#Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
5279 Dead, 412 since 1/20/09
prostitution-ohio
Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
In the Midwestern heartland, police are encountering a new social evil:
trafficking, often involving women and children who are forced to work as
prostitutes or unpaid labour; and the outcomes can be brutal.
Mexicans seeking a new life in America use plastic bags to float down the
heavily polluted New River into Calexico, California. Photograph: David
McNew/Getty Images
Human trafficking has become a major issue in the Midwest heartland of
America, causing some campaigners to dub it a modern form of slavery.
Figures from the State Department reveal that 17,500 people are
trafficked into the US every year against their will or under false
pretences, mainly to be used for sex or forced labour. Experts believe
that, when cases of internal trafficking are added, the total number of
victims could be up to five times larger. And increasing numbers of
trafficked individuals are being transported thousands of miles from
America's coasts and into heartland states such as Ohio and Michigan.
"It is not only a crime. It is an abomination," said Professor Mark
Ensalaco, a political scientist at the University of Dayton, Ohio, who
organised a recent conference on the issue. In Ohio a human trafficking
commission has just been set up to study the problem, while in the
northern Ohio city of Toledo a special FBI task force is tackling the
issue. For many local law enforcement officials, it is a bewildering new
world.
In one recent incident a 16-year-old Mexican girl was found to have been
trafficked across the US border. Doctors noticed the heavily pregnant
girl showed clear signs of physical abuse when she was brought into a
hospital in Dayton to give birth. The police were called but the couple
who had brought her had already fled. When the girl's story emerged, it
became clear she had been kept against her will in the nearby city of
Springfield and used for labour and sex. "I thought slavery ended a few
centuries ago. But here it is alive and well," said Springfield's
sheriff, Gene Kelly.
He emphasised the risks to the girl's baby after it had been born if the
doctors had not been so alert: "Like the mother, the baby could have
ended up a victim for years to come. Who knows? Future labour? Future
person to traffic?"
Ohio anti-trafficking campaigner Phil Cenedella, founder of Combating
Trafficking Anywhere, believes that the baby was destined to be sold off
by her captors. "They would have put the kid on the black market. It is
crazy that this is happening." Human trafficking – defined as forcing
someone against their will to work for no reward – has been dubbed modern
slavery. At the Dayton conference, it was discussed as a growing social
problem, not in some far-off foreign land, but among the cornfields of
Ohio.
"The problems are broader than we realised," said Ohio's attorney
general, Richard Cordray. "What we want to do is find and disrupt these
networks."
One of the country's leading anti-trafficking advocates is Theresa
Flores, a former victim. Flores puts a different kind of face on human
trafficking in America. She is white, middle-class and blond and looks
the epitome of a suburban American woman. She grew up in a wealthy suburb
of Detroit in Michigan and did well at school. Yet Flores tells a
nightmarish story of two years being drugged, raped and sold for sex.
Flores, whose ordeal was turned into a book called The Sacred Bath: An
American Teen's Story of Modern Day Slavery, was attacked and raped when
she was 15. Her assailant used the threat of photographs he had taken
during her rape to force her into having sex with strangers. She became
the effective prisoner of a drugs gang that used her as a prostitute and
kept her earnings, or gave her away free to gang members as a "reward".
"People don't think that trafficking looks like me or that it can happen
to someone who came from a nice neighbourhood. But it does. People need
to see outside that box," said Flores.
Flores said that her lowest point came when the gang took her to a seedy
motel where she was raped by as many as two dozen men. She woke up alone,
abused and with no clothes. "I was told I would die if I told anyone. It
happened over and over for two years as I became a sex slave for those
men," she said.
Anti-trafficking campaigners point out that cases in the US come in a
wide variety of forms involving men, women and children. One major area
is that of trafficked labour with people used for domestic work or, more
commonly, for back-breaking labour in agricultural industries. But
trafficking cases have also occurred in businesses such as restaurants,
hair salons and beauty parlours. The overwhelming majority of the rest
are sex cases, usually involving young women or children forced into
prostitution. The methods used to keep people vary. They include
confiscating the passports of those brought in from a foreign country or
the threat of extreme violence. Other tactics are to threaten family
members if a victim does not comply or, as in Flores's case, to use
blackmail.
