Yet We Claim JA is Not a Failed State

[Historian]

Source: The Sunday Observer, March 31, 2013
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...-debt_13979512

Sex for gun debt - Girls forced into prostitution

— as crime lords demand payment for lost firearms
BY KARYL WALKER Editor — Crime/Court Desk walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, March 31, 2013

SHE is just 19 years old but plies her wares on the popular Port Henderson Road in St Catherine, popularly known as 'Back Road'.

Even though she may have been used and abused by countless types of men, a faint hint of innocence still lingers in her gaze.

Even though she may have been used and abused by countless types of men, a faint hint of innocence still lingers in her gaze.



Prostitutes on the Port Henderson Road in St Catherine.

At the advent of her puberty she attained an acceptable grade in the Grade Six Achievement Test and matriculated to a popular high school in Kingston, an unusual achievement for girls her age who live in impoverished communities.

Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that prostitution would be her lot in life as she was keeping apace of her classmates and gained accolades from teachers who taught her favourite subjects.

Her life took a terrible turn when her younger brother was arrested and charged by the police for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
The teenage boy was carrying out the dictates of the resident gang lord who ordered that young, impressionable teens should 'protect' the community from another rival gang that could invade at any moment.

On that fateful night the cops carried out an operation in the community and held her brother with a 9mm pistol.

"Him lucky him never dead. Couple day after him get bite the man dem page we a we yard and tell we say if we nuh find a money fi pay back fi di gun them a go kill we mother," the girl told the Sunday Observer.

According to the teenage prostitute, her mother was an avid churchgoer and was suffering from diabetes.

"My mother never hurt a fly. My brother just get caught up because of him friend dem. We don't have nothing. When him get hold by police we couldn't even pay a lawyer and then dem come wid dem long gun come say we haffi pay fi di gun weh police hold mi bredda wid," she said.

After pleas by the relatives of the arrested teen to the gang boss an ultimatum was handed down that by whatever means they had to pay for the gun.

This was her introduction to prostitution.

"It was a very hard thing to do, but I did have to do it to save everybody life. We couldn't make dem kill we mother and we know say dem serious because the same thing did happen to a family in the area and dem kill a old man one Sunday morning in front a everybody as him a go church," she said.
Police sources say a 9mm semi-automatic pistol sells on the street for $100,000 or more.

A revolver is a little bit cheaper and might sell for about $70,000. An assault rifle, in the mode of an AK-47 or M-16, fetches a price of up to $300,000, while a submachine gun can easily be had for $200,000.

Superintendent Victor Hamilton is assigned to the Mobile Reserves and has lived a life of fighting crime, working in volatile communities, like St Catherine North, which envelopes the old capital of Spanish Town.

"The gangs don't give up their guns. I can tell you about young girls who are selling their bodies to pay back for guns," Hamilton told the Sunday Observer. "It is a fact that if you lose the gun you will have to pay. One way or the other. Sisters do it for brothers; mothers do it for sons. Don't lose the guns, is their code."

His claim was corroborated by present head of the St Catherine North Police Division Senior Superintendent Anthony Castelle.

"It is a fact," said Castelle. "We have something called Violence Risk Assessment. Sometimes in those situations people have to be moved out of their communities because they will be killed for what they didn't do."

Superintendent Arthur Brown heads the East Kingston Police Division and could not counter the claim that gang lords demand payment for guns that have been seized by police or were lost by misadventure.

"It is not a joke, and not only confined to one community; it is an islandwide thing," Brown said.

But as the island grapples with an overwhelming crime wave, a young woman struggles with her morality. She has already paid her dues by finding the sum demanded by the gang for her brother's 'misdeeds', but is now stuck in the world of harlotry.

"I know nothing else," she told the Sunday Observer. "I try more than one time to stop but it seems I am hooked on this. People wouldn't understand, me done get caught already, might as well me just go on. Police, lawyer, doctor and bad man buy me and me done turn freak. Me get corrupt already... a just so it go."


