I haven’t published much lately, but I have to acknowledge a diary on the Rec List titled “Flight Attendant Tells How To Recognize Human Trafficking And What You Can Do” . At first glance, I thought it looked interesting and I made a mental note to check it out later. I figured the human trafficking diary didn’t really apply to my life much, so it didn’t take priority over the usual Hillary and Bernie or the recent Flint water diaries. After all, I’m a 54 year old woman in suburban Detroit. How likely is it that I’ll run across human traffickers in my life? But it seemed like something that would be good to know about — kind of like learning “stop, drop, and roll” in the equally unlikely event that I catch on fire at the next family cookout.
Fast forward to a quick scan of the news headlines around Detroit this morning and I run across this article on the home page of the Detroit Free Press: Sting Cop Hit in Bullet-proof Vest . Last night a combination of local, state, and federal officers assigned to the Southeast Michigan Crimes Against Children Task Force had a violent confrontation with a suspected trafficker at a local hotel that normally caters to road warrior businessmen and women. That hotel is in an upscale business corridor, located five miles from my comfortably middle class, suburban subdivision.
“The auto show naturally brings a type of human trafficking that (involves prostitution), but we’re not going to get into the exact type of human trafficking that was being investigated tonight,” he [State Police spokesman Lt. Mike Shaw] said, after speaking to reporters at the scene.
With the opening of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit comes an influx of sex traffickers to serve the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the auto show, so the Task Force is pretty busy this week. For years I have visited the auto show along with 800,000 or so like-minded people to check out the new car models and the technological advances in them. A big highlight of the show for locals like me is to meet visitors from all over the world, both at the show and in and around the city. Visitors start to converge on Detroit weeks prior to the official opening to set up the show, attend the Press Preview, an Industry Preview, or a black-tie Charity Preview. Only after raising millions of dollars for local charities does the show open to the public for an additional 9 days.
Until today, however, I never thought of the sex trafficking that follows high-profile events like this, like a sick, twisted carnival. Or, more accurately, like the camp followers of a traveling army. Only these camp followers are the unwilling victims of sex trafficking.
I’m going back to re-read that post. I hope you take the time to read it carefully, too.