Eugene, Oregon

"Hundreds of women and girls are sold into sex slavery in Lane County each year, according to an undercover police officer who investigates human trafficking in Eugene."

Full article and video available here.

Heartbreaking Video

Taken from the YouTube site itself:

"Narrated by actress and humanitarian Lucy Liu, "The Road to Traffik" reveals the shocking world of sex trafficking that Somaly Mam, a former Cambodia sex slave, is heroically waging a crusade to expose and end. The filmmakers accompany photographer Norman Jean Roy on his painful journey to document the brutal rape and suffering that thousands of children face daily in the brothels of Cambodia and Southeast Asia."

This video is intense but worth a look, click here.

Porn Addiction Article

Roaming around my Facebook page this morning, I stumbled across a page that I follow; Pornography Harms. This particular morning they had an article about sexual addiction published by the Daily Beast regarding the epidemic number of American's being diagnosed as sex addicts. They attribute much of this increase to the internet and the ease of accessibility people have to this growing industry. And, when the pornography isn't enough, then prostitution is an option and when 'of age' prostitutes aren't able to give the john that emotional high- trafficked children are at risk. I'd highly recommend you read the article, it isn't very long, it's informative and can be found here.


I think last part of the article, included in bold below, is the epitome of the problem- being wanted. We're a culture of isolated individuals and have become incredibly independent. We're all looking for something, in all the wrong places.

Many are likely to find that “sex addiction isn’t really about sex,” as Weiss puts it; it’s about “being wanted.”

X3LA’s Steven Luff says, “Sex is the perfect match for that. ‘I matter right now. In this moment, I am loved.’ In that sense, an entire culture, an entire nation is looking for meaning.”

To any of you currently suffering from a pornography addiction or feelings of isolation in your search for happiness- Jesus is waiting for you. He is the epitome of the unconditional love that we all so desperately desire. He really does make life so much better here in our temporary world and He is the meaning that many of us are looking for in our lives.

Yogis Against Trafficking

Yogis Unite to Put an End to Sex Trafficking ~ Heather Snyder

Originally published by our elephriends over at Yoga Modern.
**********************************************************************************

Photo Credit: Norman Jean Roy

Last week, Nick Kristof (NY Times journalist and co- author of Half the Sky) followed Somaly Mam, a prosecutor and a dozen or so police officers toting AK-47s on a raid of a brother in Cambodia. Reading his live tweets as the raid progressed, I was reminded, once again, why Somaly Mam is such a hero to me. At the risk of her own life and her family’s safety, she continues to fight for victims’ lives and risk everything she has to save girls from the same fate she was dealt.

This particular brothel was owned by a Cambodian military officer and his wife. Once they saw that a prosecutor and team was coming for them, they called in armed soldiers to protect the brothel and the brothel owners. After what seemed like a horrifying showdown, the brothel owners were taken to the police station. About 6 girls were rescued, the youngest, Kristof said, appeared to be about 13 years old. There were girls missing that they assumed must have been hidden from them by the brothel owners. The terrifed girls were comforted by social workers while the raid continued.

Although the brothel owners were eventually brought in by the police, it is unknown as to whether they will be let go or actually prosecuted. They were told this brothel had 10 rooms for sex, all rooms that locked from the outside. It is hard to grasp that this was all playing out while we, in the US, we’re sleeping peacefully in our beds.

Somaly is fearless in her work, rescuing girls from brothels and of nurturing them back to life with her love, compassion, and strength. She has helped save 7,000 girls from these brothels and is helping them to recover and reintegrate back into society. She has safe houses throughout Southeast Asia where girls live, learn, and receive education to take out in the world. Most importantly, the girls receive the love, kindness and tenderness they never received as children. Here they are able to begin the healing process in a safe, loving environment.

The most extraordinary thing about Somaly Mam is that she not only rescues these girls and nurtures them back to life, she teaches them about love and forgiveness. She believes holding onto the pain and anger is damaging to one’s self and says that to move on and become an empowered, loving leader, forgiveness is a necessity.

Somaly herself has been through pure hell, and yet she is a calm force in the world who meditates daily and believes you have to love yourself fully before you can be of service and truly love another. She is radiant. Being in her presence for a few days last month, it was sometimes hard for me to believe what she went through. She is literally glowing with peace, love and beauty inside and out.

Somaly Mam is my inspiration for getting involved in the work to end human trafficking.

