Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Monday, Jan. 14, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.
A 30-year-old woman arrested on charges of prostitution walks into a courtroom in New York City. Forty-seven times before, she has walked into courtrooms just like this one to face the blank stares of lawyers, judges and other law enforcement officials who see her as a lost cause instead of as a young woman who was forced to sell herself for 17 years. This time is different. This time, she has a public defender at her side who is part of the only program of its kind in the country. Her public defender, Kate Mogulescu with the New York Legal ...
Laurel Bellows is president of the American Bar Association.
This is a sin that cries out to heaven. It is unconscionable that today there are still women and children whose most basic God given human rights are violated and denied every day in towns and cities across the country. There is a special place reserved just for those who perpetrate these evils against the weakest among us. These people will be relegated there for eternity if they don't open up their hearts to God and reform their evil ways.
CarmineD
This is a great step towards assisting victims of human trafficking, especially those who have been exploited at a very young age.
As a caution to some readers, it is very important to not group all who are engaged in prostitution as human trafficking victims, because there is LEGAL, regulated prostitution in states as Nevada, and those who are involved in the legal sex entertainment, sex worker industry do so willingly, enjoy what they do, and have the support to leave whenever they wish.
Having stated that, there exists a very real world of ILLEGAL human trafficking and sex trades. Not only are those who are exploited in the system treated badly and suffer regular daily abuse, but historically, when our American justice system has dealt with them, they are further victimized by an unsympathic system that does not look at the history of the individual, nor had made any real attempts to make whole, restore, or heal the victim of abuse. Thankfully, this is changing!
Kudos to those as Laurel Bellows, the American Bar Association, and elightened lawmakers in positively addressing this long neglected population that dwells among us. May the promise of American justice be finally realized for victims of human trafficking.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
"Human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, has fast become one of the largest organized criminal enterprises in the world."
This president of the ABA is using the usual exaggeration and histrionics to get more business for lawyers, the REAL prostitutes. There has been no slavery in this country for at least 150 years. Servitude -- as in owing another -- is an entirely different thing. In the USA no woman can be lawfully "forced" to sell her body without her consent. Kidnapping, coercion, rape and related crimes have long been on the books. So what else did this lead example of America's legal profession make up?
"This is a sin that cries out to heaven. It is unconscionable that today there are still women and children whose most basic God given human rights are violated and denied every day in towns and cities across the country."
CarmineD -- it's a sin only if one subscribes to your dogma. I don't. And no government has authority to legislate morality.
"Having stated that, there exists a very real world of ILLEGAL human trafficking and sex trades...."
star -- I bring up yesterday's point from that other thread. If it truly exists in this country at all, it's another criminal enterprise. Maybe if our cops and prosecutors would go after it instead of non-violent drug offenders it could be dealt with. The NYC woman described in this article strikes me as just another criminal offered an out by claiming to be a victim.
Overall American criminal law ignores nature as much as it does the Bill of Rights. An excellent example is how teenagers across America are being arrested, prosecuted, convicted and branded as sex offenders for sexting -- and they are their own child porn victims. All for doing what their raging hormones compel them to do.
"The legal system has also been wounded by lawyers who themselves no longer respect the rule of law ..... When lawyers cannot be trusted to observe the fair processes essential to maintaining the rule of law, how can we expect the public to respect the process?" -- the Honorable Edith Jones to Harvard's Federalist Club "American Legal System Is Corrupt Beyond Recognition, Judge Tells Harvard Law School" 2/28/03
"CarmineD -- it's a sin only if one subscribes to your dogma. I don't. And no government has authority to legislate morality." Killer B
It's not morality. It's protecting and guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of those who can't fend for themselves. That's government's role.
CarmineD