Every second Friday at 5pm at the new Milwaukee Youth Drop-in Center @ 4200 N. Holton Avenue – near the 11 Holton and 62 Capitol buses. Check out the flier below.

Want more info about the group? Contact me here or by phone 414-212-5121.

Why start a bad date sheet in Milwaukee?

Last summer in Milwaukee, law enforcement announced the arrest of a man believed to be responsible for at least eight murders of women with histories of prostitution arrests from 1986 to 2007. You can find detailed reports about these cases here.

While Milwaukee news media talked about one serial killer, lost in those reports was the fact that actually 42 women involved in the sex trade were murdered in that 21 year period. The number connected by DNA evidence to one suspect was much smaller. It’s hard to decide what is more chilling – a serial killer who went unstopped for 21 years or over 30 individual murderers who each killed one woman – some of whom have also escaped arrest, as the police have noted not all cases have been “cleared,” or resulted in an arrest.

The man currently charged in the serial killings had a known history of violence. Before ever murdering anyone, the Journal Sentinel reported that in February of 1985: “(H)e was charged with attacking his girlfriend after accusing her of cheating on him. He punched her repeatedly in the face, pulling out a gun and forcing her to prostitute herself on W. North Ave., the criminal complaint says. Ellis watched from his car as she had sex with seven different men over several hours in a parking lot, according to charging documents. Those charges, too, were dropped. Records don’t say why.”

As the law enforcement task force on unsolved homicides filled the news, outreach workers and community members – including people currently trading sex for money talked about the ongoing violence towards people involved in the sex trade. People tried to share what they had heard informally and support those who had been assaulted, raped, beaten and abused.

A bad date sheet is a tool to share information about violent perpetrators who target people involved in trading sex or sexual kinds of activities for money and survival. We will collect, share and distribute the reports of violence that we experience and hear.

Just like in the Ellis case, people who commit serious violence like murder often start out with other violent acts. A bad date sheet means someone will have the ability to better avoid people who have committed violent acts in the past.

The Milwaukee Bad Date Sheet is an effort of many of the local organizations committed to supporting youth and adults who sell sex for money and survival. This is a new collaboration and your ideas, suggestions and support are welcome.

A man and his teenage son who are accused of recruiting teenage girls as prostitutes have been indicted on multiple charges that include sex trafficking of children.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Todd “Tut” Carter, who turns 39 Friday, and his son, Nicholas Harrison, 19. Each is scheduled to be arraigned and enter a plea next week.

Criminal complaints filed Jan. 27 describe Carter as a controlling pimp who recruited his son’s girlfriends into prostitution, and who also took in teenage runaways who typically knew he was a pimp.

Bucky the Badger is angry about pimping in Wisconsin.

Mishicot teen faces child sex charges

MANITOWOC — A 17-year-old Mishicot teen was charged with two felony counts after he allegedly had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl multiple times between September and November, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.

David Brandt was charged with bail jumping and repeated sexual assault of a child….Brandt also was charged with soliciting a child for prostitution as a party to a crime after a friend allegedly gave a 16-year-old girl $3 to have oral sex with Brandt, according to a criminal complaint filed Dec. 8.

Wis. woman gets 40 years for prostituting daughter

KENOSHA. A 38-year-old Kenosha woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for prostituting her then-15-year-old daughter.

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Mary Wagner says the sentence should keep the woman confined until she is too old to influence children.

A jury convicted the woman last month on 21 charges including soliciting a child for prostitution, failure to protect a child and child enticement, all as a repeat offender. The woman is not being named to protect her daughters.

Authorities say she charged men $25 to $45 for sex with her 15-year-old daughter and tried to sell her 14-year-old daughter into prostitution as well.

‘Sexting’ outbreak at Waukesha West High School in Wisconsin leads to warning

Police and school officials in Waukesha are warning parents to check their children’s cell phones after a nude photo of a 14-year-old girl was widely distributed.

The girl and her boyfriend are students at Waukesha West High School. They exchanged sexually explicit photos by cell phone, known as ’sexting’. Police say when the two broke up, the boyfriend forwarded the girl’s picture to other teens.

Capt. Mark Stigler says the photo spread until 100 or more students saw it. Stigler says police are pursuing possible felony child pornography charges against the teens who distributed the photo.

Prosecutors File More Charges Against Former Racine Mayor

Two additional child pornography charges have been filed against former Racine Mayor Gary Becker…Becker is also charged with six felony counts, including child enticement, exposing a child to harmful materials and attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child….Police arrested Becker last month, accusing him of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with a state agent posing as a 14-year-old girl online. Becker resigned from office shortly after his arrest.

And here I thought no one had missed the whole ‘To Catch a Predator’ series.

Alejandro, a tough and ambitious Latino street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York. In this chaotic world of adults, young Alejandro struggles to make a better life for himself and his 16-year-old sister, Isamar.”

During the movie, it’s revealed that his sister has sex for money. Her brother Ale’s reaction is amazingly layered and compassionate. She handles herself in a such a realistic and complicated way too. This movie stands out for me as presenting a complex picture of a young person in the sex trade without resorting to a mandatory downward spiral, an improbable rescue, or even to resolve everything neatly at the end.

FBI, police rescue child prostitutes around US

The FBI has rescued more than 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as young as 13, in a nationwide sweep to remove kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused pimps.

Over a three-night initiative called Operation Cross Country, federal agents working with local law enforcement also arrested more than 50 alleged pimps, according to preliminary bureau data.

The teenage prostitutes found in the investigation ranged in age from 13 to 17.

Historically, federal authorities rarely play a role in anti-prostitution crackdowns, but the FBI is becoming more involved as it tries to rescue children caught up in the business.

“The goal is to recover kids. We consider them the child victims of prostitution,” said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Daniel Roberts.

“Unfortunately, the vast majority of these kids are what they term ‘throwaway kids,’ with no family support, no friends. They’re kids that nobody wants, they’re loners. Many are runaways,” Roberts said.

Most of the children are put into the custody of local child protection agencies.

They might as well just add the note ‘and within days those youth will run away from the facilities the first chance they get.‘ Because, in fact, many of the youth do have friends and people they trust and it isn’t the police or child protection agencies.

I stopped posting around the time of the last wave of arrests in late October last year:

U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello joined FBI and local police representatives at a news conference at the Oakland Police Department Tuesday morning on the operation, which netted 642 arrests in 29 cities….The national arrests included 73 alleged pimps and 518 alleged prostitutes, the FBI reported. In addition, 47 children working as prostitutes – who range in age from 13 to 17 – were rescued during the operation, according to the FBI.

That article highlights something from last year’s two nationwide sweeps (one in June and the other in October) – hundreds of arrests of adult women (anyone 18 and over) who apparently have the misfortune of appearing young in escort advertisements so federal agents try to set up sting operations with those individuals on the possibility they might be minors.

Another article today indicates that this might be the case this past weekend as well. These adults are not offered services but arrested and potentially charged with federal offenses.

Being taken into custody by federal law enforcement agents is traumatizing and creates deep fear among teens in the sex trade. Communities don’t even have adequate services or housing for youth they find so they are warehoused in foster care facilities and detention centers. Raids set up an environment of terror and panic and discourage any potential for youth to voluntarily seek out police for assistance. Raids are not the answer.

The youth taken into custody by federal agents need and deserve solid legal representation. And we need to stop the practice of raids and instead make multiple welcoming options available to teens and anyone who wants to leave the sex trade and make it easy for someone to get assistance. And we are so far away from that right now, it really worries me.