Months of surveillance, no trafficking charges filed. One of the sheriffs has now stated that the workers “could have walked out.” The news media is still running with the story that Lanyun Ma was charged with trafficking, but a review of her court record shows that no such charges have been filed against her, just prostitution related charges. Something smells funny here.
When I practiced in Seattle, I spent a fair amount of time working with both consensual and coerced sex workers. Without going into too much detail, these are women who could not, or did not want to, leave sex work entirely. I helped some of the coerced connect with resources to escape the coercion, and transition to safer, consensual sex work. Under the new definitions of sex trafficking, I would be considered a sex trafficker for helping these workers escape abusive situations. Remember that when you hear law enforcement, district attorneys, and rescue orgs talking about trafficking and quoting statistics. Many of these resources have since been shut down in the name of “rescuing the victims.”
Z-Man is absolutely right, this isn’t a black and white issue. Always look for the secondary gain. There is a ton of secondary gain in promoting the trafficking narrative. There is money and prestige for the "rescue" orgs and their directors, notoriety and re-elections for sheriffs and DAs, and eye catching headlines for the reporters. It’s an almost zero risk chance at gain.
Zero risk because nobody cares if it’s a lie. Even if it ultimately is proven that there was zero trafficking, most of you will have moved on to other things, and will only remember the initial, blaring headlines of trafficking. The sheriffs will use it in their re-election campaigns. The orgs will use it in their fundraising. The workers will be forgotten, and will move on to jobs in other locales. Meanwhile, real victim’s stories are buried under the avalanche of false statistics, half-truths, and outright lies.
Don’t get me wrong, nothing is worse than the real trafficker, or abusive pimp. I’m proud to have helped some workers escape these kind of situations. Be careful, however, in buying into the prevailing narrative that the rescue players are all white knights, with pure intentions. Always look at the secondary gain.