Trafficking represents a new challenge to law enforcement, especially in
regions which have traditionally not thought of it as a major problem.
That is especially true where it happens within an immigrant community.
Languages are a problem as well as cultural issues and a natural fear
that many immigrants – some of them possibly illegal – have of contacting
the police.
Kelly believes that is the case in Springfield, a town that is almost the
Midwestern archetype. It was once featured in a story in Newsweek
magazine entitled "The American Dream". But its 65,000 citizens also face
all the problems of a modern America in the grip of a deep recession: an
immigration crisis and profoundly changing demographics. The town now
hosts several prominent minority communities who make up more than a
fifth of its population, including Russians, Chinese, Latinos and
Somalis. "There are a lot of people who distrust law enforcement. We need
to break down those barriers. Our officers need training, especially in
languages," said Kelly. "If you can't speak to people, you can't reach
them."
Some commentators and experts have accused victims' advocates and
academics of overstating the problem, arguing the problem has been
exaggerated and expressing scepticism at the notion that vast organised
criminal networks are dealing in human beings for sex or labour. Law
enforcement officers also acknowledge that the definitions of trafficking
may need refining.
In North Carolina last week the mother of a five-year-old girl was
charged with human trafficking after being accused of offering her
daughter for sex. The child was later found dead. The crime was horrific,
but the distinction between trafficking and simple, sadistic child abuse
might not be immediately obvious.
"We have a problem with definition. It is not always straightforward and
easy to explain," said Laura Clemmens, a government lawyer in Dayton.
"The hard part is bringing it into the light. At the moment these crimes
are clouded in secrecy."
--
Slavery: The belief that people can be property
Corporatism: The belief that property can be people.
bvallely
wrote:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/people-trafficking-usa-
> prostitution-ohio
>
> Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
And yet you defend ACORN's efforts to kidnap 13 year old girls to be
used as sex slaves.
palin@tsniffsniff.net J. Norman Gype
"bvallely" <bval...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:e7a99e8b-8ce2-46e1...@n35g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
You mean the phoney tape FOX set up and you know it?
5279 Dead, 412 since 1/20/09
> "5279 Dead, 412 since 1/20/09" <de...@dead.com> wrote:
>
>>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/people-trafficking-usa-
>>prostitution-ohio
>>
>>
>>Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
>>
>>In the Midwestern heartland, police are encountering a new social evil:
>>trafficking, often involving women and children who are forced to work
>>as prostitutes or unpaid labour; and the outcomes can be brutal.
>>
>>Mexicans seeking a new life
>
>
> Mexicans ???
>
> What about bona-fide lily-'white' all-American poor women ? The next
> step down the economic ladder from the trailer park is de-facto
> slavery and/or prostitution.
Three cheers for capitalism!
>
> The loss of so many basic jobs mean that many cannot even afford
> trailer-park rents anymore. There is a sharp uptick in the number of
> news stories about women selling or pimping their children already.
> Expect that trend to keep increasing. If 'welfare' cash begins to
> falter, people will start selling themselves to the highest bidder
> simply to survive, no profit motive at all.
>
> Similar things went on in the 1930s too ... although the news people
> generally didn't investigate such 'indelicate' matters as aggressively
> as they do now. There was a "Do what you have to do - and we'll look
> the other way and won't hold it against you" attitude.
And the libertarians want to bring back that Golden Age...
liberal
wrote:
As they don't like looneytunarian nations such as Somalia as examples
of looneytunarian principles in action, you'd think they'd read a
little history. But oh no, yet they lecture and whine.
Phlip
>>> Mexicans seeking a new life
>>
>> Mexicans ???
>>
>> What about bona-fide lily-'white' all-American poor women ?
you can't threaten them that the police will deport them if they tell on you.
oh, and they will - thanks to the GOP's endless policies of shielding pimps
while brutalizing their victims...
pyjamarama
wrote:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/people-trafficking-usa-
> prostitution-ohio
>
> Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
And who is it exactly that's perpetrating this forced labor, rape and
slavery, Wolfie?
HMMMM????
Besides ACORN, of course.