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2P8Fuyn9r

[Rockman]

We have behavior altering experiences, she became a prostitute to save her mother life from the murderers, she will not be a prostitute if the illegal 'back road' is properly policed.
The relative ease in which one can acquire money is the deciding factor for many prostitutes that chose that trade(the real reason not to legalize it,people will take that route that wouldn't under normal circumstances).
Back to her, it is a law enforcement issue,the criminals distant themselves from the gun as far as law enforcers are concerned but act on that ownership by making demands of the families...
There is a void and it has to do with policing.
The problem is glaring in countries that are not deemed failed states, how do we explain that.

[Historian]

Thanks

We have behavior altering experiences, she became a prostitute to save her mother life from the murderers, she will not be a prostitute if the illegal 'back road' is properly policed.
There is a void and it has to do with policing.
The problem is glaring in countries that are not deemed failed states, how do we explain that.

"The gangs don't give up their guns. I can tell you about young girls who are selling their bodies to pay back for guns," Hamilton told the Sunday Observer. "It is a fact that if you lose the gun you will have to pay. One way or the other. Sisters do it for brothers; mothers do it for sons. Don't lose the guns, is their code."

His claim was corroborated by present head of the St Catherine North Police Division Senior Superintendent Anthony Castelle.

"It is a fact," said Castelle. "We have something called Violence Risk Assessment. Sometimes in those situations people have to be moved out of their communities because they will be killed for what they didn't do."

[Rockman]

Yeah but their(families) recourse is the police and the deterrent for the gunmen is the police.
The needed mechanism is there but ineffective, Historian.

[Exile]

This example does not justify your claim...it happens everywhere...example:

Feds: Crips gang ran teen prostitution ring in Northern Virginia

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By Jerry Seper
-
The Washington Times
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Crips, one of the largest and most violent street gangs in the United States, has spread its network of crime into high schools across the country, including Virginia, where gang leaders recruited young girls as prostitutes with promises of “lots of money” and then maintained their allegiance through beatings, threats, assaults and an endless supply of drugs.
With over 35,000 members in an estimated 800 individual gangs or “sets” in more than 30 states and 120 cities, the Crips recruited the girls — some of them runaways — after approaching them on the street or at Metro stations and by making contact with them through Facebook and DateHookUp.com.
Most of the girls are 15 and 16 who, according to documents unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, became reluctant to report their “pimps” to the police after what law enforcement authorities described as violent and frequent beatings and threats.
With a requirement to commit acts of violence to obtain or maintain their gang membership, the Crips locally have added to their reputations as violent street thugs. In the Washington Metropolitan area, they have been involved in attempted murders, assaults, rapes, robberies, thefts, drug distribution, obstruction of justice by threatening witnesses and racketeering to fund their enterprise.
The arrest of five members of the Virginia-based set known as the Underground Gangster Crips (UGC) was announced Thursday in Fairfax County, charged with running a prostitution business that recruited high school girls and threatened them with violence if they attempted to leave. Including those charges, 11 members of area gangs have been named on charges of underage sex trafficking since 2011 as part of a number of ongoing investigations.
Justin “J-Dirt” Strom, 26, of Lorton; Donyel “Bleek” Dove, 27, of Alexandria; Michael “Loc” Jefferies, 21, of Woodbridge; Henock “Knocks” Ghile, 23, of Springfield; and Christopher Sylvia, 22, of Springfield, were charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia in connection with a prostitution ring that operated throughout Northern Virginia. Mr. Strom was identified by the FBI as the known leader of the UGC. If convicted, each could receive a sentence of life in prison.
“The sex trafficking of young girls is an unconscionable crime involving unspeakable trauma,” said U.S. Attorney Neil H. McBride. “These gang members are alleged to have lured many area high school girls in the vile world of prostitution, and used violence and threats to keep them working as indentured sex slaves.”
Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II described the situation as “every parent’s worst nightmare,” saying it also demonstrated that human trafficking can happen anywhere and is “a very real danger here in Virginia.”
“By working together with U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride and our law enforcement partners, we will send a swift and strong message that this criminal behavior will not be tolerated in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he said.
Between April 2009 and March 2012, according to an affidavit by FBI Agent Jeffrey F. Johannes, at least 10 high school girls were recruited by UGC leaders, including one 16-year-old girl who was approached by Mr. Strom at a Metro station, told she was pretty and advised “she could make a lot of money by having sex with men.”
Many of the girls were required to submit to sex with members of the gang as a “try out” or an “initiation” before they worked as prostitutes.
The affidavit said the girls were told the UGC would receive $50 for vaginal sex and $20 for oral sex and that they would receive half of the proceeds. They also were given marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and alcohol before and after they had sex with various men, the affidavit said. The sex generally occurred at hotels, but the girls often were told to go door-to-door to solicit men for sex.
When one girl told Mr. Strom she no longer wanted to participate in the prostitution, the affidavit said he choked her and threatened her with additional violence.
The affidavit also said that Mr. Strom threatened another girl, 17, with a knife, cutting her on the arm when she refused to use cocaine and then forced her to have sex with him. It said she was then taken to an apartment where she was forced to have intercourse with “fourteen unknown males,” from whom Mr. Strom collected $1,000.
Two other UGC members drove her home, telling her she “got what she had coming” and, according to the affidavit, if she spoke of the events that they would “come back and kill her.”


