring decided she wanted to retire. She told them she was now in her 50's and wanted to quit - and she was then carted off out of her home by two Pasadena cops and slapped with two fake prostitution cases. She was further told if she didn't stop giving them a hard time - she'd get a third charge and deported back to China where she would then face Liang Yaohui. Mind you this man wasn't arrested until a few months ago - and is a part of the Chinese government. Here's more on this case I can't get anyone to even talk to me about while 1/2 of the country is "suing Backpage" - http://sanitytodayonline.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-sound-of-music-and-pasadena.html
Now - as for Peter Kilmartin or Maura Healey - before you took on this platform I would have liked to see you get onto Google like I did just now about Rhode Island laws with respect to prostitution, see that I'm the founder of this movement, and leader of the largest and oldest program for adult survivors like Ashley was, and give me a call to ask me what we think would help the situation before you went off on this whole Backpage campaign. That's what I would have liked to have seen you do before using this movement to advance your careers - because I'm sure as hell not seeing how we get anything out of you suing Backpage.
Because what I would like the most right now is for someone, anyone, to talk to me about this trafficking ring that's operating right now all over this country. Has been since at least 2004 from what I can document and my own experiences with them. Now I've seen cases like Wichita - where a few people in the machine are thrown in for good measure - but the whole operation just continues rolling along without even a hiccup. I want to see the whole thing shut down. I have enough witnesses, and information, and evidence to do that also right now in hand. Have for a while - only I can't get anyone in offices like yours to talk to me about the case.
I've heard all the excuses. One being that "there aren't the right laws in place yet that allow us to take this ring on". Wrong. I've spoken to the author of the RICO act itself who told me that I have enough evidence to go after the heads of this operation under the existing RICO laws. No new laws have to be written. No task forces need to be funded. No grants need to be written. Meaning if I can get someone to look at the information I have right now today - we could do something to shut this whole thing down.
In the meantime Mr. Kilmartin and Ms. Healey - would you like to see what Backpage is actually doing to help fight trafficking? SWA runs ads in their adult sections like this one - http://lasvegas.backpage.com/FemaleEscorts/want-out/17591107 Meaning if you shut this down - I lose a means to reach out to offer help to adults in the sex industry to leave.
As for teens - http://lasvegas.backpage.com/FemaleEscorts/want-out-national-free-help-247-1-800-551-1300/8920108 They run ads for Children of the Night. They help teens get out of the sex industry. www.childrenofthnight.org opened their doors in 1979 - when programs like Covenant House were refusing to admit prostitutes into their programs. I know because I used to get the calls from their shelters to try and place the kids because they didn't want to admit them. Of course that was before we got federal recognition, cough cough - money.
Exploiting the exploited is when politicians use this issue to advance their careers and do nothing to actually help us help these victims or change the situation. So which are these two? No idea. I've written them today, October 10, 2015, and we'll see if they answer. I do hope they won't join the ever growing list of people I'm building who are using this issue to advance their careers - and then when I call and say I'd actually like some real help on this issue I can't even get a return phone call. I'll keep you posted on their response.
By the way - does anyone know if these two Attorney General's who are using Ashley's death to advance their careers helped to pay for her funeral or are they looking in on her kids to see how they're doing in the care of the state? Because if they are going to win any money in this case against Backpage - I think it should go into the care of Ashley's kids. I also think the state needs to examine what NOT involving groups like ours in their anti-trafficking work is costing them. Ashley's life aside - these two kids are now being care for by the state.
That's expensive. Honestly - if we'd been called in to get involved more in this issue there before her death - I would have liked to have think we could have prevented her death. You don't care about her or her kids? Multiple the cost of these kids' care by how many kids are in the system - and then come back and tell me you're being even "cost effective" by not involving us in your planning on these issues?
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