Bella Robinson – RI Future

March 8, 2016

To combat underage prostitution we need facts, not myth

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On March 4th 2016, I attended a CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) training by DayOneRI at the Warwick Public Library. Sara Eckhoff was the trainer and when she started her Powerpoint presentation I almost fell out of my chair. This time DayoneRI was claiming that there were 330,000 US children being exploited in the US and that the pimps and traffickers were making 8 billion dollars a year. Yet we know this myth was also recently proved to be false by the Washington Post’s fact checker.

Eckhoff then said that the average age of entry was 14 and when I corrected her, she went on to say that CSES has seen 14 be the average age of entry based on the children they are working with. However, she then said that the program she works with through DayOneRI only includes kids up until age 14. Eckhoff also reconfirmed that DayOneRI does not house any of these children and that rescued children get placed into foster homes.

Eckhoff then explained how pimps are grooming kids, and how gang members were tattooing the victims and how the pimps were waiting down the road from the foster homes. Eckhoff told us one sign of trafficking is when teenage girls start wearing mini skirts and that they might even become sexually promiscuous. Elizabeth Nolan Brown has highlighted the damage caused by these hysterical myths here.

Eckhoff also mentioned that DayOneRI has to meet with the teens an average of 6 times before the teenagers will open up to them, and that these teens are just looking for love and a sense of family. Yet she couldn’t seem to explain why the teenagers keep running away.

I tried to tell Eckhoff that half the youth interview report that police officers force them to have sex in lieu of going to jail. Eckhoff didn’t react and continued stigmatizing these teenagers.

I mentioned how DayOneRI was part of the RI Trafficking Task Force and how they just did an “End the demand sting” in Cranston and arrested 13 men. Eckhoff directed my question to another DayOneRI rep at the back of the room, who tried to deny this. I pressed on and said it was published in the media that the sting was done as a group effort by the RI Trafficking Task Force, at which time she said that people were only arrested if they had outstanding warrants. I asked, how arresting clients helps trafficking victims. The rep offered to speak to me outside privately after the training which demonstrated to me that DayOneRI has no interest in transparency and has a lot of interest in silencing sex workers who have different narratives.

I tried to tell Eckhoff that the majority of youths interviewed report that they don’t have pimps and that they teach each other how to find clients. Eckhoff responded that this isn’t what they see at DayOneRI. I told Eckhoff that the data shows that more teens were being arrested for prostitution in the 80’s and 90’s than in most recent years and we just have a new name for an old problem. The new name is sex trafficking and the problem is runaway and thrown away kids. But that didn’t slow Eckhoff down, because five seconds later she was telling the audience that sex trafficking is on the rise.

So I tried a different approach. I explained that 97 percent of all sexual abuse on children happens by someone the child knows and only 3 percent happens in the sex industry. I asked Eckhoff why we are not teaching the public how to identify kids that are being sexually abused by someone they know. After all, she just told us 90 percent of sex trafficking victims were sexually abused as kids. Sara says that she understands 97 percent of abusers are someone the child knows, but this training was just on CSEC.

Now you would think the audience would be happy that there was someone in the room that had accurate information, however one woman had the nerve to say that she wanted me to stop asking questions and to stop correcting Eckhoff. The woman told us how she thinks there use to be a brothel in her neighborhood, and how it must have been shut down, because now it was a Church.

Eckhoff explained how people could access “the victims compensation program.” I told her that anyone involved in prostitution was not eligible for that program and how we had to fight to get that regulation changed in CA and how this would be a great goal to work on in RI. At this point Steve Morley came to my defense and confirmed what I had said was true. He is the new department head at DCYF (Department of Children, Youth & Family). Morley explained he was retired law enforcement and I felt that he understood the reality people in the sex industry lived in.

DayOneRI told the public that gangs were raping girls and forcing them into prostitution. I wonder how many young men from poor communities will be victimized during the next, “End the demand sting” or the next time the RI Trafficking Task Force interrogates a minor caught working as a underage sex worker.

COYOTE RI would like others to utilize our experts and experience and we are willing to offer free trainings to all service providers, law enforcement and DCYF workers.

