Notes from Phoenix Stop Human Trafficking Panel 2-25-12

*** These are not all exact quotes from the panel but just what I could paraphrase.


Is there a difference between trafficking and prostitution?

S - It's a power thing, You are asking them either at the point of a gun, or at the point of money, they are absolutely the same

M - There is not a sense of choice, they are scared.

C - This is something we have to address right now, there may have been abuse nobody saw, now they try to cover up, so out of shame or desperation, one person told me she really wanted to be a nurse.

B - this reminds of the slavery back around the emancipation proclamation, I am glad no one was looking at the right and wrong way to do slavery. It was just wrong.

I was watching the evening news here in Phoenix and the reporter said "The porn industry is moving to Phoenix, and whether you like it or not, it means more money." Is there anything being done to oppose this, or show we do not approve? If not what can we do?

S - If not controlled by the law, it is demand driven, the problem is we have never gone after the 100, 000 casual users.
What we remain silent on, we approve on.

M - Education, we really need to show the whole piece of what the community is getting, and get the community to say, I don't want that money.

B - a lot of people say they don't want porn, but they want it, they don't want the loss of revenue,
we need to get to a point were we say "it's ok to lose this part of the economy", most porn buyers are people who make good money, conservative, religious, the church.
It's a $13 billion industry, that's more than the NFL, NBA, and Baseball all together,
Let's look at the stats of hypocrisy.
In the church theses percentages view porn according to one study: 50% of men, 30-40% of Pastors, and 30% of women. This may surprise some but one sight's percent of women viewers went from 9% in 2000 to 53% in 2004. when I was growing up this type of thing was just viewed as a stepping stone to Universal Studios.
Within the church there is no difference, and that's an issue.
The issue in the church is gigantic - confession is always seen as a negative, it has kept us in a state of hypocrisy, we might vote one way, but by our actions don't do anything different.

What about the idea that arrest in Phoenix are pushing the problem down to Tucson?

S - I thought I would save the world, 2 hours I realized no.
Take care of your little corner of the world.
The next little corner of the world will notice and they will take care too.
We need to attack the user.
There was a week were 20 departments put everything else to the side and focused on this and arrested 500 johns

What are your thought's on the Swedish Model (prosecuting demand not supply) ?

S- It say's it is ok for you to sell but not to buy, mixed message. What happens is, if there is no crime happening, resources get sent elsewhere, right now drugs is the only thing that is beating it, if there is no crime involved we won't be paying attention to it.

M- There is clinical aspect to it, telling the girls, it is ok to sell your body, doesn't play out. Right now our system has 2 ways of dealing with kids, CPS or Judicial. For drug use there is a decriminalization process but not for prostitution. That is something that could be addressed.


What advice could you give someone wanting to help? What are the struggles?
Aren't broken homes a root issue? What about Collaboration?

S- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - in WWII 7-12%
in Iraq and Afghanistan up of 20%
Someone who has been through this - 60%
Like the lady on the video said they can take the heroin out of a heroin addict, but they can't take the memory away from a trafficking victim. There are no normal victims. Not everyone can quit an addiction at the same time. Help does not have a finite number of opportunities. It's : I'm
gonna be your help-bottom line. The pimp says he is the only one there for her, so don't make a promise you can't keep, If you say you are going to take them to McDonalds, don't take them anywhere else but to McDonalds. Little things matter. You gotta send the message, you matter, not your body matters,

M- Therapeutic needs are so intense. A counselor told me "I would take a heroin addict any day of the week over a trafficking victim." It's not just stockholm syndrome (loving your abuser). We are beginning to figure out the problem. We need to figure this out.
There is a girl who has completely rearranged herself, and is able to get rid of a tatoo of her old pimp, but is not sure if she wants to get rid of that last piece of her old life. See she came to the city looking for family, transference of family figures, that matters, being there for them, most run back 5-7 times. One girl just ran way one day, but she wrote me, we are in her head along with those messages that she has another family. Another girl is going back Texas where she will not go back to the streets again. So even when they run, we are in their head.

C- It takes everybody, they need someplace to take these girls, we need to address this in our churches, schools, and work. We need to change the language. We need churches leading the charge.
It is really hard sometimes when you see the tattoos calling themselves somebodies ho, and right now that's common.
Prayer really works, I could feel the churches prayer. We need to educate and let people know it's happening on this side of the track, or we're gonna loose a whole nother set of girls.
Streetlight needs donations- gas cards, one church can dedicate to just bringing green-beans.
Everybody wanna just love em, but everybody can't deal. Love feels dirty to some of these girls.
Sometimes I want to just act like a police man and go rescue them, but that ain't my job, my job is helping them recover ...

B -It's what people see in their life growing up, John 4, I have something far better, If we help them with their identity, seeing through the lens of Christ.