{"id":9091,"date":"2019-09-05T11:15:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T16:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=9091"},"modified":"2019-09-05T11:03:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T16:03:44","slug":"breaking-the-chains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2019\/09\/05\/breaking-the-chains\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking The Chains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understanding (And Fighting) The Growing Problem Of Human Trafficking<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Karla Wall<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the recent arrests resulting from a single case of human trafficking discovered at a local hotel, the issue has come into public focus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As of Aug. 7, 10 individuals had been arrested in a case involving a young girl kept in a motel in Lake Charles. And the case is still unfolding. In another recent case, a 20-year-old man was arrested in Lake Charles and charged with trafficking.<\/p>\n

The recent arrests have thrust the issue of human trafficking into the spotlight. But law enforcement officials and activists say that the problem has been ongoing in the area, and has \u201cbeen on their radar,\u201d for quite some time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What Is Trafficking?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The definition of human trafficking might seem murky. One person might tell you that a prostitute being given a steady supply of drugs so she\u2019ll agree to continue working is being trafficked. Another may tell you that he or she feels human trafficking involves only the kidnapping and transporting of a minor from out of state or from another country for the purpose of sex for profit \u2014 that it\u2019s only the kidnapping and transport that qualifies as trafficking. Yet another might tell you any employee forced to work insanely long hours and housed in poor conditions by a company or a sponsor when not on the job is being trafficked. Some might even consider an extremely controlling or abusive spouse to be a trafficker.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Who\u2019s right? Perhaps all of them.<\/p>\n

According to state law, human trafficking occurs whenever a person \u201cknowingly recruits, harbors, transports, solicits, receives, isolates, entices, obtains or maintains the use of another person through fraud, force or coercion to provide services or labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law goes on to say that anyone benefiting from or facilitating (providing a place for, support for or a clientele for) such activity is also breaking the law.<\/p>\n

Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier says his office focuses primarily on trafficking cases involving sexual exploitation. \u201cWe consider human trafficking to be bringing in females under the age of 21 for the purpose of performing sex-based activity from which the trafficker profits,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But trafficking can also involve people brought in to work in a restaurant or hotel, recruited and forced to dance in a strip club, or work in a field tending and harvesting crops.<\/p>\n

For Rusty Havens, founder and director of SWLA Abolitionists, an agency dedicated to promoting awareness of and helping the victims of human trafficking, the definition is simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrafficking occurs when a person is used for labor or sex in exchange for something,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd the person doesn\u2019t have a choice in the matter. A trafficker is always getting something in return \u2014\u00a0usually monetary profit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No Choice, No Control<\/strong><\/p>\n

The key, says Havens, is the victim\u2019s lack of choice and control.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraffickers use anything to create dependency and maintain control of the victim,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have anything and you can\u2019t get on your feet, you have no alternate course of action but to submit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rusty Havens, founder and
director of SWLA Abolitionists<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While, as Havens says, \u201canyone can be a victim,\u201d there are groups who are especially vulnerable to traffickers because they\u2019re just desperate enough to agree to all of the trafficker\u2019s demands and restrictions. Runaways, the homeless, those from low-income families, those who have mental or emotional problems or are mentally challenged, and particularly those who are addicted to drugs.<\/p>\n