5292 Dead, 425 since 1/20/09
> "5279 Dead, 412 since 1/20/09" <de...@dead.com> wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:08:11 -0500, Mr.B1ack wrote:
>>
>>> "5279 Dead, 412 since 1/20/09" <de...@dead.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/people-trafficking-usa-
>>>>prostitution-ohio
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
>>>>
>>>>In the Midwestern heartland, police are encountering a new social
>>>>evil: trafficking, often involving women and children who are forced
>>>>to work as prostitutes or unpaid labour; and the outcomes can be
>>>>brutal.
>>>>
>>>>Mexicans seeking a new life
>>>
>>>
>>> Mexicans ???
>>>
>>> What about bona-fide lily-'white' all-American poor women ? The next
>>> step down the economic ladder from the trailer park is de-facto
>>> slavery and/or prostitution.
>>
>>Three cheers for capitalism!
>
>
> Worst system ever invented ... except for all the others.
It is the best, if regulated.
>
> Capitalism is a race-horse. Often it gets you there ahead of everyone
> else - but some days, well, you step in manure.
Which means one horse is lucky, and 300,000,000 horses are in the
manure. Doesn't sound like the sort of system that promotes individual
liberty, does it?
>
>
>>> The loss of so many basic jobs mean that many cannot even afford
>>> trailer-park rents anymore. There is a sharp uptick in the number of
>>> news stories about women selling or pimping their children already.
>>> Expect that trend to keep increasing. If 'welfare' cash begins to
>>> falter, people will start selling themselves to the highest bidder
>>> simply to survive, no profit motive at all.
>>>
>>> Similar things went on in the 1930s too ... although the news people
>>> generally didn't investigate such 'indelicate' matters as
>>> aggressively as they do now. There was a "Do what you have to do -
>>> and we'll look the other way and won't hold it against you"
>>> attitude.
>>
>>And the libertarians want to bring back that Golden Age...
>
> That would be the "L"ibertarians. Small-'L' libertarians are
> something entirely different.
>
Fastest way to tell if they are real libertarians or just fascists in
drag is to find out how they feel about labor unions. A real libertarian
will feel the same way about unions as he does about corporations.
> Actually though, capitalists were NOT very fond of the 1930s at all.
> Lots of them had lost their shirts and were pimping their daughters
> to anyone with two coins left to rub together - and the crisis made
> the government "do something" ... parts of which weren't all so
> great.
And transformed America into the mightiest economic engine in the history
of the world. As I said, capitalism works great, if regulated.
>
> It serves Capitalism if capitalists understand the weak points in
> that system and diligently protect them from harm. They also need to
> grasp the relationship between capitalism/business and the societies
> within which they are embedded.
Well, the current crisis pretty much puts paid to the notion that
capitalists will always act in their own best interests, let alone the
best interests of the economy at large.
>
> Alas, human nature, for every year without a disaster, more of the
> safety switches and circuit breakers and backup generators are taken
> off-line in order to squeeze an extra penny or two out of every deal.
> Seems safe, harmless, until ........
>
Until. Sounds like you've actually thought about this a bit.
> That's where government has a role, no matter what the LP platform
> might say. Government is SUPPOSED to make sure all those safety
> devices are NOT disconnected and that good business practices are
> maintained. It's a bona-fide national-security issue ; you must
> protect the economic engine that powers your nation, keep it running
> steady and strong.
>
I'm in shock. I couldn't have said it better.
> Alas there are the minor issues of corruption and incompetence which
> tend to screw THAT up .... leaving *nobody* in charge of the looney
> bin.
That's why we have courts and jails. It doesn't solve crime, but it
contains it. Incompetence is a bit harder to address. About all you can
do is eliminate incompetence caused by poor morale, with decent pay,
benefits, and overall treatment.
>
> Such is life. Can't have smooth sailing EVERY day.
Steve
<de...@dead.com> wrote:
Actually, it means that the cream rises to the top... as it
should....
Steve
> But that's so *unfair* !!! Injures the self-esteem
> of the incompetent !!!! :-)
as it should....
Steve
> Actually yes.
>
> That one in 300,000,000 each day ... they can really pay
> off, enough to float everyone else.
