Thou shalt not covet; but tradition
Approves all forms of competition. – Arthur Hugh Clough
One of the most fascinating aspects of “sex trafficking” hysteria is the bizarre competition I’ve dubbed “King of the Hill” after the boys’ game; each city and state boasts that it is one of the “top” or “leading” or “major” destinations, sources or “hubs” of sex trafficking in the United States. And “boast” is the right word: while it’s typical for cops to exaggerate crime statistics in order to justify ever-increasing budgets and power, this goes far beyond that; they and many other fabulists seem to take a kind of perverse pleasure in pretending that their territory is the best at providing, receiving or transporting “child sex slaves”. And a pretense it is:
According to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), no statistics are kept for the number of Human Trafficking cases prosecuted for each individual state. They are also unable to provide the number of individuals indicted in each state or how many victims were involved in each case.
Since there is absolutely no basis for any interstate comparison, intercity comparisons belong strictly to the realm of fantasy. But virtually every “trafficking” fanatic speaking to every reporter, class or ladies’ club meeting will insist that whatever place he’s speaking in is “a major hotspot”, citing whatever authority sounds good (the FBI, DoJ and Homeland Security are favorites) and “explaining” that the high level of activity is due to the presence of interstate highways, proximity to some “sinful” place like New York or Atlanta, remoteness from other places (yes, really), or even (in a bizarrely 19th-century touch) the presence of navigable waterways, presumably for the slave-ships to sail in upon. As of this time I have no explanation for the popularity of this pissing contest, nor why absolutely nobody asks even the most basic questions of these bizarre braggarts. However, I think it might be interesting to compile all of the claims in one place, to be modified later as new ones come in. Since many of the claims are (unsurprisingly) very vague, I’m going to count all words like “major” or “near the top” as being claims for the top ten. The first table is for states, the second for cities. Don’t try to compare rankings of cities with that of the states in which they lie; you’ll hurt your brain.
States
Rank | Claimants | Purported reasons |
1st | California | None given |
1st | Georgia | None given |
2nd | California | None given |
2nd | New York | None given |
2nd | Texas | “According to Homeland Security” |
3rd | Florida | None given |
3rd | Wisconsin | None given |
Top 10 | Michigan | “Large agricultural industry & international border” |
Top 10 | Nevada | Interstate highways and “major events” |
Top 10 | New Jersey | Interstate highways, trains & buses, 3 airports |
Top 10 | North Carolina | Major highways and large rural areas |
Top 10 | Ohio | None given |
Top 10 | Oklahoma | “The State Department reports” |
Cities
Rank | Claimants | Purported reasons |
1st | Atlanta, Georgia | “World’s busiest airport” |
3rd | Toledo, Ohio | “FBI reports” |
3rd | Miami, Florida | “Travellers from around the world” |
Top 10 | Dallas, Texas | None given |
Top 10 | Phoenix, Arizona | Major highways, “destination point” (?) |
Top 10 | Portland, Oregon | Strip clubs, interstate highways, two rivers |
Top 10 | Sacramento, California | Interstate highways & immigrants |
Top 10 | Tulsa, Oklahoma | Interstate highways |
Top 13 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | “highways, year-round sports & conventions” |
2nd (FL) | Orlando, Florida | None given |
3rd (FL) | Tampa Bay, Florida | None given |
Of course, no explanation is ever given of how these “trafficked children” are transported; given the sheer volume (especially during mega sporting events), perhaps they’re crammed into secondhand school buses or packed in shipping crates with holes drilled in the sides for air. Presumably, we’re supposed to take it on faith, just like we’re supposed to accept these mysterious figures from nowhere, the mystic ability of “pimps” to hide hundreds of thousands of captives, and the economic viability of enslaved whores when there are plenty of independent ones to be found in every city in the world.
They’re actually transported on foot, led by the Pied Piper.
Alternate method …
They’re transported on the ONE DIRECTION Tour Bus (real easy to attract underage girls using ONE DIRECTION as a cover).
Frankly, it sounds an awful lot like the drivel that gets spouted as cities vie for Drug War grant monies.
“navigable waterways”
That explains why there are no trafficked people where I live. There used to be three canals/canalised rivers locally, but all are disused. The official reasons were ‘lack of traffic’. One only ever carried one barge—the engineer’s proving trial; a second was made with the locks too narrow for the barges that were supposed to use it; for the third, the mines ran out of coal. That’s the story, anyway. 😉
Actually, here in Ireland we’ve heard some quite creative excuses for the failures of canals. For instance, the canal between Lough Mask (of Captain Boycott fame) and Cong (of The Quiet Man fame) on Lough Corrib was said to have never held water. Just because it was unpuddled, and built on limestone. But, now we know better, don’t we? 😉
Failures of canals? Hoooooboy! I live in New Orleans bro.
Corps of Engineers FOR THE WIN!!
Maybe they’ve also been designing Irish canals?
FIRE THEM!!!
The Minneapolis one never ceases to amuse me. The nightspots in downtown are vanishingly small and only stay open until 2am at the latest. The groupings of people are similarly small and usually divided by race, class, and gender. During the day, downtown is filled with office workers (especially people who work at Target HQ, TCF HQ, and the energy companies), some bums, and a few students from the nearby technical college. Everyone is easily categorized and 9.9 times out of 10, you’d be spot on. Looking out of place is very easily spotted up here.