After I read her gripping and inspiring memoir, The Road To Lost Innocence, I, along with other NYC yogis in the Off the Mat community, were determined to help and get involved with her organization, The Somaly Mam Foundation. Yoga Freedom Project was born out of that desire to get involved. The Somaly Mam Foundation was interested in bringing their message to the yoga community and now yogis around the world are raising awareness of sex trafficking.

Yoga Freedom Project is a January 2012 global month of yoga to raise awareness and funding to bring an end to sex trafficking.

With Yoga Freedom Project, we are asking yogis and studios all over the world to have donation based classes, sell jewelry made by survivors as well as Somaly Mam’s memoir, and engage their local communities in whatever they feel called to do to raise awareness about the issue of sex trafficking. So far we have studios in 15 states and 5 countries on board. In New York, we are having a 108 Sun Salutation Celebration at the end of our month of fundraising with Elena Brower, Dana Flynn, Alan Finger, Cyndi Lee, Jodie Rufty, and many other talented teachers. We are excited to have an impact with this month and show the world just how powerful, loving and strong our global yoga community is.

Looking at what happens to these young girls is horrifying, totally heart breaking. It is much easier to turn away from it and hope someone else can face it and help put and end to it. I have had people say to me, “Oh that is so awful. I can’t even bring myself to think about it” and that is the end of that. Well I say we must think about it. We have an obligation to look at the horrific reality of sex trafficking and those of us whose heart it breaks the most may just be the best people to help put an end to it.

I have always felt such pain and and terror when I read, see and continue to learn about this. On a very small scale, through my own difficult childhood experience with a man taking advantage of my innocence for his pleasure, these girls’ and terror resonate with me. Their horror, however, is a thousand times worse than anything I can even imagine. And as much as I want to turn away and run when I read their stories, I know this is my work to do. I won’t turn away from it.

Through my work with Off the Mat, I’ve come to believe that if we look deeply at what breaks our heart, we will find exactly where we are supposed to be serving in the world. Perhaps that is exactly where we can be most effective if we allow ourselves to feel that heartbreak and we don’t turn away.

What breaks your heart? What do you read about or see that makes you want to turn and run in the other direction? Perhaps that is exactly what you should be walking towards. Perhaps that is where you can be of greatest service.

Heather Snyder is a regular contributor for Yoga Modern and Regional Leader for Off The Mat Into The World in NYC. She is a conscious activist, birth doula, and teacher of The Alexander Technique, pilates, and yoga. She brings together communities of inspired, empowered, like minded people to explore possibilities of what a community can create together. Heather is committed to the work of bringing awareness of sex trafficking to the yoga community as well as to mainstream America. In January 2012, Off The Mat NYC is partnering with the Somaly Mam Foundation to launch the Yoga Freedom Project. This project is a monthlong campaign in the yoga community that will raise awareness and funding to put an end to human trafficking. If you would like to get involved, you can read more on the OTM-NYC website or email Heather directly at offthematnyc@gmail.com.


No emphasis was added by Called to Rescue, this blog posting is what appears on the webpage of where it was found. To view where the article was retrieved, click here.

Oregon's Reputation

Underage sex trade and the border: Group works to give trafficking in Oregon red light

Elizabeth Hovde, Oregonian columnist

Posted: 12/03/2011 10:00 AM

As bordering states, Oregon and Washington think a lot about comparative business and tax advantages and disadvantages. For example, business owners in Clark County rightly worry that people shop south of the border to save money on sales tax. And Oregonians now have to worry that Washington's new liquor law soon will have people in the Portland area and beyond heading north to stock up on booze.

The latest state-line issue? A report released last week shows Oregon should be worried it is sending an "open for business" message to an industry no state wants: sex trafficking of minors.

The industry is thriving where it can, and it is wrecking lives. Picture your own teenage or preteen daughter or a friend's daughter when I say that the industry is wrecking lives -- that's whose lives we are talking about. Putting a known face on the victim allows you proper perspective.

Oregon and Washington's differing grades on Shared Hope International's Protect Innocence Initiative are something Oregon should be concerned about. Oregon received a "D" and Washington a "B," using 40 components compiled by Shared Hope in partnership with the American Center for Law and Justice. (ACLJ assisted in a comprehensive analysis of each state's existing laws.)

