Saturday, September 18, 2010

Stopping sex trafficking

From the Times Ledger:

Detective Juan Toro, a community affairs officer in the 108th Precinct in Long Island City, told a forum at Queens Borough Hall last week that police know sex trafficking is a major issue in Queens and are working to identify victims and perpetrators.

“It can be hard to find out who these girls are, because they’re brought here, they might not speak the language, they’re threatened their families will be killed if they say anything, they’re scared,” Toro said at the Sept. 8 forum on sex trafficking. “But one voice, like yours, ignites a lot. You being here makes a difference.”

The Center for the Women of New York and the Queens chapter of the United Nations Association sponsored the forum in an ongoing effort to shed light on sex trafficking, which officials have said is especially problematic and prevalent in Queens because of the borough’s two international airports.

Sex trafficking ensnares at least 800,000 annually people worldwide, the majority of them being women and children, according to federal statistics. Many of those individuals end up in Queens, where they are physically and emotionally abused, according to borough officials who work with trafficking victims.

“Human trafficking is ranked No. 2 in the world in organized crime,” said Mandy Gor, a member of the Queens chapter of the United Nations Association and a Kew Gardens resident who spoke at the meeting at which Toro was the guest speaker. “Human trafficking just surpassed drugs because it’s more profitable.”

During the meeting, CWNY President Ann Jawin and Gor said they were attempting to combat the exploitation in the borough by asking for support from community newspapers. The groups have asked publishers of area papers not to run ads for businesses that often employ individuals forced into sex work.

“The newspapers have responded to us, and we really only have one community newspaper that’s still a problem,” Jawin said. “There are other things we can do, too. You can go over to your supermarket manager and say this paper with these ads is garbage and you don’t want to buy it. You can tell them not to carry it anymore.”

17 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

"...one community paper that is still a problem." - Ann Juliano Jawin, the Center for the Women of New York

You know, I have to laugh at Marcia Moxam Comrie: the wife of NYC Councilman Leroy Comrie and Contributing Editor of the Press of Southeast Queens, the sister publication of the Queens Tribune (to which Jawin is most assuredly referring)

In Moxam Comrie's recent editorial in the Press of SE Queens, "A Scion And A Pit Bull Will Fight This Fall", she decries Republican candidate for Governor Carl Palladino's alleged forwarding of pornographic emails depicting President Obama as a pimp and Michelle Obama as a prostitute. Moxam Comrie similarly bemoans: "And then there's there [sic] are the pornographic videos said to be sent in emails, including one of a woman mating with a horse".

Are you too, reader, laughing yet?
Moxam Comrie's sensibilities are hurt because of Palladino? This from a person who shares space in the masthead listing Michael Schenkler as President & Publisher and Michael Nussbaum as Vice President & Associate Publisher of the Queens Tribune, a community newspaper replete with classified ads promoting prostitution.

Marcia Moxam Comrie. Have you no dignity? No shame? No morality?

Anonymous said...

There are an increasing number of ads for sex-related services in the Queens Tribune, in case you weren't paying attention. Only now they are listed in different categories on different pages. They "rub" me the wrong way!!!!

Anonymous said...

don't you dare call me a COUGAR GRANDMA!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Trafficking is a global issue tragedy of trafficking is South Asia where thousand of young girls and boys are sold into modern-day slavery.Theses are some of the stories which provides a compelling look into this dark, inhuman, and exploitative world and shows how each one of us can help to prevent modern-day slavery.
watch http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/479

Anonymous said...

Prostitution has been around ever since humans stopped being hunter-gatherers and started farming ten thousand years ago. It is mentioned in the bible, and records in Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome etc. It is not some new thing some laws and crackdowns on so-called "human trafficking" will put an end to. I know some Muslims who tell me how there are brothels in Muslim countries supposedly free of such stuff. If they are there, they will be here as well. All you need is a guy who wants sex and a girl who wants money to have this illegal transaction called prostitution.

This article mentions children, families threatened with death, forced into sex work etc. Let's get real - plenty of the strippers, massage girls and prostitutes are doing it for the money, of their own choice. They may be in economic dire straits, but so are a lot of people, and I'm sure stripping off your clothes and giving guys massages is better than going down into a mine and some other jobs.

It just rings false all over. If you think about it, you realize how ridiculous it is. Also - it is already illegal in most US states. If NYC had a regulate red light district, like many European cities have, then vice could actually have enough manpower to crack down on unregulated places outside of that area.

There are tons of poor women who would be happy to be whores in the USA instead of whores in whatever third world place they're from, so where is all this necessity to kidnap women over the border, hold them in some apartment and so on? This is complete delusion. Not that it NEVER happens, but this is way overblown.

Anonymous said...

You know, I have to laugh at Marcia Moxam Comrie: the wife of NYC Councilman Leroy Comrie and Contributing Editor of the Press of Southeast Queens, the sister publication of the Queens Tribune (to which Jawin is most assuredly referring)

Marcia Moxam Comrie works at York College. Was she hired because of her journalistic skills, or because of her husband?

Anonymous said...

Anon #4,
If it happens once thats once too many times for me. We are not talking about women in brothels who are there willingly. Often these women are chained to their beds. The 13th Amendment forbids slavery of any kind and authorizes Congress to make any laws necessary to enforce it. Congress should pass a law which automatically strips the green card of any individual involved in human trafficking.

Anonymous said...

For the trib - call their advertisers and get a boroughwide boycott going. Crapper, you can do us a big service by compiling a weekly list with names and numbers, and then your readers can call and tell them to stop giving money to a rag with shitty writing and hot horny hookers in the back.

Let's make this grass roots!

Ann Jawin and her morally-crusading hussies need to get laid. That should calm them down.

Anonymous said...

which officials have said is especially problematic and prevalent in Queens because of the borough’s two international airports.
---

my my my twisting ourselves into pretzels to avoid the real reason.

You don't see this in Iowa.

It because there are lots of immigrants here: the manna of the Democratic Machine.

LibertyBoyNYC said...

Forget the Koran, burn the Trib.

Anonymous said...

you should all boycott the internet

Ima Hoor said...

I got my job through the Queens Tribune!

Anonymous said...

She's a phony fighter who's pulling her punches!

How come that old battle ax isn't picketing Ackerman's "Trib"?

I'll tell you why.
She'd lose her nice office at borough hall without a chance of getting her much wanted Fort Totten digs!

The Queens Democratic machine would come down on her (which Congressman Gary is a very strong part of).

Now I did not say they'd go down on her...ugh...perish the thought!

Anonymous said...

no one would care if you burned any of the Queens papers' but I did get a laugh out of don't burn the Koran, burn the trib.

let's see if the papers pull the ads.
nice going Jawin, but how come you don't give a crap about tenant's rights? lots of of women tenants in Queens are being harassed and menaced by their landlords.

Anonymous said...

This is a serious issue and has been for years. What does it say about Commissioner Kelly's "All is well" crime stats, which ignore all of this?

Anonymous said...

This is a serious issue and has been for years. What does it say about Commissioner Kelly's "All is well" crime stats, which ignore all of this?
_____________________________________________________

What about our illustrious DA Richard Brown?

Anonymous said...

Yup. Still there, starts on page 32

Queens Tribune 9/16/2010