Slavery in America Today
October 27, 2009
Oh, and we thought it was eradicated so long ago. The New York Times, which I usually don’t have much good to say about, exposes how pimps in U.S. cities prey upon runaway teens and keep them under their control. They underwent a two-year research project investigating and interviewing incarcerated pimps to learn how they operate.
“With the young girls, you promise them heaven, they’ll follow you to hell,” said Harvey Washington, a pimp who began serving a four-year sentence in Arizona in 2005 for pandering a 17-year-old and three adult prostitutes. “It all depends on her being so love-drunk off of me that she will do anything for me.”
While most of the pimps said they prefer adult women because teenage runaways involve more legal risks, they added that juveniles fetch higher prices from clients and are far easier to manipulate.
Virtually all the juveniles who become involved in prostitution are runaways and become pimp-controlled, according to law enforcement officials and social workers. Built of desperation and fear, the bonds they form with their pimps are difficult to break. Some girls continue working for pimps even after the pimps are incarcerated.
If there is any flaw in the Times article, is that they look to government for the solutions to the problem, as they usually do.
Hello, church?
October 28, 2009 at 12:43 am
Slavery at its worst. They look to the government because the church relinquished its responsibility a long time ago. Even the culture does not have the confidence the church will be effective because as a whole, it is not now. Ministry in what you have written about requires getting our hands dirty and that stains our “Best Life Now.”