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz2P96mjPuf
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter


AND

Gangs Enter New Territory With Sex Trafficking


by Carrie Johnson


November 14, 2011 4:46 PM


Listen to the Story


Enlarge image
A placard featuring the photo of a child sits on a table during a conference on human sex trafficking last month in Atlanta. In Fairfax County, Va., gang members who have forced girls as young as 12 into prostitution are being sent to prison. Prosecutors there expect to bring more sex trafficking cases against gang members over the next several months.


David Goldman/AP
The MS-13 gang got its start among immigrants from El Salvador in the 1980s. Since then, the gang has built operations in 42 states, mostly out West and in the Northeastern United States, where members typically deal in drugs and weapons.
But in Fairfax County, Va., one of the wealthiest places in the country, authorities have brought five cases in the past year that focus on gang members who have pushed women, sometimes very young women, into prostitution.
"We all know that human trafficking is an issue around the world," says Neil MacBride, the top federal prosecutor in the area. "We hear about child brothels in Thailand and brick kilns in India, but it's something that's in our own backyard, and in the last year we've seen street gangs starting to move into sex trafficking."
Enlarge image
Weapons and paraphernalia from gangs are displayed during a news conference in 2006. Authorities in Fairfax, Va., have brought five prostitution cases in the past year against gangs. One member of the MS-13 gang was recently sentenced to life in prison for sex trafficking.


Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In Virginia, at least, the consequences can be severe. Over the past few weeks, one member of MS-13 nicknamed "Sniper" got sent to prison for the rest of his life. Another will spend 24 years behind bars for compelling two teenage girls to sell themselves for money.
Usually, investigators say, gang members charge between $30 and $50 a visit, and the girls are forced into prostitution 10 to 15 times a day.
It's easy money for MS-13 — thousands of dollars in a weekend, with virtually no costs. Except for alcohol and drugs to try to keep the girls off-kilter.
Often, the activity takes place at construction sites, in the parking lots of convenience stores and gas stations.
"Yeah, this last case we worked, the victim was 12 years old," says John Torres, who leads the Homeland Security Investigations unit at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Washington.
He says the girl, a runaway, approached MS-13 gang members at a Halloween party. She was looking for a place to stay. Within hours, she was forced to work as a prostitute.
Sex Trafficking In The U.S.

The U.S. first outlawed trafficking of people during the Civil War. Today, all 50 states prohibit prostitution under state and local laws. But in fiscal year 2009, government-funded programs identified more than 700 potential foreign trafficking victims, in addition to 1,000 potential American trafficking victims. Along with 27 other nations, the U.S. listed itself in the top tier of compliance in the latest report, but notes that the U.S. is "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking". Here are a few figures.
22: Prosecutions of sex trafficking cases (2009)
18: Percent of sex trafficking victims (all women) of all foreign adult trafficking cases (2009)
38: Percent of sex trafficking victims (16 percent boys) of all foreign child trafficking cases (2009)
206: Males under 18 arrested for prostitution or commercialized vice (2008)
643: Females under 18 arrested for prostitution or commercialized vice (2008)
12,133: Males arrested for prostitution offenses (2008)
26: Arrests, indictments and convictions of U.S. citizens involved in child sex tourism (2009)
—Tasnim Shamma, NPR
Source: Trafficking in Persons Report 2010



