Moving Words – Human Trafficking
Timothy Brady
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask, act. Action will delineate and define you.” – Thomas Jefferson
Our van operators have all been there – pulled over in a quiet spot, in an interstate Rest Area or at a truck stop ready to turn in for some needed rest. And then there is a knock on the cab door. You go into defense mode, and carefully part the curtains to look out the other window and windshield. There is no DOT or law enforcement vehicle in sight – and an officer always announces himself anyway – so you check to see if your tire thumper’s handy and roll down the driver’s window a little. To your disgust, it’s a lot lizard. And you tell her – usually it’s a female – to get lost.
But did you notice this one looked awfully young to be ‘in the trade’? Could be that kid out there was just another of the thousands of young teens who have been forced into one of the ugliest undersides of life on the highway – the sex trade trafficking.
Many industry publications, state trucking associations and the American Trucking Associations have joined Truckers Against Trafficking to put a stop to this crime. As truckers driving billions of miles a year, we can combat this problem and help rescue the adults and especially the kids who have been forced into a nightmare existence as prostitutes.
As we movers “move” into our busy season, now is the time to alert our van operators to keep a vigilant eye out for youngsters and young men and women who are victims of human traffickers. Summer is a prime time for these criminals to use these unfortunate individuals as their profit center in prostitution. So, while we movers are out in force, we can be a major help in combating this horrific crime.
The sleazeballs who live off the illegal earnings of groups of prostitutes often prey on teen runaways, because the kids are a little scared, often hungry and cold, and a ‘friendly’ adult promising help seems like a rescuer. Instead, they are seized, beaten, given drugs to get them hooked, and emotionally abused as they’re forced into ‘turning tricks’ for pimps. The stuff of a bad horror movie – and you can help prevent it happening to someone who used to be the babysitter down the block, or a kid who got disgusted with a bad home situation and took off, or even worse – your niece, cousin, baby sister, or even your daughter or son.
The Department of Justice estimates between 100,000 and 300,000 children are at risk every year to be taken by traffickers in the United States.
Report suspicious activity you see from your vantage point of eleven feet up, as you travel the arteries of America and eat, fuel and shower. Call 1-888-373-7888 (TTY: 711)|*Text 233733 to report a disturbing incident, or simply call 911 if you see a situation in which it looks like someone needs help immediately. Any law officer would rather have someone make a wrong call to 911 than to find yet another young victim’s body in a ditch somewhere.
“Traffickers are continually moving their victims from place to place, for a variety of reasons, along our nation’s highways and roads,” said Kendis Paris, national director of Truckers Against Trafficking. “They sell their victims at truck stops, travel plazas and rest stops, because they’re convenient; transient populations frequent them who are less likely to ‘rescue’ the victims; they have to use them anyway to buy gas and eat; and it’s easy money and a good way to break in their victims for other things.”
Truckers Against Trafficking is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to educating, equipping, empowering and mobilizing the trucking industry to fight human trafficking. Speakers and trainers as well as brochures and a DVD are available; check their website at https://www.truckersagainsttrafficking.com/
Let’s stop this vicious sex industry by continuing to be professional drivers – and listening to that ‘gut feeling’ when something’s not right about that young kid posing as a prostitute. If only one out of every ten truckers help rescue a sex trafficking victim, we can shut down this whole subhuman machine.
“I know that together, we can do something about it.” Tony Kirwan
FYI: Global sex trafficking generates $99 billion yearly, that is equal to $11 Million every hour
