DOING OUTREACH IN HOSPITALS FOR SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
http://www.marketplace.org/2016/03/02/health-care/health-care-takes-fight-against-trafficking I read the series that's been hitting the media about sex trafficking lately, and the increasing of awareness of medical personnel about sex trafficking. When I first heard about the microchip - I couldn't help but realize this was the next step. I knew pimps were locating where their victims had escaped to by tracking their cell phones so I had started ordering that whenever we drove someone out of a trafficking situation to a "safe house" then we had to ditch the phones. I remember one mother kept arguing with me saying "I just bought her that phone and it cost me $650 and I'm not going to throw out a brand new iPhone". She told me I was being "ridiculous". The pimp drove up to the shelter that night and they were gone before midnight so tell me now how "ridiculous" I was being!
Another method was social media. One victim had just gotten picked up by a nice church lady and driven back to her home. She didn't think to keep the woman off her computer and sure enough - the victim went onto Facebook saying how "happy" she was in her new home. The computer identified her "location" and changed the map on her Facebook profile - so all the pimp had to do was look up her Facebook account to find that victim. Of course I cussed out this nice church lady for allowing this woman to go on Facebook and lead the pimp right to her house. I told her it meant we could never use her house again, nor could she, because now all pimps would know where the house was. Sure enough - 2:00 a.m. the pimp shows up threatening to burn down the house if she didn't come outside with him.
So - now they're just putting the chips right into the victim it seems. Well meaning people want to do something about it when these victims come in for emergency treatment. Of course they do. I know I did when I first started this type of work. I remembered how many of the men and women I'd known who I personally took to ER to get stitched up or x-rayed after a violent episode. I also know when I started our program and hotline the first thing I wanted to do was camp out at the ER to catch them as they came in and offer to help them escape from there. You can read more about that time here http://anatomyofamovement.blogspot.com/2016/03/figuring-out-outreach.html
At the end of discussing this subject with the very people who deal with this and child abuse in the ER - we realized that reporting something at the point of ER was just going to result in victims not being taken to the ER. The "pimp grapevine" is very simple. You take one victim away from a pimp at the point of the ER hospital - and a phone call is going to go out saying "never take one to the ER because they'll take your bitches away there". Once that phone call goes out - the pimps will let their victims bleed to death rather than take them to ER again.
Please stop and think twice about this. It's a lot like the problem we once had with babies being found in dumpsters. After we adopted the "no questions asked" baby surrender program where the mothers would not be asked any questions and could just surrender the baby - many babies have been saved that way. That's just the way the mind works. http://fusion.net/story/119467/how-many-babies-are-discarded-in-the-us/
Please - if you're a doctor carefully consider this. For years now, I have worked with doctors to stage fake medical emergencies to get victims away from the pimp. However, we do it in such a way as to have the doctor appear surprised she's gone. Because also, if the pimp thinks you took his victim from him - you had better get security to walk you to your car for the next year because these pimps will find a way to harm you for taking their victims away from them - and they will never make that mistake again and then it will be EVEN HARDER to get them out to safety. Please use common sense here.
Another method was social media. One victim had just gotten picked up by a nice church lady and driven back to her home. She didn't think to keep the woman off her computer and sure enough - the victim went onto Facebook saying how "happy" she was in her new home. The computer identified her "location" and changed the map on her Facebook profile - so all the pimp had to do was look up her Facebook account to find that victim. Of course I cussed out this nice church lady for allowing this woman to go on Facebook and lead the pimp right to her house. I told her it meant we could never use her house again, nor could she, because now all pimps would know where the house was. Sure enough - 2:00 a.m. the pimp shows up threatening to burn down the house if she didn't come outside with him.
So - now they're just putting the chips right into the victim it seems. Well meaning people want to do something about it when these victims come in for emergency treatment. Of course they do. I know I did when I first started this type of work. I remembered how many of the men and women I'd known who I personally took to ER to get stitched up or x-rayed after a violent episode. I also know when I started our program and hotline the first thing I wanted to do was camp out at the ER to catch them as they came in and offer to help them escape from there. You can read more about that time here http://anatomyofamovement.blogspot.com/2016/03/figuring-out-outreach.html
At the end of discussing this subject with the very people who deal with this and child abuse in the ER - we realized that reporting something at the point of ER was just going to result in victims not being taken to the ER. The "pimp grapevine" is very simple. You take one victim away from a pimp at the point of the ER hospital - and a phone call is going to go out saying "never take one to the ER because they'll take your bitches away there". Once that phone call goes out - the pimps will let their victims bleed to death rather than take them to ER again.
Please stop and think twice about this. It's a lot like the problem we once had with babies being found in dumpsters. After we adopted the "no questions asked" baby surrender program where the mothers would not be asked any questions and could just surrender the baby - many babies have been saved that way. That's just the way the mind works. http://fusion.net/story/119467/how-many-babies-are-discarded-in-the-us/
Please - if you're a doctor carefully consider this. For years now, I have worked with doctors to stage fake medical emergencies to get victims away from the pimp. However, we do it in such a way as to have the doctor appear surprised she's gone. Because also, if the pimp thinks you took his victim from him - you had better get security to walk you to your car for the next year because these pimps will find a way to harm you for taking their victims away from them - and they will never make that mistake again and then it will be EVEN HARDER to get them out to safety. Please use common sense here.
Comments
Post a Comment