American Dream

bushndick · #1 (**permalink**) 08-20-2006, 10:48 AM

Quote:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13415620/

NEW YORK - Raids conducted last week on 20 Northeast brothels uncovered more than 70 suspected sex slaves, exposing a long-ignored national problem found in towns large and small, with immigrants and U.S. citizens alike as victims, experts say.

“It’s a very overwhelming subject for a lot of people to recognize that there is slavery at this time in our country,” said Carole Angel, staff attorney with the Immigrant Women Program of the women’s rights advocacy group Legal Momentum in Washington. “It’s hard for us as humans to contemplate what this means.”

Jolene Smith, executive director of Free The Slaves, a Washington-based organization dedicated to ending slavery worldwide, agreed that the idea of 21st century slavery was foreign to most people.

“Americans are conditioned to believe that slavery was a thing of the past,” Smith said. “We have to reeducate ourselves about this reality.”

According to Angel, victims such as prostitutes are often handcuffed and hauled off along with the traffickers who coerced them into the sex trade.

That was not the case Tuesday when federal and local law enforcement raided brothels disguised as massage parlors, health spas and acupuncture clinics in six states and Washington D.C., arresting 31 people on trafficking charges.

‘Dreams into nightmares’
They took more than 70 sex workers to undisclosed locations for questioning, and to provide basic services such as health care and food. Authorities said it might take weeks to get the Korean immigrants to trust them enough to discuss their ordeal.

“Human traffickers profit by turning dreams into nightmares,” said Michael Garcia, U.S. attorney in Manhattan, where the majority of the traffickers face prosecution. “These women sought a better life in America and found instead forced prostitution and misery.”

Yet Angel said the raids should not give the impression that trafficking is limited to immigrants, who are often coaxed to come to America for legitimate jobs only to be forced to work in brothels, sweatshops and restaurants to pay off debts of up to $30,000 to their traffickers.

“There are so many faces on this,” she said. “It happens in rural communities, big cities. It spans all education levels, different countries, different races.”

Laurel Fletcher, law professor at the University of California at Berkeley International Human Rights Law Clinic, said it’s a misconception if Americans think this is not happening at home.

She said many people also err by assuming all forced labor involves prostitution. It also thrives in agricultural and domestic work, as well as in sweatshops or unregulated industries.

Tens of thousands
In 2004, Fletcher was one of several authors on a report believed to be the first comprehensive study of forced labor in the United States.

The study, by Free The Slaves and the Human Rights Center of the University of California at Berkeley, concluded that at least 10,000 people and possibly tens of thousands of people are forced laborers at any time across the United States.

nonsqtr · #2 (**permalink**) 08-20-2006, 11:23 AM

I don't like Korean girls. Short legs and a bad attitude, for the most part.

(sorry, j/k, I didn't know how else to respond to a post like that)...

:

bushndick · #3 (**permalink**) 08-20-2006, 01:49 PM

"good point, maybe we should make our government first get rid of all the evil scum here in US before attempting to fix things somewhere we dont even live, because now were like a monkey with a broom and a loose arse chitting and cleaning it up..."

raytri · #4 (**permalink**) 08-20-2006, 03:18 PM

That's illogical. It's like blaming the government for not having totally eliminated murder. In a free society, stuff like this is going to happen; it would take far-too-controlling a government to eliminate it entirely.

The government can and should police this sort of thing vigorously. But it has no bearing on larger political issues like Iraq.

bktx1 · #5 (**permalink**) 08-20-2006, 04:15 PM

Our border security is pathetic. It is no suprise that this kind of thing happens. Raytri is right though; a free society cannot guarantee that criminals will not exploit the system to abuse it. We must do the best we can, however.

bushndick · #6 (**permalink**) 08-20-2006, 08:40 PM

i also agree to a point with raytri but not fully, its not (just) the border system either, its the way this justice system works. i dont even want to go into this i will just say this: Saddam. still alive. hundreds of thowsands of Iraqis dead I WOULD NOT feel any better if they kill saddam, but it's already past. what i wanted to say is a criminal can steal stuff here breake into my car and i will not get him punished if i catch him unless i go thru a lot of effort.

i think what is missing in this american justice system is this:
we should be able to put lawyers who purpusely defend criminals just for business and jail those lawyers. other way this nonsense will continnue

one thing i remember i liked that bush said, he said something about ending malpractice lawsuits...but its not enough...

Rebellion · #7 (**permalink**) 08-22-2006, 02:06 PM

for defending criminals...yeah, makes sense.

At least the government is trying to do something about it, we should be more concerned about countries like Germany and Holland which turn a blind eye towards sex slaves. The former East Germany is particularly bad.

Sadistic-Savior · #8 (**permalink**) 08-22-2006, 02:39 PM

Quote:

maybe we should make our government first get rid of all the evil scum here in US before attempting to fix things somewhere we dont even live

Explain why we cannot do both.

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