TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: child trafficking

  • Teens prostituted on craigslist in Chicago

    Teens prostituted on craigslist in Chicago

    10 charged in Internet prostitution:

    Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois arrested 10 members of a craigslist prostitution ring that ran in Illinois and Indiana.

    Rodney “Mook” Williams, Eddie Wells and Terrance “Big T” Greenlee Jr., all of Chicago, and Gregory Key of Evergreen Park are accused of operating the prostitution ring. If convicted, they could face up to 30 years in prison.

    Six women were charged with prostitution. The juveniles were questioned by police but released without being charged, officials said.

    Yes, you read that right, juveniles.

    The ring operated in Illinois and Indiana and involved at least 11 women, some of whom were high school freshmen and sophomores, he said.

    Two of the juveniles—one from Iowa—were runaways, officials said, adding the alleged leaders recruited some women from a strip club and found others at a currency exchange.

    There’s that ‘victimless’ crime again.

  • More on Atlanta child prostitution

    More on Atlanta child prostitution

    Teen suicide spurs war on child prostitution:

    This is an article about Atlanta’s war on child prostitution. It briefly mentions craigslist and its usual denial of facilitation…

    Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote to craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster in August, urging them to remove postings of women engaged in activity that broke Georgia law and called on other mayors to file similar protests.

    Buckmaster said the company “shares Mayor Franklin’s concerns and are evaluating her suggestions.”

    The site warns its users that it prohibits illegal activity but he added: “We do not monitor the content of more than 25 million free postings craigslist users self-publish each month.”

    But I mostly wanted to point out the plight of Samantha Walker, who committed suicide after testifying against one of the men who paid to have sex with her when she was 15.

    This is why I believe that craigslist needs to eliminate its erotic services section. Please read the entire article.

    There are no victimless crimes.

  • South Jersey pimp pleads guilty

    South Jersey pimp pleads guilty

    Pleasantville man admits prostituting minors:

    Casson Coward of Pleasantville, New Jersey was arrested back in June for pimping out two girls ages 14 and 16 from Allentown, Pa. on craigslist.

    Yesterday, Coward pleaded guilty to interstate transporting of minors for the purposes of prostitution. His partner, Kevin R. Mayfield was also arrested. Both of them are looking at 10 to life and a $250K fine.

    The so-called victimless crime continues.

  • Prostitution in Atlanta

    Prostitution in Atlanta

    Oldest Profession Has Young Victims, New Methods: Ann Woolner:

    This is a great article about Atlanta’s perceived problem with child prostitution and what police are doing to combat it. Of course, craigslist is brought into the conversation because Mayor Shirley Franklin previously called craigslist on the carpet for facilitating child prostitution.

    The author of the article, Ann Woolner, tried to contact craigslist about this and was met with the usual response.

    I tried to contact craigslist Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster to ask whether he had instituted any reforms since Franklin wrote him in August seeking closer monitoring, more stringent warnings and a tougher attitude toward those who advertise illegal services or otherwise break the Web site’s rules. Questions e-mailed to a press contact for Buckmaster weren’t answered.

    How long will craigslist continue to stick its fingers in its ears and go “LALALALALALALALALALALALA I’M NOT LISTENING”?

  • craigslist denies child prostitution facilitation

    craigslist denies child prostitution facilitation

    Responding to concerns:

    It wasn’t that long ago that the Mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, chided craigslist for facilitating child prostitution. Of course, craigslist brushed it off. One of Ms. Frankin’s advisors even mentioned that Facebook and MySpace have been very forthcoming with the mayor’s office, even when not legally obligated to do so.

    However, our favorite craigslist mouthpiece, Susan MacTavish Best, had this to say…

    “Craigslist has an erotic services section on the site because our users asked us to create it in order to keep the personals section clear of erotic service ads. (Some folks when looking for a date do not want to have to look at ads for erotic services). Certainly, we … don’t want the site to be used for illegal activity. But we do believe that there should be a place for people to advertise legal escort services. We have over 30 million users a month. As we responded to the Mayor of Atlanta, we are always interested in hearing how we can make Craigslist better. Craigslist makes no money from erotic services because like most of the site, it is free to post there … “

    Legal escort services? No such thing, my dear. They may pose as legal, but we all know what they’re fronts for. And again you say that you don’t want craigslist used for illegal activities, but you’re not doing anything to discourage it. So basically by moving the erotic services section out of the personals, you just swept it under the rug hoping nobody would notice.

    What’s it going to take craigslist before you do something about this? Are you waiting for a toddler to get pimped out or worse?

  • MySpace pimp facing federal charges

    MySpace pimp facing federal charges

    Feds hit MySpace pimp suspect with child sex trafficking charge:

    I’ve posted about Malvin Parker Jr. before. He’s the guy from California who was arrested for allegedly pimping out an underage girl he groomed on MySpace. Well, he just found himself in a whole new world of trouble. He’s now looking at 10 to life on federal charges of sex-trafficking children.