Here is a study on 45 trafficking victims from 32 states. 90 percent of them were arrested, not rescued. Some have been arrested 20 or 30 times and services were only offered to those who played the victim role.

Tara Burns of CUPS (Community United for Safety and Protection) has found similar findings in her survey of Alaska Sex Workers and trafficking victims.

So far we have surveyed 43 New England Sex Workers. Some of the most interesting findings thus far are that 77 percent of respondents reported that they have never tried reporting a crime while working in the sex industry. For those who did try making a report to the police, 77 percent said the police did not take their report. 4 percent were arrested while trying to report a crime. 26 percent report being threatened with arrest while trying to report a crime. 29 percent said they did not report the crime because they thought they would be arrested. 27 percent said they did not report the crimes because they didn’t think the police would do anything and 32 percent did not report because they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves or their co-workers. This and other similar data reveal how sex workers bear the negative consequences of anti-sex trafficking policing.

Also by Bella Robinson:

DayOne peddling ineffective and costly sex trafficking programs

March 6, 2016March 5, 2016

DayOne peddling ineffective and costly sex trafficking programs

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As the executive director of the COYOTE RI (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) I have attended several DayOneRI public trainings on trafficking.

My first encounter with DayOneRI was in January 2015 when they hosted a screening for the film “A Path Appears.” Not only did I find the film to be unrealistic, I found it offered no solutions addressing the reasons so many of our youth are entering into “survival sex.” The organizers from DayOneRI were telling the audience stigmatizing myths, including how the average age of entry into the sex trade was 13 and how there were 300 thousand US children being exploited in the sex trade.

I took the time to explain to DayOneRI where these myths originated. I also pointed out that the majority of youths interviewed reported that they didn’t have pimps and that they taught each other how to find clients while avoiding police and social workers. These youths reported that they could not get the state of New York to provide them shelter or other vital services. I also pointed out that over 50 percent of these youths were boys.

DayOneRI admitted that they do not house any of the youth that they rescue through traumatic police raids and arrests. DayOneRI explained that the teens are placed back into foster homes and the majority of them just runaway again. They admitted that they didn’t have 1 bed to put a adult victim in, yet they seem obsessed with trying to find more victims and they seem to think providing free yoga classes will somehow change the plight of these teenagers.

The DayOneRI organizer then when on to suggest training postal workers to spot residential brothels. I explained that the majority of sex workers are consenting adults, who work together to ensure their safety and that this could result in getting the women charged with trafficking and it could also cause immigrant women to be deported.

It became obvious to me that DayOneRI’s goal was to try to abolish prostitution, regardless of how many teenagers and women they put at risk. Training the public to profile women by race has had really bad effects. These types of trainings are now mandatory to TSA workers and they have resulted in Korean and Asian women being detained at airports.

My next encounter with DayOneRI was in April 2015, when the organization hosted a conference for clinicians, educators, advocates and law enforcement to discuss the progress of a statewide trafficking task force. My friend and I paid $40 dollars each to get into the event and we found that DayOneRI was still peddling these same myths. They even had a sign that said that there were 300,000 US kids being exploited in the US. I raised my hand and told the audience that DayOneRI had already been informed about these false stats.

During the Q&A, a women asked the DayOneRI panel, “How would we stop the cycle of a 19 year old boy who has been released from jail for trafficking?” The DayOneRI presenters responded that, “these boys don’t bond with their mothers during the first 2 year of life and become sexual predators.”

I almost fell out of my seat.

Under current trafficking laws, anyone who helps a minor engage in prostitution is classified as a trafficker, even if they are a minor themselves. In 2015 RI sentenced an eighteen year old boy to fifteen years in prison, and he will be required to register as a sex offender. The boy was only seventeen when he was arrested and yet he was sentenced as a adult.

I wonder who was there to advocate for this boy.

Upon further research I have found that Safe Harbor Laws have failed to protect our youth straight across the board.

The trafficking panel featured Captain from the Providence Police Department. I explained to the Captain that COYOTE is a group of sex workers and trafficking victims and how I had just interviewed a sex worker who told me that she was attacked and choked out by a man posing as a client and that she didn’t report it and now she has survivors guilt because she thinks this man may have murdered Ashley Masi in March 2015 in Providence.