>
> If that wasn't true, capitalism would have died off almost
> immediately. Instead it persists and, within certain limits,
> thrives. It's an incredibly high-yeild system when things
> go well - and not all THAT awful (compared to a variety of
> other real-world examples) when things don't go so well.
>
>>>>> The loss of so many basic jobs mean that many cannot even afford
>>>>> trailer-park rents anymore. There is a sharp uptick in the number of
>>>>> news stories about women selling or pimping their children already.
>>>>> Expect that trend to keep increasing. If 'welfare' cash begins to
>>>>> falter, people will start selling themselves to the highest bidder
>>>>> simply to survive, no profit motive at all.
>>>>>
>>>>> Similar things went on in the 1930s too ... although the news people
>>>>> generally didn't investigate such 'indelicate' matters as
>>>>> aggressively as they do now. There was a "Do what you have to do -
>>>>> and we'll look the other way and won't hold it against you"
>>>>> attitude.
>>>>
>>>>And the libertarians want to bring back that Golden Age...
>>>
>>> That would be the "L"ibertarians. Small-'L' libertarians are
>>> something entirely different.
>>>
>>Fastest way to tell if they are real libertarians or just fascists in
>>drag is to find out how they feel about labor unions. A real libertarian
>>will feel the same way about unions as he does about corporations.
>
> Unions have a certain legitimate role ... just not the
> dominant one they enjoyed in recent decades. Just as
> employers can unfairly exploit workers, unions can
> exploit employers - often with destructive results.
>
> Just ONE of the reasons - maybe the in the top five - why
> so many American jobs disappeared to east asia .....
>
>>> Actually though, capitalists were NOT very fond of the 1930s at all.
>>> Lots of them had lost their shirts and were pimping their daughters
>>> to anyone with two coins left to rub together - and the crisis made
>>> the government "do something" ... parts of which weren't all so
>>> great.
>>
>>And transformed America into the mightiest economic engine in the history
>>of the world.
>
> Um ... no.
>
> It took WW-2 to do that.
>
> And it didn't last very long.
>
>>As I said, capitalism works great, if regulated.
>
> I agree ... as you read below ... it's not a good system
> upon which to float a modern first-world national economy.
> Too unstable. Needs tempering and safety nets.
>
>>> It serves Capitalism if capitalists understand the weak points in
>>> that system and diligently protect them from harm. They also need to
>>> grasp the relationship between capitalism/business and the societies
>>> within which they are embedded.
>>
>>Well, the current crisis pretty much puts paid to the notion that
>>capitalists will always act in their own best interests, let alone the
>>best interests of the economy at large.
>
>
> No ... "self interest" and "NATIONAL interest" aren't always the
> same thing. Capitalism is good at 'self', but kind of unreliable
> with 'national'. What makes sense for the one doesn't necessarily
> work for the many. "Enlightened" self-interest ... kind of rare
> actually.
>
>>> Alas, human nature, for every year without a disaster, more of the
>>> safety switches and circuit breakers and backup generators are taken
>>> off-line in order to squeeze an extra penny or two out of every deal.
>>> Seems safe, harmless, until ........
>>>
>>Until. Sounds like you've actually thought about this a bit.
>
> Considerably ... and YEARS ago. I recall warning about debt
> economies and weak banking/lending regulation back when
> everybody just said it was all paranoid bullshit. I used
> the term 'ponzi/pyramid scheme' WAY before Madoff was a
> blip on the radar.
>
>>> That's where government has a role, no matter what the LP platform
>>> might say. Government is SUPPOSED to make sure all those safety
>>> devices are NOT disconnected and that good business practices are
>>> maintained. It's a bona-fide national-security issue ; you must
>>> protect the economic engine that powers your nation, keep it running
>>> steady and strong.
>>>
>>I'm in shock. I couldn't have said it better.
>
> Hey, I'm a grade 2 wordsmith :-)
>
> No doubt though we'd disagree strongly about HOW govt should
> help keep the engine running ....
>
>>> Alas there are the minor issues of corruption and incompetence which
>>> tend to screw THAT up .... leaving *nobody* in charge of the looney
>>> bin.