"You have a gang that's taking advantage of people that are in a desperate situation, usually runaways or someone that's looking for help from the gang," Torres says.
Joshua Skule, who oversees the violent crime branch of the criminal division at the FBI's field office in Washington, lists some reasons for street gangs' move into sex trafficking.
"It is not like moving, or as risky as moving narcotics. It is not as risky as extorting business owners," he says. "And these victims really have no way out."
Skule says they're like modern indentured servants. The 12-year-old girl involved in one of the recent sex trafficking cases is safe now, authorities say. But she'll be dealing with the physical and emotional scars for many years.
"When someone leaves, there's a lot of shame and guilt associated with the time they were there," says Victoria Hougham, a social worker who helps victims and survivors of sex trafficking.
"They may have physical injuries which can impact, especially for young women, their sexual and reproductive health."
Hougham works with Polaris Project, a nonprofit that runs a 24-hour hot line that helps connect victims of human trafficking with police or social services. She says survivors of that kind of abuse do best when they reconnect with their families and get support from law enforcement.
Prosecutors in Virginia say they expect to bring more sex trafficking cases against gang members over the next several months.

[Exile]

Violent gangs, prostitution, dangerous weapons — in the classroom: Shocking safety agents lawsuit paints deplorable portrait of city schools

'We should have bulletproof vests, and we should be paid fairly,' says veteran school safety agent. The city's 5,000 school safety officers claim they are underpaid and overworked for all that they endure in the halls of New York schools, the class-action suit states. Details emerge of student prostitution during class and gang-controlled hallways.

Comments (83) By Ben Chapman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Sunday, March 3, 2013, 10:08 PM

Updated: Monday, March 4, 2013, 2:30 AM


Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News

At DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, agents keep an overstuffed locker filled with confiscated weapons in the dean’s office, a school safety agent testifies in class-action suit. A butcher knife, homemade slings and an improvised bat are among the weapons.




Junior high school girls selling sexual favors for $1.
Kids bringing guns and butcher knives to class.
Gangs and violence rampant in public schools throughout the city.
School safety agents say they’ve seen it all. They’re the first line of defense for our most vulnerable schoolkids. New York parents rely on them to keep our schools safe, especially in the wake of the massacre of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn., last year.
But an explosive class-action lawsuit contends that the city’s 5,000 school safety agents are underpaid, overworked and unprepared for the dangers they face each day.
RELATED: NRA CHIEF: OK TO COMPARE GOV. TO HITLER
Sam Costanza/Sam Costanza

A second-grader at Wave Preparatory Elementary School in Queens was found with a gun, plucked by a school safety agent.


And the dangers are alarming.
New, eye-popping court papers connected to the suit reveal horrid conditions that students — and agents — must endure.
“It’s like Newtown is happening every day in the schools, but in slow motion,” said James Linsey, an attorney for Teamsters Local 237, which represents the safety agents. “It’s incredible what people don’t know.”
A sample of the agents’ testimony paints a vivid picture:
- At DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, agents keep a locker stuffed with confiscated weapons in the dean’s office, school safety agent Deserie Wilson testified. A butcher knife, homemade slings and an improvised bat are among the weapons Wilson and her fellow un-armed agents collected from students.
RELATED: FORDHAM COMMUNITY LEADER TO BE HONORED BY CITIZENS COMMITTEE OF NYC
Allison Joyce/Allison Joyce

Local 237 President Greg Floyd and a group of agents filed the $35 million class-action lawsuit against the city in 2010 because the agents — 70% of whom are women — earn $7,000 less annually than their largely male counterparts working in hospitals and shelters.


