Yesterday reports all over the country detailed a national FBI sting operation allegedly targeting pimps who force youth into prostitution. However it’s clear from the numbers that the majority of arrests (at least 290) were of adult women alleged to have offered sex for money – adult women who could be 18 years old, 17 years old in some jurisdictions. Now the numbers of total arrests nationwide appear to be as high as 389.
Today’s report in the Reno Gazette Journal is illustrative on how the arrests played out.
Ten women and a 16-year-old girl have been arrested in Reno as part of a national FBI sting operation targeted at networks of pimps who force children into prostitution….Five of the adult women arrested during the two-day operation were from Oakland, while the remaining were local women, Sgt. Brent Teasley said. The Internet escorts were targeted because Teasley said the photos they post online could be deceiving, and the actual escort could turn out to be a minor.
How did this get anyone who’s pimped youth out?
The juvenile arrested was a 16-year-old Reno girl who dropped out of high school, Reno police said. Detectives called her mother that night. She told them to book her into the juvenile detention center.
Hmmm, that’s some “rescue.”
The ABA Journal cites two adult male arrests in Sacramento and four minors taken into “protective custody” (also known as jail).
In Las Vegas, some 67 arrests took place, but that number includes adults charged with selling sex, adults charged with buying sex and people identified as pimps. Some will face state charges but some will face more serious federal charges.
I find it important to note that in searching for more articles on this subject, I kept finding articles for another arrest binge federal law enforcement went on last month because of a similar number of arrests: 389 undocumented workers were arrested at the local Agriprocessors meatpacking plant.
The practice of massive arrests like this are to terrify and control people. I can assure you that both minors involved in the sex trade (including those being pimped out) and adults who are in the sex trade by their own decision or force will not feel reassured to trust law enforcement by these actions at all.