>>
>>That's why we have courts and jails.
>
> Kinda "after the fact" alas ..... vengance instead of
> prevention.
>
>>It doesn't solve crime, but it
>>contains it. Incompetence is a bit harder to address. About all you can
>>do is eliminate incompetence caused by poor morale, with decent pay,
>>benefits, and overall treatment.
>
> Unfortunately, there's this little thing oft called
> the "Peter Principle". Look it up and see its truth.
>
> People and systems LIKE to think they can be competent
> to the point of near godhood ... but they aren't and
> can't. The upshot is that there will *always* be
> disasters no matter WHAT socioeconomic paradigms are
> in place.
>
>>> Such is life. Can't have smooth sailing EVERY day.
Zepp talks about havinbg a regulated capitalism, but all socialists
say that.... what they really want is to recieve according to their
needs.....
In the big, pretend lefterland where lefterloons like Zepp live,
everyone should be presented with a fat paycheck regardless of what
they do all day. That is, apparently, part of his idea of a regulated
capitalist system.
Zepp constantly whines that the big companies don't have his best
interest as their primary directive, so he'll also want a government
agent installed as the CEO of every corporation to make sure that the
company's main thrust is to serve his interests...
5292 Dead, 425 since 1/20/09
> But that's so *unfair* !!! Injures the self-esteem of the incompetent
> !!!! :-)
...and fuck the vast majority of Americans. Yes, we know all about it.
Now go waggle your little flag, and proclaim freedom throughout the world.
5292 Dead, 425 since 1/20/09
> Actually yes.
>
> That one in 300,000,000 each day ... they can really pay off, enough
> to float everyone else.
You've had thirty years to prove that. Is the typical working American
better off than he was in 1979? The country is more than twice as
productive; did that mass of wealth trickle down?
>
> If that wasn't true, capitalism would have died off almost
> immediately. Instead it persists and, within certain limits, thrives.
> It's an incredibly high-yeild system when things go well - and not
> all THAT awful (compared to a variety of other real-world examples)
> when things don't go so well.
And now you're back to pretending that any flaw in capitalism would have
killed it off. It took Europe 1500 years to get out from under the rule
of the Catholic Church. The middle east is still widely shackled by
Islamic rule. Are you going to say that because they lasted, they had no
flaws?
>
>>>>> The loss of so many basic jobs mean that many cannot even afford
>>>>> trailer-park rents anymore. There is a sharp uptick in the number
>>>>> of news stories about women selling or pimping their children
>>>>> already. Expect that trend to keep increasing. If 'welfare' cash
>>>>> begins to falter, people will start selling themselves to the
>>>>> highest bidder simply to survive, no profit motive at all.
>>>>>
>>>>> Similar things went on in the 1930s too ... although the news
>>>>> people generally didn't investigate such 'indelicate' matters as
>>>>> aggressively as they do now. There was a "Do what you have to do -
>>>>> and we'll look the other way and won't hold it against you"
>>>>> attitude.
>>>>
>>>>And the libertarians want to bring back that Golden Age...
>>>
>>> That would be the "L"ibertarians. Small-'L' libertarians are
>>> something entirely different.
>>>
>>Fastest way to tell if they are real libertarians or just fascists in
>>drag is to find out how they feel about labor unions. A real
>>libertarian will feel the same way about unions as he does about
>>corporations.
>
> Unions have a certain legitimate role ... just not the dominant one
> they enjoyed in recent decades. Just as employers can unfairly
> exploit workers, unions can exploit employers - often with
> destructive results.
>
OK, fair enough, especially since you agree that there have to be
constraints on the predations of large corporations, too.
> Just ONE of the reasons - maybe the in the top five - why so many
> American jobs disappeared to east asia .....
But not European jobs. Odd, that.
>
>>> Actually though, capitalists were NOT very fond of the 1930s at
>>> all. Lots of them had lost their shirts and were pimping their
>>> daughters to anyone with two coins left to rub together - and the
>>> crisis made the government "do something" ... parts of which
>>> weren't all so great.
>>
>>And transformed America into the mightiest economic engine in the
>>history of the world.
>
> Um ... no.