One of the biggest differences between the two states was how they addressed demand. In Oregon, get caught having sex with a minor, and you can receive a sentence of as little as seven days on a second offense and your crime is considered a misdemeanor. In Washington, a first offense greets you with 21 months at the minimum for a Class B felony. The fine is relatively high in Oregon, however, at $10,000 for a first offense.

As Shared Hope's founder, former U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, told me, "Rich? Shop in Oregon!" If you have enough cash to get you out of an embarrassing bind, Oregon's your place.

Because buying sex with a minor in Washington brings a greater risk, pimps will wisely offer customers their "product" across the state line. Portland's tolerance for sex shops and strip clubs already helps create unhealthy appetites for what is considered forbidden sex, putting it at a disadvantage. Having a price tag but no real legal deterrent for buying underage sex adds to the repulsive and dangerous problem facing our kids.

The good news is that the Protect Innocence Initiative, a grading system of 50 states plus Washington, D.C., is more of a road map than it is a scold. See it online at www.sharedhope.org and lead your state lawmaker and attorney general there as well, as they have the ability to try to change the legal landscape for buyers in Oregon. Smith says, "Within each state is a unique framework of laws. And under the 10th amendment, that is how it should be. With the Protected Innocence Initiative, it is our hope and intention that we will strengthen the legal framework in states across the nation to weave a fabric of laws that does not allow one child in this nation to fall through."

On Thursday, Smith released the findings of this yearlong research. She told me producing the report was like giving birth. And if you go through the organization's state-by-state findings, you get the labor.

Shared Hope was founded in 1998 to rescue and restore women and children in crisis near and far. It strives to prevent trafficking, to rescue and restore people trapped in commercial sex, and to exact justice for being part of the supply or demand. Encouragingly, if Oregon simply makes the law tougher on a part of society no one should want to stick up for -- those who knowingly or unknowingly pay for sex with minors -- it can improve. And if the rest of us can make others aware that often the so-called "prostitutes" in Oregon are young girls or women who were forced into the "profession" all-too young and in fear, we could tackle the demand side of this problem along with them. After all, what "good" person would feel OK about buying sex with someone tricked or forced into the industry -- a child or not? It's time people who consider themselves "good" know this is the reality so they can be part of the solution.

Only four states received a "B," the highest grade given this year. Let's make getting straight A's a clear border issue.

For original source, click here.

Groundbreaking Case in Sex Trafficking

December 1, 2011 11:09 AM

Suing Lawrence Taylor "next frontier" in fighting sex trafficking, says expert

By Julia Dahl

(CBS) NEW YORK - On Monday afternoon, 18-year-old Cristina Fierro stood before a crowd of reporters at a Manhattan hotel and announced that she was suing former football star Lawrence Taylor.

Fierro, previously known only as "C.F.," is the young woman who, at age 16, was allegedly forced by a man named Rasheed Davis to meet Taylor in a hotel room for sex on May 5, 2010.

Taylor was initially charged with rape, but in January 2011 he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors instead, and was sentenced to six years probation.

Davis, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking charges and is serving a seven year prison term. According to the U.S. Attorney's sentencing statement, Davis beat Fierro when she said she didn't want to have sex for money, and took the $300 that Mr. Taylor gave her at the end of the act.

"I am glad Mr. Taylor was prosecuted," said Fierro on Monday, reading from a statement. "But I feel as though he should have gone to jail to think about what he has done to me."

Standing beside Fierro was celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing the young woman.

"Lawrence Taylor pled guilty to patronizing a prostitute and sexual misconduct," she said. "She was not a prostitute, but was instead a child victim of sex trafficking."

Allred announced that Fierro is bringing two lawsuits - one under a local administrative code that allows a victim to sue someone who has committed a "crime of violence motivated by gender," and the other, under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which defines any child under 18 who is induced into the sex trade as a victim of sex trafficking.

Allred said she believes this case is "the first civil lawsuit of its kind on behalf of a child victim of sex trafficking against a buyer of a commercial sex act with that child."

Seeking justice in civil court for sexual abuse or trafficking is not new: Just yesterday, one of Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims announced he is suing the former coach; and on Nov. 10, a Miami jury returned a $100 million verdict against Rev. Neil Doherty on behalf of a man he allegedly drugged and raped as a child.

In 2009, a group of Mexican farm workers who had allegedly been trafficked into unpaid labor in Colorado won a $7.8 million in a civil suit against the people who, according to the Denver Post, "brought them to America and forced them to live as virtual prisoners as they worked off their debts."

