W5 - CTV Saturday 25 Feb 7pm - Rescuing 'the girl next door' from the sex trade

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

W5's Sandie Rinaldo reports on York Regional Police's program to rescue women from the sex trade, CTV Saturday 25 Feb 7pm

 

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/WFive/20120224/rescuing-girls-from-the-sex-trade-120224/

 

(includes 5 minute Canada AM promo)

 

When you hear about human trafficking in the sex trade, most people have an image of women being smuggled into Canada from abroad and forced to work in seamy brothels.

 

But there's a thriving trafficking trade right here at home and it's run by pimps who prey on the naïve and innocent. It could be a young woman from your neighbourhood, maybe the daughter of a friend, or the girl next door. And her entry into the sex trade is rarely by choice.

 

It starts in a bar, a club or even online: a meeting with someone who makes the girl feel special when they find themselves isolated, lonely and confused. But soon that relationship turns ugly and by then it's too late to escape.

 

In reality, that charming boyfriend is a pimp who uses threats, beatings and rape to force the girl into prostitution.

 

"He beat me up so bad that my hotel room looked like a murder scene," said Jasmine, a former sex trade worke, who drifted into prostitution when she was a university student.

 

"My face was so mangled I didn't even look like myself anymore," she said.

 

In York Region, a suburb north of Toronto, police are trying a new approach to rescue women like Jasmine from the sex trade. The aim is to treat them not as criminals, but as victims.

 

"They're crying for help," said Det. Sgt. Henry De Ruiter, the head of York Regional Police Drugs and Vice Unit. "So if we can get in there and can establish that rapport and hope for them to finally come forward and talk to us, that's what it's all about."

 

Using undercover officers who make contact with prostitutes, York Regional Police try to persuade the young women to turn in their pimps. But it's not easy. Most women in the sex trade are afraid of police and don't trust them.

 

"I wouldn't have thought police would have helped me because for years they accused me," said Trish, a former prostitute who suffered horribly at the hands of a pimp. "They came after me instead of looking at the bigger picture."

 

Turning that perception around means a lot of hard work and patience.

 

"It's a matter of keeping in contact with the girls by phone calls, by text messaging," said Detective Sergeant De Ruiter. "Make them realize that we understand what they're going through based on our experiences with previous girls, and that we have help ready for them."

 

It's an approach that worked with Jasmine after she learned to trust one of York Region's undercover officers.

 

"He just spoke to me like I was a person," said Jasmine. "And people don't do that when you're prostituting."

 

With the help of Jasmine's testimony, her pimp, Joseph Bernadelle, was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail for assault, sexual assault and living on the avails of prostitution

 

And now Jasmine is rebuilding her life, reunited with her family, engaged to man she met at her church and leaving the pain she suffered in the sex trade behind her. "Life is better than I ever imagined," she said with a broad smile.

 

Watch W5 Saturday at 7 p.m. Check local listings for details.

[ostirch 1668]

Although I empathize with the women who are trapped, abused and assaulted into the sex-trade, I find that the report blurs the lines between legitimate prostitution and human trafficking. A dubious statistic claiming that "according to an International Study almost 90% of women are there against their will" is hurled at the viewer with no explanation. What international study? And what is meant by "are there"?

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Yes, some of the usual wild claims are trotted out. And the ubiquitous Natasha Falle (sigh) is featured, recommending that part of the solution to violent pimps and human trafficking is to ... criminalize all johns. Falle's conclusion about johns ("these guys don't respect women - if they did, they wouldn't be buying women") is apropos of nothing else presented on the program.

 

The full W5 program (entitled "Not a Love Story") is now available on-line:

 

(go to http://www.ctvnews.ca; select news; select browse videos; select video library; select W5; select "Not a Love Story"; the program video appears in four parts)

 

Amazing quote from the program:

 

Jasmine Scott (former sex worker, whose pimp was convicted and sent to jail): "As a prostitute, you can make ten, twenty thousand dollars a night. My biggest night, I made fifty thousand euros."

[backrubman 64800]

Yes, some of the usual wild claims are trotted out. ...

 

Yes and the "wild claims" are all true in some cases but the media has no interest fully researching it and getting it exactly right -- just has to be sensational news. Leave out the less sensational or even positive side of the story even if you know about it.

 

It's important to realize that the world is changing, even CERB and all the great people here have changed this world for the better -- and while some of the really bad, sensational news making elements of this still exist, CERB helps to bring that to an end - no doubt in my mind.

 

...A dubious statistic claiming that "according to an International Study almost 90% of women are there against their will" is hurled at the viewer with no explanation. What international study? And what is meant by "are there"?

 

Interesting point. Kind of like the phrase "half the world's population has never made a phone call" which was possibly true in 1995 when it was first said but it is still used even today and is no longer true. In the third world (you did say "International study") I expect the statement while still greatly exaggerated to be closer to the truth.

[ulixestrojan 3757]

Watching now - unbalanced story.

[loopie 15358]

I do think it's important to have social programs that help people leave abusive situations. I agree with the program these police officers were implementing. The police in this reporting were not anti-sex trade, they were anti-abuse, and so am I.

 

However I don't like how it lumped the sex trade and abusive situations together like they were inseperable. You can work in the sex trade without being abused, extorted and controlled. You can also be abused, extorted and controlled in a million other ways outside of the sex trade. I'm sure the world is full of abusive men who do nothing all day and live off of their girlfriends/wives who are waitresses, lawyers, bureacrats, and any other profession you can name. So it definitely muddled the issues.