>
> It took WW-2 to do that.
>
> And it didn't last very long.
>
>>As I said, capitalism works great, if regulated.
>
> I agree ... as you read below ... it's not a good system upon which
> to float a modern first-world national economy. Too unstable. Needs
> tempering and safety nets.
>
>>> It serves Capitalism if capitalists understand the weak points in
>>> that system and diligently protect them from harm. They also need
>>> to grasp the relationship between capitalism/business and the
>>> societies within which they are embedded.
>>
>>Well, the current crisis pretty much puts paid to the notion that
>>capitalists will always act in their own best interests, let alone the
>>best interests of the economy at large.
>
>
> No ... "self interest" and "NATIONAL interest" aren't always the same
> thing. Capitalism is good at 'self', but kind of unreliable with
> 'national'. What makes sense for the one doesn't necessarily work for
> the many. "Enlightened" self-interest ... kind of rare actually.
>
>>> Alas, human nature, for every year without a disaster, more of the
>>> safety switches and circuit breakers and backup generators are
>>> taken off-line in order to squeeze an extra penny or two out of
>>> every deal. Seems safe, harmless, until ........
>>>
>>Until. Sounds like you've actually thought about this a bit.
>
> Considerably ... and YEARS ago. I recall warning about debt economies
> and weak banking/lending regulation back when everybody just said it
> was all paranoid bullshit. I used the term 'ponzi/pyramid scheme' WAY
> before Madoff was a blip on the radar.
>
>>> That's where government has a role, no matter what the LP platform
>>> might say. Government is SUPPOSED to make sure all those safety
>>> devices are NOT disconnected and that good business practices are
>>> maintained. It's a bona-fide national-security issue ; you must
>>> protect the economic engine that powers your nation, keep it
>>> running steady and strong.
>>>
>>I'm in shock. I couldn't have said it better.
>
> Hey, I'm a grade 2 wordsmith :-)
>
> No doubt though we'd disagree strongly about HOW govt should help
> keep the engine running ....
>
>>> Alas there are the minor issues of corruption and incompetence
>>> which tend to screw THAT up .... leaving *nobody* in charge of the
>>> looney bin.
>>
>>That's why we have courts and jails.
>
> Kinda "after the fact" alas ..... vengance instead of prevention.
>
>>It doesn't solve crime, but it
>>contains it. Incompetence is a bit harder to address. About all you
>>can do is eliminate incompetence caused by poor morale, with decent pay,
>>benefits, and overall treatment.
>
> Unfortunately, there's this little thing oft called the "Peter
> Principle". Look it up and see its truth.
>
> People and systems LIKE to think they can be competent to the point
> of near godhood ... but they aren't and can't. The upshot is that
> there will *always* be disasters no matter WHAT socioeconomic
> paradigms are in place.
>
Steve
<de...@dead.com> wrote:
Well actually, Zepp isn't an American, but fuck him anyway...
>Now go waggle your little flag, and proclaim freedom throughout the world.
Zepp sees his hope for free health care circling the bowl... meaning
theat when the big coronary hits, he'll have to wait in line at the ER
for the next available intern....
Steve
<de...@dead.com> wrote:
>You've had thirty years to prove that. Is the typical working American
>better off than he was in 1979? The country is more than twice as
>productive; did that mass of wealth trickle down?
Yepo, it sure did... not to the losers like Zepp who had nothing to
offer, but to the productive people...
Steve
(Mary Poppins) wrote:
>de...@dead.com (5292 Dead, 425 since 1/20/09) chiseled in stone for all
>posterity to see <PpydnVgy_fQHl5HW...@posted.carinet>:
>
>>Yes, we know all about it.
>>
>
>Capitalism is all about scarcity. Capitalism demands that there be slavery
>and slave masters. In a capitalist society there is no middle class.
>There are only bankers (who just print money) and borrowers (who do all the
>labor in exchange for being allowed to work rather than starve to death).
>
>Capitalism has nothing to do with competition. In fact Capitalism destroys
>competition and creates a monopolistic plutocracy based on scarcity banking
>and a scarcity money supply.
>
>A nation of laws... LOL!
So you're another loser who can't compete, eh?