Drugs are an easy way to keep a victim under control. Physical violence or the threat of violence \u2014 to the victim or to the victim\u2019s family members \u2014 is also a favorite tool. Money is also commonly used as a means of control. As DeRosier puts it, \u201csome of these victims are given more money than they\u2019ve ever seen in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traffickers also, says Havens, look for victims in other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraffickers will go to other countries, look for a vulnerable person, and offer to solve this person\u2019s problems by bringing them back to the U.S.,\u201d he says. \u201c They promise to get the victim a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once they\u2019re here, says Havens, victims are completely vulnerable and under the trafficker\u2019s control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t speak the language here, they\u2019re unfamiliar with the place, they have no money,\u201d he says. \u201cThe trafficker has already told them it\u2019s best if the trafficker keeps the victim\u2019s documentation. The victim has no way to leave. There\u2019s always a debt to be paid, as well, for the service of bringing them over here. But that debt never seems to get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may be the reason the U.S. is ranked among the worst countries in the world when it comes to human trafficking cases, along with Mexico and the Philippines, according to a recent report by the U.S. State Dept.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But perhaps the biggest method of control, says Havens, particularly when it comes to younger people, is emotional dependency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA trafficker makes a victim believe they care about them,\u201d Havens says. \u201cThey make the victim believe no one other than the trafficker cares about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A favorite way to do that, says Havens, is for the trafficker to set up a fake social media page and sift through \u201cfriends\u201d to find young people who are needy and vulnerable, especially those having trouble with their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk to the victim about their family,\u201d Havens says. \u201cThey may say \u2018Hey, if you need to get away and talk, let\u2019s meet and hang out for a while.\u2019 They open the door and then exploit the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcy, a trafficking survivor, says she was trafficked by a man she met online.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked me if I wanted to travel. I said I did. He took me to New Orleans and set up a Back Page site for me.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>In New Orleans, she was arrested for prostitution, and he was arrested for trafficking. She ended up with another man in Houston and in a similar situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both men, she says, \u201ccontrolled the money and transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victims can also form a dependency on the trafficker if they\u2019re \u201cgroomed\u201d from an early age to accept the lifestyle as normal. The victim comes to see being controlled and working for someone else\u2019s profit as not only acceptable but comfortable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the case for Marcy, who, like a lot of trafficking victims, had been \u201cgroomed\u201d from an early age for prostitution. Her sister, she says, was a prostitute when Marcy was as young as 6 or 7, and Marcy simply saw the lifestyle as normal. \u201cIt was all I knew,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Big A Problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Human trafficking goes largely unreported. Victims are ashamed to come forward; they may be frightened of retaliation; or they may simply, thanks to careful grooming, not know they are in a dangerous and illegal situation, says Gene Pittman, criminal investigations director with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t report human trafficking. We usually come across trafficking cases while investigating another crime,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s changing. According to the Louisiana Dept. of Child and Family Services, there were 744 cases of human trafficking in Louisiana last year, an increase of 63 victims over 2017 figures. Of those cases, 710 involved sex trafficking. Females were the victims in 91 percent of those cases. And 248 victims were juveniles.<\/p>\n

According to William Sommers, director of Juvenile Justice Services for Calcasieu Parish, the parish saw eight cases of human trafficking last year, involving 19 victims.<\/p>\n

Jacob Johnson, chief felony prosecutor for the Calcasieu Parish D.A.\u2019s Office, says their office prosecuted three cases of human trafficking last year. So far this year, there\u2019s been one indictment, along with several arrests.<\/p>\n

It Doesn\u2019t Always Start Out As A Trafficking Case<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of these cases, as Pittman says, evolved from investigation of other crimes.<\/p>\n

Sommers relates the story of a runaway from Arkansas who was picked up in Lake Charles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had this girl in custody, and discovered that she had been trafficked from Dallas to Houston and then here into Lake Charles,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost cases come about because of arrests for something as simple as prostitution or possession,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>\n

Marcy\u2019s story seems to bear that out. She was arrested for prostitution here in Lake Charles and spent three days in jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went through my phone, and they found a photo of the man who had been my pimp,\u201d she says. \u201cThey arrested him. Later, the D.A. came to talk to me and let me know that they had found a plane ticket to another country with my name on it. This guy had planned on taking me out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice And Restoration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once a trafficker is arrested, says DeRosier, the case is handled like any other \u2014 the D.A.\u2019s office takes the case from law enforcement, seeks a grand jury indictment and tries the case.<\/p>\n