“Dealing with the unsafe environment — that was the most problematic part for me, because your main objective is that you want to go home uninjured,” Wilson said. “If you have all of this stuff going on, there is always a chance that you can become a victim.”
- At Junior High School 190 in Queens, the gangs were so powerful that one female student was compelled to have sex with 17 boys, sometimes at school, and become a member, safety agent Rosemary Scott testified. Safety agents and school staffers were unable to stop the humiliating process that left the girl under the control of the Bloods, a gang that terrorized the school, Scott said.
“She’s part of the gang, and the only way to get out is if they beat her up bad,” Scott said. “That’s her family now."
- School safety agent De Andrea Jordan plucked a gun off a second-grader at Wave Preparatory Elementary School in Queens last month without incident.
“From my understanding, his brother put it in the bag and . . . the kid came to school and alerted his mom about it and she came to school to get it,” Jordan said.
RELATED: FORDHAM COMMUNITY LEADER TO BE HONORED BY CITIZENS COMMITTEE OF NYC
Mark Bonifacio/New York Daily News

Walter Orozo leaving his home in Far Rockaway. His 7-year-old son went to school with a handgun in his backpack leading to a lockdown at the Wave Preparatory Elementary School in Far Rockaway.


- Girls from Intermediate School 172 in Harlem sold oral sex for a dollar — and a classmate was their pimp, school safety agent Shakima Jones-Washington testified in October.
Agents and school staffers knew about it, but were unable to stop it, Jones-Washington said. Agents are unable to make arrests themselves. Officials closed IS 172 in 2009; Jones-Washington now works at a different school.
The city’s school safety agents are employees of the NYPD and get much of the same training as police officers, but they do not carry weapons or wear bulletproof vests.
Their starting pay is about $31,000, union officials said, and no matter how many years they remain on the job, their base salaries never exceed $35,000.
Local 237 President Greg Floyd and a group of agents filed the $35 million class-action lawsuit against the city in 2010 because the agents — 70% of whom are women — earn $7,000 less annually than their largely male counterparts working in hospitals and shelters.
RELATED: UNC WOMAN SAYS SHE FACES EXPULSION FOR REPORTING RAPE
Mark Bonifacio/New York Daily News

NYPD left the home of a 7-year-old a mess as they looked for weapons after the boy brought a gun to Wave Preparatory Elementary School in Far Rockaway.


“Equal pay is a human right,” Floyd said. “The way the agents are being treated is illegal and unfair.”
A Law Department spokeswoman said the city is “taking a very careful look” at the case.
Meanwhile, testimony in the lawsuit reveals that many of the city’s public schools are pits of violence and depravity beyond the control of the adults in charge.
One of the suit’s plaintiffs, veteran agent Patricia Williams, said that with equal pay and better equipment, the agents could increase school safety.
“We should have bulletproof vests, and we should be paid fairly,” said Williams, who works as many as five hours of overtime each day to make ends meet.
“Under the circumstances, it’s very difficult for us to do our jobs. And what happened in Connecticut could happen anywhere.”
Education officials couldn't comment on details due to the litigation, but noted that major crime is down by 49 percent since 2002.
bchapman@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...#ixzz2P98bh0zq

[Rockman]

Even worse, before the emergence of Obama the republicans had its game changer.
Behind closed doors, he would provide underage girls and boys to a very very powerful sect that included high ranking fellow politicians and prominent members of the society.
It was all unearthed but quickly brushed under the rug, he was convicted for something unrelated.

[Muadib]

oh right.. thank goodness..not a failed state.. just failed mechanisms...

what is the material difference ?

Maybe Artificial State is a better terminology...

[Rockman]

Well if the police makes a difference in this instance, are we no longer a failed state?
How can we say it defines Ja as a failed state when the same thing does not cause that verdict elsewhere?
Did you read(a few months aback)that article on the hardship dark skinned people faced moving in what was predominantly their neighborhood(a community in California) because of the disapproval of violent hispanics?

[Muadib]

Yuh nuh hear mi seh wi is an Artificial State ?

That should mek yuh feel better..

[Muadib]

Good point..

Government primary job is health care, education and security..

Jamaica is only a failed State to a segment of the population.. probably the majority..

[Willi]

who dat?

[Assasin]

what about managing the economy?

[Rockman]

Lawrence King

[Mosiah]

You had to go and make sense!