Anyone without a Frances McDormand Fargo accent is obviously trafficked, right? 😉
HA! In my opinion, yeah, most sound like that. However, the “urbanites” (snerk) of Minneapolis would be highly offended to be told they sound like people from Fargo. Because the Dakotas are so beneath them. **brain-scanning eye-roll**
” . . . or even (in a bizarrely 19th-century touch) the presence of navigable waterways, presumably for the slave-ships to sail in upon.”
Sometimes, Maggie, you just really crack me up. That was one of them.
You’ve really done it this time, Maggie: I can’t get the images out of my mind: a quinquireme of Nineveh, a stately Spanish galleon or even a dirty British coaster gliding up the inland waterways of the continental US with their precious cargo, with a gaggle of hungry traders waiting for them!
Thank you, gentlemen; I’m always happy to oblige. 😉
I expect Tampa claims it’s high position as a corollary to “lapdance capital of America.”
https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=%E2%80%9Clapdance+capital+of+America.%E2%80%9D&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#channel=fs&q=%E2%80%9Clap+dance+capital+of+America.%E2%80%9D&spell=1
Hmm… you know, they made lapdancing illegal in Tampa many years ago… so I’m surprised (Ha!) that it still comes up in that search as a top response.
As the media narrative becomes more extreme, the internal contradictions will become more apparent and less believable. They want the masses to believe that there is a huge and growing problem of sexual slavery and at the same time that the number of American men who have ever paid for sex is decreasing to impossibly low levels.
“In a string of surveys between 1991 and 1996, nearly 17% of men said they had ever paid for or received payment for sex; that fell to 13.2% between 2006 and 2012. Last year, that number hit the lowest point since the question was first asked — 9.1% — though statisticians caution the unusually small number could be a fluke.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-paying-for-sex-20131102,0,796675.story#axzz2jcfBVb5E
It could be a fluke. But then again, it could be a flounder.
One of the “experts” quoted in that article who disputes these numbers is whorephobe Melissa Farley. Ha!
There’s an old rule of thumb: if you don’t have the stats to back it up, it isn’t the truth, it’s propaganda.
If only there was a law requiring all women to wear this, then sex work and “sex trafficking” would be eliminated.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ar-wear-confidence-protection-that-can-be-worn
You know what these are, right? They are chastity belts. Despite the general impression, chastity belts were not locked on women by suspicious husbands off to the crusdaes, they were used – well, by women to prevent rape. Just like these modern-day interpretations.
Frankly, I’m all for them if it means just one man rescued from a false rape accusation after a one-night stand. Lock yourselves up, girls.
“Don’t try to compare rankings of cities with that of the states in which they lie; you’ll hurt your brain.”
I ignored your fine advice and I regret it. Excuse me, I need to soak my brain in acid now.
I’d sue you for medical expenses if you haven’t provided this disclaimer. Truly a mind-boggling list!
Make all convicted or suspected johns wear this and the whole “sex slavin'” business will come to a halt–Problem solved!!!!
http://www.bizarre-lifestyle.com/shop/en/Chastity/Stainless-steel-chastity-belt-for-men.html?pk_campaign=google_shopping
Atlanta claiming to be “one of the biggest sex trafficking hubs in the world,” is a blatant case of false advertising!
The only US airport to rank in the top 20 for volume of international passengers is JFK, and that’s near the bottom. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson isn’t in even in top 5 US airports for volume of international passengers. Atlanta doesn’t have a port and is 4 hours away from the coast.
So lets look at London, which is served by six international airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick. Heathrow is no. 1 in the world for volume of international passengers and Gatwick takes significantly more than JFK. London also has the Port of London and is only 1.5 hrs from both Dover and Portsmouth, and an hour from Calais on the Eurostar.
So if we’re going on international traffic, London should be the world capital of sex trafficking. Yet since its launch in April 2010, the Met’s Human Trafficking Unit has carried out 146 operations, charged (but not convicted) 282 people, and picked up 36 identified human trafficking victims. Put another way they have charged 1 person per 4.5 days and picked up 1 trafficking victim per 143 days — and that is their sole job!!!
The real trafficking problem is not sexual, it’s sweat shop, and they don’t want to touch those, it’ll make the big boys lose money.
It’s the biggest sham since Ponzi invented his scheme.
Because it’s character-building for a poor woman to work fourteen hour days in harsh conditions doing physically monotonous work for little more than starvation wages. It’s demeaning for that same woman to work fourteen hours every week in nice hotels making more than the entire sweatshop put together.
Ah, Sailor! The pearlclutching Matriarchy (like grandma always said, “behind every great man, is a woman”) don’t care about the sweatshops that make her husband (the Patriarch) rich, they only care that “Those uppity low class women don’t get ideas above their station”.
You know, those inconvient things (from the Matriarchal p.o.v) like self-determination, career choice, financial independence, sexual advocacy, and a better education.
In other words, anything that makes the low class woman serious competition for the Alpha Female.
Call me a cynic, but feminism seems to have misunderstood where their real opponents are, and they’re not men. They’re not even the Patriarchy…
Of course, since I’m *male*, I can’t possibly be right that their biggest enemy is other Women, can I? 😣😁
Not quite. The reality is that the real enemy is the entitled upper classes, male and female, who look down on the lower classes as serfs at best, and chattel at worst. Marx may have been wrong about many things, but the real struggle is first and foremost a class struggle, ahead of gender, race, sexual orientation, national origin, or creed. The patriarchy has power only because the majority of the top 1% (and even the 1/100th of 1%) are still male, not female.