• That was an excellent article, I can’t believe there are enough customers for all this trafficking. It’s just insane to me that there are hundreds of thousands of men willing to rape these girls under the guise of being “paying for a service.”

    I think this is a strong argument to legalize prostitution to provide legal recourse and protection for anyone in the profession who’s getting forced into the work.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I think this is a strong argument to legalize prostitution to provide legal recourse and protection for anyone in the profession who’s getting forced into the work.

      I agree with this statement. Sex work should be legalized, not least of which for protecting everyone involved. However… something to keep in mind is that… hundreds of thousands… is not that large a percentage of men. Even if you assume it’s 900,000 men, the total number of people in the US is 350 million- meaning that 900k is 0.25%. granted, I’m blending men and women- there’s plenty of women who also buy trafficked slaves as well. but if you figure half the people in the use are men, and it’s only men doing it… that’ still…half a percent.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I can’t believe there are enough customers for all this trafficking.

        In this world of incels and similar men who think they are entitled to sex, I can entirely believe it.

  • pageflight@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yuck, it does sound very blatant:

    “I think it’s just pretty suspicious to see teenage girls dressed in club wear at 9:00, 10:00 in the morning paying for a hotel room during the week,” she replied.

    She spoke about witnessing a pregnant woman being beaten to a bloody pulp by her trafficker in the bathroom and how housekeeping staff came each morning to remove garbage cans filled with condoms and bloody towels.

    she encountered many of the same hotel staff repeatedly. Those employees witnessed her trafficker being frequently violent with her and “loud sounds of abuse could often be heard from the room,” the lawsuit alleges.

    And accepted up the chain even when employees tried to report it:

    Vanessa Cole, a general manager at one of the hotels between 2011 and 2012, said in her deposition that prostitution was a “consistent problem” that she reported “up the chain,” including to Moyer. She said Moyer responded by saying: “yes, we understand we have to, you know, clean up the place, but we also need to sell rooms.”

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’ll never forget moving out west on a cross-country road trip with my mom and little sister. We vetted most of our hotels pretty well but had to make an unplanned stop at a red roof inn on Oklahoma. What a complete shithole. Dingy, flickering half-lit hallways. Sketchiest people. I slept with a knife under my pillow.