 

And of course, I really disagreed with that Natsha Falle who ran the program for women exiting the sex trade. Saying that all johns have no respect for women is such an absurd blanket statement that it doesn't even deserve a rebuttle.

[Guest S**a*Q]

It seriously bothers me that NO ONE ever talks about the sex workers that do it cause of a decision that THEY made.

 

I choose to do this, because I know what makes people tick.

I choose to do this, because I own my own business.

I choose to do this, because it makes me happy.

 

We don't all need rescuing.

 

I should call the media. ;)

[Guest ****ven]

Amazing quote from the program:

 

Jasmine Scott (former sex worker, whose pimp was convicted and sent to jail): "As a prostitute, you can make ten, twenty thousand dollars a night. My biggest night, I made fifty thousand euros."

 

If anyone knows where I can make twenty thousand dollars a night let me know.... Might have to leave cerb...lol

 

I don't know how I really feel about this. The program makes some good points, but also screams of lacking understanding for the context of the situations.

 

We cannot simply group all sex workers together as one whole, there are degrees of everything... Everyone is different individually just like in real life.

[loopie 15358]

If anyone knows where I can make twenty thousand dollars a night let me know.... Might have to leave cerb...lol

 

I do wonder about this. Every time I start thinking of myself as a wealthy guy I read something like this and it makes me realize just how not in the 1% I am. I remember reading about that American politician, Eliot Spitzer, dropping tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes in a year and I wondered just how a married guy making a public servant's wage managed to make 50K disappear without his wife noticing.

 

"Oh, that 50 thousand dollars? I, um, bought a couple of rounds for the guys when we watched the game the other night."

 

No disrespect to the services you ladies provide, but I ever find myself paying 50K for one night's entertainment it better include firing my own Death Star and dessert.

[ulixestrojan 3757]

The program was sheer propaganda for the popo.

[fortunateone 156618]

I don't understand why she would exaggerate the $$ by such farfetched amounts, unless she meant to say per month. Or even in a week. The other thing is I don't understand why she then started talking about Euros, instead of just saying what it was in $$. Maybe she is not good with numbers, because she is saying she made 66,000. In one night.

 

Now I can see if someone gave her a luxury car, that was valued at that price, on lease or something.

 

I just don't see the point of pulling such crazy numbers out of the air like that. The general public will think that even making a couple of thousand on one appt, or one day is already crazy money, so why push it so far? It will only encourage young women to get into the business, thinking they can do one weekend and bank 20 grand.

 

Sps who don't mind pulling all nighters with coke heads can usually make a great deal of money, for doing very little, as the guy (often can afford the drug, so has a lot of cash on hand?) doesn't want her to leave, wants someone to hang out with while he is high, needs a hand to hold as he gets a paranoid or whatever. Plus he has no sense as to how much he is spending.

[Parker 19761]

It seriously bothers me that NO ONE ever talks about the sex workers that do it cause of a decision that THEY made.

 

They do, it just doesn't make the papers or anything.

I watched a national geographic documentary on prostitution that was actually fairly balanced and surprisingly positive.

 

There are a couple others here and there that talk to higher class escorts and view sex industry through their perspective-- but they're much more rare. I guess hearing about happy people who enjoy their choices and escorting doesn't bring in the viewers. /shrug

[Boomer 33202]

This show was distorted in a number of ways, but I think there were a number of positive aspects to the story. This wasn't meant to be a comprehensive report on the industry. The thrust of the police actions was an emphasis on two things, one to get to the underage girls and offer them some support, and two to concentrate on getting at the pimps who were controlling the girls through drugs and intimidation. During one of the raids at a hotel, the girl was alone and once they determined that she was there of her own free will, they gave her their card so that she could call for support if necessary, and left so she could do her business.

 

There was one incident that horrified me. The girl being interviewed related how her pimp had heated up a curling iron and put it up her vagina, and then once she was able sent her out to work again. As I can't understand such cruelty, I applaud the police for going after these leaches.

[fortunateone 156618]

They do, it just doesn't make the papers or anything.

I watched a national geographic documentary on prostitution that was actually fairly balanced and surprisingly positive.

 

There are a couple others here and there that talk to higher class escorts and view sex industry through their perspective-- but they're much more rare. I guess hearing about happy people who enjoy their choices and escorting doesn't bring in the viewers. /shrug

 

 

Yes, there have been a number of news shows and documentaries. Scarlett of Scarlett's House and Sue Davis have both appeared on some. There is a fairly good one that deals with both street work, mid range, and higher end hotel type escort. I found it very balanced, neither anti nor pro, just showing real people doing real things.

 

i believe this particular W5 story was about a very specific and don't forget very real part of the sex trade as well. The one that is exploitive and pimped and violent. Even in this day and age when any woman can set themselves up if they have a phone # and a computer, there are still that kind of guy out there who deliberately try to lure young (as in money maker) women into it, maybe not against their will, but making it sound like a more glamourous thing than what it turns out to be. It could be glamourous, if you are not burning out or humiliated or told to work healthy or ill, by some guy sitting on his ass.

 

 

Cathouse, on HBO, is one part train wreck and one part happy hooker stories. The ladies are clearly making money for the fat bastard who runs the place, but seem fairly happy doing what they are doing to get it.

 

Others; http://www.thepromotionpeople.ca/clients/brothelproject.htm

 

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/2008/ladysguide/