The Captain responded by saying that they would give the witness protection if she came forward. I am pretty sure he doesn’t even have the authority to authorize witness protection; those decisions usually are made by the attorney general. I then told the Captain that police officers have been know to have sex with women and then arrest them for prostitution. The Captain responded, “not true” but then we went on to say that this did happen in Hawaii, NY, PA and many other states, but not in Rhode Island.

I emailed DayOne at least a dozen times, providing them with research and policies that could be put in place to keep our youth out of the sex industry, reduce sex trafficking and reduce violence toward sex workers.

They did not respond to my emails.

I have done a lot of research on the Polaris Project, launched in RI through a student at Brown University. I found they were also providing the media with false stat’s and they publicly admitted that they did not provide any direct services to victims. I have documented the effects of Polaris Project in Rhode Island here. Since then Polaris Project has retracted that the average age of entry into prostitution is thirteen and is more likely to be seventeen.

The Polaris Project receives $3 and 7 million in annual funding. Their co-founder, Katherine Chong, went on to work for the U. Department of Trafficking, while her husband, Bradley Myles, now makes $150 thousand a year as the CEO of the Polaris Project. The Project is intended to help create protocols for Homeland Security to identify trafficking. So far, these have turned into “how to spot a hooker” trainings.

They have taught the TSA to profile Korean, Asian and Chinese women, and they are training hotel staff to report people that have too many condoms. They also train library staff to spot trafficking victims who come to the library. This caused Ohio to pass a law requiring hair salon workers to take mandatory trafficking training. All these programs are promoted by trafficking NGOs as it allows them to provide ineffective and stigmatizing services, trainings, while they pander to the media about all the wonderful services they offer trafficking victims.

Most people enter the sex industry to escape poverty, yet none of these NGOs offer permanent affordable housing, jobs that pay a living wage or access to a higher education without debt. The US government is funding trafficking NGOs at over $686 million a year.

I think it’s time to stop the anti trafficking scam, and divert those funds to our youth and women living in extreme poverty.

[Part Two tomorrow]

January 27, 2016January 27, 2016

CoyoteRI testifying to decriminalize prostitution in New Hampshire

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As the executive director of CoyoteRI (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), I will be testifying for the committee hearings on House Bill 1614, a bill that seeks to decriminalize prostitution, on Thursday in New Hampshire. The main reason I want to see prostitution decriminalized is because it is the only harm reduction model proven to reduce violence and exploitation in the sex industry.

In August 2015 Amnesty International voted to adopt a policy to protect the human rights of sex workers. The resolution recommends that Amnesty International develop a policy that supports the full decriminalization of all aspects of consensual sex work. The policy will also call on states to ensure that sex workers enjoy full and equal legal protection from exploitation, trafficking, and violence.

“We recognize that this critical human rights issue is hugely complex and that is why we have addressed this issue from the perspective of international human rights standards. We also consulted with our global movement to take on board different views from around the world,” said Amnesty’s Salil Shetty.

Amnesty’s research and consultation was carried out in the development of this policy in the past two years concluded that this was the best way to defend sex workers’ human rights and lessen the risk of abuse and violations they face.

The violations that sex workers can be exposed to include physical and sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, extortion and harassment, human trafficking, forced HIV testing and medical interventions. They can also be excluded from health care and housing services and other social and legal protection.

Amnesty’s policy has drawn from an extensive evidence base from sources including UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. We have also conducted research in four countries.

The consultation included sex worker groups, groups representing survivors of prostitution, abolitionist organizations, feminist and other women’s rights representatives, LGBTI activists, anti- trafficking agencies and HIV/AIDS organizations.

Amnesty International considers human trafficking abhorrent in all of its forms, including sexual exploitation, and should be criminalized as a matter of international law. This is explicit in this new policy and all of Amnesty International’s work.

In 2003 New Zealand passed the “Prostitution Reform Act,” which decriminalized all aspects of adult prostitution. Upon a 5 year review, New Zealand has just about rid the sex industry of exploitation. Sex Workers reported that they had better relationships with the police.