Sentencing, says Johnson, depends on the age of the victim and the defendant\u2019s criminal history, among other factors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSentences can be up to 50 years, with a floor of about 15 years,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the victim, once a case is identified and under investigation by law enforcement, if the victim is a juvenile he or she is taken into custody and placed in child protective services or foster care and referred to a counseling center \u2014 the CPSO works very closely with Family and Youth Counseling Agency, says Pittman \u2014 to be interviewed to determine whether or not they have indeed been trafficked and to what extent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe provide interviews for children ages 3 to 17 \u2014 sometimes age 2 if the child is verbal,\u201d says Erika Simon, counselor with Family and Youth, who says the agency saw 14 children involved in trafficking last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just provide a kid-friendly environment that makes them comfortable enough to open up to us. It takes a lot for a kid to disclose trafficking. They are often trained to keep their mouths shut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the rules set by the National Children\u2019s Advocacy Center in Alabama, Family and Youth counselors engage the children in conversation \u2014 for instance asking them about their activities and plans. \u201cWe don\u2019t ask them for names, and we don\u2019t ask them leading questions. They have to give us the names voluntarily,\u201d says Simon.<\/p>\n

Family and Youth, says Simon, doesn\u2019t make the determination as to whether trafficking occurred in a specific case. The interview with the child is recorded, she says, and forwarded to law enforcement for further investigation and action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf (the counselors) see red flags, the child is referred to the parish Office of Juvenile Justice,\u201d says Sommers, \u201cand from there we contact law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The identification of a trafficking case and the arrest of the trafficker is only the beginning. For the victim, there\u2019s the task of dealing with the fallout \u2014 the long road to restoring dignity and self-esteem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are homes that specialize in the restoration of victims of trafficking. Magnolia House in Louisiana is a particularly good facility, says DeRosier. There, victims heal and learn to deal with a new normal.<\/p>\n

Marcy was housed for a time in such a home. She underwent counseling and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy, a process designed in the 1980s to help trauma victims live with the memories resulting from their ordeals. Victims relive those memories while a therapist directs their eye movements, diverting the subject\u2019s attention from the memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes the memory smaller,\u201d says Marcy. \u201cIt takes it from the forefront and makes it bearable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite therapy, however, Marcy says she\u2019s still finding it very difficult to lead a \u201cnormal\u201d life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have trouble being around people and carrying on conversations,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having such difficulty interacting with others, Marcy is determined to help others who are in the situation she was in, or are also recovering from it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to work with SWLA Abolitionists and do public speaking and group work,\u201d she says. \u201cMy passion is working with teenagers.\u201d<\/p>\n

SWLA Abolitionists<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a big part of what SWLA Abolitionists, founded in 2014, is doing to address the issue of trafficking \u2014 encouraging survivors to help others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe help survivors volunteer and help other victims,\u201d Havens says. \u201cWe help them speak to groups and share their stories. We connect them to people who need to hear their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group also connects survivors to medical care and restoration homes, and works to raise awareness, speaking to civic groups and law enforcement. They also advocate for stronger laws against trafficking. The recently passed law setting the minimum age for marriage at 16 was something the group helped push for, Havens says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, there was no minimum age,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was a major layer of protection for traffickers. They simply married their victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Multi-Level Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Awareness is only part of the answer, and law enforcement officials say it will take a team effort to combat the problem of human trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re developing a multi-level approach,\u201d says Sommers. \u201cOur office, the D.A.\u2019s Office, the Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Dept. of Child and Family Services are working together to find ways to identify these children so that they can recover. It\u2019s a team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

How To Spot A Trafficking Situation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Human trafficking isn\u2019t always easy to define. It\u2019s not always easy to spot, either, says Havens, who adds that SWLA Abolitionists talk to law enforcement, hotel staff and civic groups frequently about how to identify trafficking situations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are signs you can look for, depending on the situation,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone who doesn\u2019t have control over their life \u2014 they can\u2019t go where they want when they want. Someone who has no freedom of expression \u2014 they can\u2019t voice an opinion or answer questions without checking with their oppressor. Someone who has no control over their own ID \u2014 they don\u2019t have their own license or personal documentation. Or someone who works all the time and still never seems to have money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who see what they consider a suspicious situation should call local law enforcement. You can also reach SWLA Abolitionists at 476-9868.<\/p>\n

It will take a concerted effort by law enforcement, and a willingness to come forward on the part of victims and those who know someone who is being victimized by traffickers to combat the growing problem of human trafficking. But, as DeRosier says, the community needs to \u201csend a message that human trafficking won\u2019t be tolerated here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many evils in world,\u201d he continues, \u201cand this is one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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