Recently on VPR I heard a story about human trafficking that occurred in the heart of civilized civilization, Great Britain, in Rotherham. Around 1400 kids, many boys, disappeared and were then pressed into service as sex slaves. This went on for years--obviously, 1400 kids don't go missing all of a sudden without anyone's noticing, and yet people did know about it AND told authorities. Why, then, was nothing done until recently? Ignorance and stupidity.
Look, ignorance--meaning, lack of awareness--and stupidity are common among authorities and law enforcement. Sure, I may be mostly libertarian, but still, I have no qualms with authority in general as long as it does what authority is supposed to do: protect and serve the public from harm, physically and financially. It absolutely astounds me when people in authority purposely shun their duty because they are ignorant or not thinking straight.
Last week I had a conversation with someone in a small town of Vermont where many kids have been accused and charged by the police for under-age drinking... without anyone's ever asking the kids where they got the alcohol. Isn't the illegal, willful distribution of alcohol to under-age kids a worse crime than the a 15-year old accepting the alcohol? Whether we agree with our country's laws or not, there is a reason why we have established the drinking age at twenty-one and the voting age at eighteen: we believe, as a country, that human minds and souls are not developed enough until eighteen to vote intelligently; we believe, as a country, that human minds and souls are not developed enough until twenty-one to handle alcohol, not because there's something inherently wrong about under-age drinking. It's not the same as stealing or murder. Why, then, would a person in authority crack down on a kid when the kid is simply proving the law worthwhile, rather than cracking down on the actual violator of the crime? We've deemed the kid, in our laws, as unable to properly make decisions concerning alcohol, so why blame the kid for that? We should blame and crack down on the distributor, because the distributor is basically saying, "Screw the law, I think kids should drink alcohol." Only recently have some areas of the country started to realize how poor the logic of our law enforcement has been and begun campaigns to investigate the distribution of alcohol to minors. Isn't it amazing, though, that it's taken us so long to realize that, considering the reason why we have the under-age drinking law established as it is, the drunk minor is not the cause or source of the real problem?
It's the same with human trafficking. On one hand, we're idiots and have believed that prostitutes and others who sell their bodies for sex are the real problem, rather than the behind-the-scenes pimps and producers and consumers that create and facilitate the on-going distribution of slavery; and on the other hand, we're ignorant and don't believe that human trafficknig or sex trafficking are serious issues perpetrated in our own back yards. In this particular news story, the authorities didn't do anything because they couldn't believe the reports. They were, apparently, also afraid of a PR nightmare: the brains behind the trafficking scheme were Pakistani, and nobody wants to appear racist. I do not belittle the harsh reality that racism still exists in this world and the very real possibility that Ferguson and other circumstances may be examples of that, but the fear of appearing racist has gone a bit far. When ignorance and a fear of that kind combine, then we do our neighbors a serious disservice.
The ultimate lesson here is that, while we might not be able to do much about the sometimes absence of logic in the authorities, we can at least ensure that our neighborhoods and our elected representatives are free from ignorance. Awareness really does go a long way. That's why I talk about it so much. Simply being aware can stop news stories of this kind from popping up. Indeed, awareness is also the first step in re-enforcing logic in our law enforcement agencies: if those with power know that trafficking is a real, wide-spread problem, then maybe they will accusing and arresting the victims, the helpless souls, and begin to crack down on the distributors, the producers, and the consumers.
Here's the news story, though I warn you that it might be tough to read. I'm getting tired and mentally and spiritually exhausted from reading about these stories. The reality of all forms of trafficking is just too cruel for me to handle: Rotherham Kids.