It is crucial that sex workers can work together and share work space to ensure their safety. Many sex workers, utilize 3rd party support staff to help keep them safe. Under current US laws 3rd party support staff are legally classified as traffickers. Sex Workers need “equal protection under the law”. Sex Workers need to be able to report violence and exploitation to the police, without fearing that they are in danger of being arrested and further persecution.

Criminalization of prostitution is a failed policy. It hasn’t stopped anyone from “buying or selling” sex, but it has caused a lot of collateral damage. From our failed “Safe Harbor Laws” to the insane Homeland Security training of hotel staff, who have been told to report people who have too many condoms. We need to ask, where are the big pimps and traffickers?

Could it be that the majority of US Sex Worker are under their own control? Even the minors interviewed in Surviving the streets of NY: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM & YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex study by the Urban Institute, say that “they did not have pimps and they taught each other how to find clients, while avoiding police and social workers..

To add insult to injury, researchers have found that “the biggest threat to underaged Sex Workers is the police.” Jenny Heineman, a sociologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas worked with the federally funded Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children program, in collaboration with research teams across the U.S. Says “More than half of the young people I interviewed stated that they regularly perform sex acts for police officers in exchange for their not being arrested”.

In the Special Report: Money and Lies in Anti-Human Trafficking NGOs we find that the US is funding US trafficking NGOs, over 600 million a year to “create awareness on human trafficking” yet these NGOs do not provide any direct services to trafficking victims or sex workers.

We can do better than this which is why I support New Hampshire’s House-Bill 1614.

December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

Movie Review: Invisible: The Unseen World of Male Prostitution

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Bella Robinson, sex worker advocate and activist. — Bella Robinson

Invisible: The Unseen World of Male Prostitution is a documentary film set in Providence and featuring Richard Holcomb, founder of Project Weber.

The film portrays every male sex worker as a homeless addict, so they didn’t include any rent boys who have had positive experiences as sex workers. The men seem to be able to work the streets with impunity and they even mention some RI politicians that have been coming there for years. At one point an older man admits that other men pay him to introduce them to the new male sex workers. This is legally defined as sex trafficking. I bet dollar to donuts that they won’t charge the guy with trafficking nor will they implement “end the demand” to target the clients of the male workers, because society has been taught that trafficking only happens to females and yet a few of the men in the film mention they started working the streets as homeless youths at age 13.

I also wonder what these men would have done for drug money had sex work not been a option. Would they have robbed homes, stolen cars etc.? I never heard anyone ask any of them if they ever did sex work after getting clean from drugs. So was it sex work or drugs that was bad for them? I did notice that most of the people in this film have only been clean a few months and I wonder why none of them seemed to have gotten into a long term residential treatment.

I was kind of offended that Richie was badgering the one guy to admit he had done sex work. Richie goes as far as telling one guy its wrong to do sex work now that he is clean from drugs. I have to wonder why Richie thinks there is less shame in doing sex work for drugs, than there is in doing sex work for money to pay the bills. I find shaming sex workers to be in bad taste and abusive. I was horrified that the film used the term “prostituted men” over and over again.

I know many female workers with addictions who end up working the streets and become homeless but they also have to deal with the police trying to arrest them, social stigma and public hatred. Female sex workers are the ones arrested and given criminal records and who are more likely to be robbed, raped or murdered.

I applaud Richie’s efforts in opening a drop in center for sex workers, but I am confused why it’s only for men. Why are female sex workers being excluded from having access to a safe space? I also applaud them for distributing condoms as part of their outreach, but I think they missed the mark by not mentioning that the police use “condoms for evidence” to arrest female and transgender sex workers. These are just a few examples of why we should never exclude anyone from services based on their gender or ignore their needs while drafting public policy. It’s called discrimination.

[Note: Robinson explained in private correspondence with RI Future contributor Andrew Stewart that she has a troubled history with Holcomb and, while appreciative of his efforts, feels he has sadly segued his work with the rescue industry, noting that no one from Project Weber attended last week’s sex worker memorial vigil.]