    The federal government has an interest in the case because Parker allegedly enticed the victim, a 16-year-old runaway from Washington state, across state lines through MySpace, a social networking site. Federal law prohibits using “force, fraud or coercion” to get a minor across state or national boundaries to engage in a “commercial sex act.”

    As the kids say these days…Oh snap!!!

  • Boston juvenile prostitute

    Boston juvenile prostitute

    Link (Second story down)

    A Braintree man is in hot water after allegedly pimping a young girl on the Internet, police say.

    According to the police report, the girl advertised herself as a prostitute on Craigslist. Police set up a sting to apprehend her.

    A plainclothes cop met the girl on West Seventh Street Tuesday morning, and noticed she was accompanied by two males who waited for her in a car.

    The juvenile allegedly offered to provide sex to an undercover officer for $175. After agreeing to the price, the cop placed the girl under arrest for prostitution while nearby cops confronted her companions.

    Joseph Venezia of Braintree was charged with deriving support from prostitution, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and driving with a suspended license.

    Damon Isles of Charlestown, the passenger, was arrested on drug charges, police said.

    But it’s a victimless crime and these girls want to be prostitutes right? Give me a break.

  • Runaway teens pimped out on craigslist

    Runaway teens pimped out on craigslist

    Police: Runaway NW teens forced into selling sex on Craigslist:

    Here are some more of those victims that prostitution supposedly doesn’t have…

    The case of a runaway Beaverton girl led to a string of arrests in an Internet prostitution investigation over the past three months.

    The case netted several arrests and runaway teens from the Northwest between May and the end of August, according to Beaverton Police.

    Detectives following the report in May of a runaway 15-year-old from Beaverton were led to Los Angeles, where they found the missing girl with 25-year-old Deandre Travon Green of Aloha. Investigators said Green had forced the girl into prostitution through the L.A. Craigslist Web site.

    Information developed in the case led officers to the Extended Stay Hotel on Eider Ct. in August. There they found a 21-year-old woman and a 16-year-old reported runaway from Seattle, both were charged with prostitution, police said.

    A week later, detectives found two girls reported as runaways from Portland and Gresham. The 15- and 17- year-old girls were arrested along with 22-year-old Quentin G. Lewis, who was charged with possession of crack and outstanding warrants.

    But I’m sure the 15-17-year-olds wanted to be prostitutes, right?

    Give me a break.

  • Alleged pimp pleads not guilty

    Alleged pimp pleads not guilty

    MySpace pimp suspect pleads not guilty:

    I originally posted about Melvin Parker Jr. here. He’s the 32-year-old California “man” who is accused of luring a 16-year-old girl over MySpace into prostituting for him. He has pleaded not guilty to pimping the girl out.

    The case began last month when San Rafael police saw the girl trolling for sexual customers in the Canal Area. The girl, a runaway from Washington state, told police she arrived in the Bay Area on Aug. 3 to see a man she had met on MySpace.com, the social networking site. After she arrived, the man threatened to harm her family if she did not work for him as a prostitute.

    Working with police, the girl arranged to meet the man at Burger King in the Canal area. Police arrested Parker when he showed up.

    Yet, he pleaded not guilty. Criminals never fail to crack me up.

    Parker is due back in court on October 9th.

  • A politician finally notices craigslist

    A politician finally notices craigslist

    Mayor rips craigslist over child prostitution:

    Finally, a politician has noticed the wretched hive of scum and villainy that craigslist has become. And if anybody knows anything about scum and villainy, it’s the mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin. (That was a dig against the city, not necessarily the mayor.) Anyway, she has come out against craigslist accusing them of being facilitators of child prostitution.

    “Children are being marketed through craigslist,” Franklin said Tuesday during an update on the mayor’s “Dear John” campaign, a crackdown on the city’s child prostitution industry.

    Craigslist, found on the Web at craigslist.org, may be best known as a bulletin board for people who want to sell a car, buy a home or meet people. But Atlanta vice officer Kelleita Thurman said Tuesday that craigslist and similar sites account for 85 percent of the sexual liaisons men arrange in Atlanta with boys and girls.

    In a letter sent Tuesday to the company, Franklin said the site could do more to prevent itself from being used “as a means of promoting and enabling child prostitution.” She called on the site to revise its warning on pages for erotic services and personal ads and to remove postings that offer sexual services for sale, among other things.

    As usual, craigslist had their same non-answers…

    Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mail that she and Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster are in Europe and “neither of us are aware of such a letter so it would not be possible to comment about this.”

    Company founder Craig Newmark, who also was mailed Franklin’s letter, no longer is involved in the company’s daily affairs and is traveling, Best said.

    Maybe this is the first step in politicians recognizing what a crime-filled scumhole craigslist’s erotic services section is.