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Editorial: McKenna, ‘Pillars of Hope’ attack trafficking

Sat., Feb. 4, 2012

The Super Bowl attracts all kinds: corporate moguls, semipro tailgaters, the fortunate ticketholders, and casual visitors feeding on the hoopla. A few will be bottom-feeders.

Like other major sporting events, the Super Bowl has become a stop on a sex trade circuit traveled by pimps herding captive prostitutes from city to city. Prosecutors are taking notice. During last year’s event in Dallas, authorities put up billboards around the stadium with pictures of johns busted for patronizing prostitutes.

Indiana took a different approach as Sunday’s game in Indianapolis approached. Sell a woman less than 16 years old for sex, and you could go to jail for 150 years.

Sadly, some women – girls, really – may have suffered years of abuse by that age. Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna says the age of new prostitutes ranges from 12 to 14 years. Many are moved from city to city while pimps promote their services on the Internet. If they want to escape, they may not know whom to contact, or even what city they are in, especially if they are among the thousands brought into the country every year by human traffickers.

McKenna is in Indianapolis today – he leaves before the game on Sunday – because he made attacking human trafficking his priority as president of the National Association of Attorneys General. The organization and nonprofit groups also fighting 21st-century slavery are using the Super Bowl to draw attention to the problem, even if they dampen the party atmosphere.

And it’s not just about sex, although that is the ugliest aspect of a trade worth an estimated $32 billion worldwide. In the United States, most of the estimated additional 14,000 to 17,000 victims snagged in its tentacles each year are washing dishes or performing other back-of-the-kitchen chores, cleaning hotels or homes, or doing agricultural work.

The association has established a “Pillars of Hope” program with four goals: Getting better statistics on the problem, and evaluating legal and social countermeasures; supporting better prosecution methods; helping victims; and reducing demand.

In Washington, where anti-trafficking laws are already among the strongest in the nation, the Legislature is considering SB6251, another measure intended to suppress the sexual exploitation of minors. Any person or business that knowingly advertises the sexual services of a minor would be committing a felony, a charge defensible with proof of a “reasonable bona fide attempt to ascertain the true age of the minor. …”

The law particularly targets Internet sites selling women, often attaching fictitious ages to the ads.

It’s sickening, but Internet service providers are shielded by the First Amendment, and laws that relieve them of responsibility for the content of third-party providers. If enacted, SB6251 will surely be challenged in court.

Whatever the outcome might be, McKenna says he hopes “Pillars of Hope” increases public awareness of human trafficking, and breaks down tolerance of the abuse the same way earlier campaigns stripped away acceptance from domestic violence.

Consider it the Pillars of Hope I.