Last November, civil suits were filed against two hotels in Liberty County for ignoring the fact traffickers were using their rooms to sell underage girls for sex. One case alleges staff knew a 16-year-old girl was being held against her will by armed men who kept the teen drugged up and continually sold her as a sex slave, even going so far as to use the hotel’s WiFi to advertise the girl. The other suit alleges an 18-year-old girl was sold for sex at the motel, beaten daily, raped, and drugged.
The circumstances of this case are horrific, and we owe it to these young girls to not look away.
We also owe it to them to fully understand the realities of trafficking. While TV and movies perpetuate stereotypes of victims as young, white females who are vulnerable and defenseless or as exotic women who are kidnapped and brought to the United States, the truth is trafficking happens to girls (and boys) in our communities. It doesn’t always involve a violent crime; it doesn’t always involve transporting a person across borders; and traffickers don’t always target victims they don’t know…