But experts we spoke to said they believed Allred was correct when she said that Fierro may be the first victim of sex trafficking to ever sue the buyer of the illicit services she provided.

"Men who buy sex from children have this sense they won't be punished, that they'll get away from it," says Bradley Myles, the Executive Director of Polaris Project, a non-profit organization that works to combat human trafficking and modern-day slavery. "These types of cases are starting to send a clear message that you're going to get prosecuted or sued. They are creating a paradigm shift in how we think about children in the sex trade."

And while the suit may be unprecedented, it is, perhaps, the logical next step in a long movement to name, understand and combat what used to be called child or teen prostitution, but is now known in law enforcement circles as "domestic minor sex trafficking." The theory, say advocates and attorneys, is that the so-called pimps who run underage boys and girls for sex on the streets - and between the states - do so through the same kind of violence and intimidation used by people who bring women from foreign countries into the U.S. Thus, they should be called traffickers, and their "prostitutes," trafficking victims.

"The majority of sex trafficking [in the U.S.] happens domestically, between states, not from other countries," says Jeff Dion, Director of the National Crime Victim Bar Association.

According to Kathleen Kim, an attorney and professor at Loyola Law School who has represented victims of trafficking, one reason that there are almost no cases of victims suing their traffickers is that being forced to sell sex is a uniquely traumatic experience that people are reluctant to relive, even in criminal court.

"Most victims would rather just put it behind them," says Kim, who co-authored a booklet entitled "Civil Litigation on Behalf of Victims of Human Trafficking."

Kim says the Fierro case represents a "novel" use of the federal anti-trafficking law - one that has been made possible by changes in 2003 and 2008 which allowed for civil remedies for victims and expanded the pool of defendants who could be sued.

Of course, the facts of Fierro's civil case have yet to be established definitively. According to Allred, Taylor has 30 days to answer the lawsuit.

Lawrence Taylor's attorney Arthur Aidala called the allegations set out in Allred's statement Monday - for example, that Fierro's face was visibly bloody and bruised when she met Taylor in the hotel - "a fairytale."

He told Crimesider that he has a sworn deposition from Fierro's former roommate that contradicts much of what is laid out in Allred's version of events.

"The truth is very ugly for the plaintiff," says Aidala. "We've gone to great lengths not to disparage this girl. Now she has a lawyer exploiting her."

But no matter who wins, the case is, as Bradley Myles of the Polaris Project puts it, "groundbreaking."

"The next frontier in fighting sex trafficking in the U.S. is going to be these civil tools," says Myles.

Brian O'Dwyer, the attorney who helped the family of missing New York City boy Etan Patz sue Jose Ramos for wrongful death - despite the fact that Patz's body was never found, said that the standard of proof is much lower in civil as opposed to criminal court.

"Most of the time it's fairly easy to get a judgment," said O'Dwyer. "The problem is collecting on the judgment."

Original source for article found here.

Eugene, Oregon

INET undercover prostitution sting leads to arrest of Eugene man

Eugene (KMTR) An undercover prostitution sting operation conducted by members of the Lane County Interagency Narcotics Team (INET) led to the arrest of a 35-year old Eugene man for his role in trafficking a minor to an undercover detective. Detectives are attempting to locate additional victims and potential co-conspirators in the ongoing investigation.

According to Oregon State Police Sergeant Erik Fisher, on December 5, 2011 INET detectives arrested David Adam Zimmer, age 35, after he escorted a 15-year old female to a local area motel. Zimmer allegedly agreed to provide an illegal controlled substance and the underage victim to the undercover detective in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money.

Zimmer was lodged in the Lane County Jail on the following charges:

* Compelling Prostitution

* Four counts of Rape in the Third Degree

* Unlawful Possession and Delivery of a Controlled Substance

Zimmer also faces criminal charges of Delivery of a Controlled Substance to a Minor, Using a Minor in a Controlled Substance Offense, Endangering the Welfare of a Minor, and Contributing to the Sexual Delinquency of a Minor.

The juvenile female was released to her parents.

INET detectives seized from Zimmer and the juvenile approximately 14 grams of psilocybin mushrooms along with additional evidence related to the investigation.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation, or illegal drug activity, is asked to call the INET tip line at (541) 682-6266.

Picture of arrested man and source of publication are found here.