FBI busts a good haul of scumfucks

[Josh]

Sex traffickers, to be specific

(Reuters) - The FBI arrested 150 people across the United States on charges of holding children against their will for prostitution, a three-day weekend sweep that officials on Monday called the largest-ever operation against child sex-trafficking.

The suspects, whom the FBI referred to as "pimps," were arrested in 76 U.S. cities and are expected to face state and federal charges related to sex crimes and human trafficking, FBI and U.S. Justice Department officials said at a news conference.

FBI agents and local police recovered 105 children during the operation at truck stops, motels, casinos and other places where they were forced to work as prostitutes, officials said.

Of the 150 suspects, 18 were arrested by agents based in Detroit, 17 by agents from San Francisco and 13 by Oklahoma City agents, the FBI said.

The FBI said the suspects were not part of the same operation. It said some belonged to organized crime while others acted alone. The bureau did not immediately release a list of the suspects.

The FBI typically does not investigate adult prostitution, leaving it as a state and local matter, but in recent years it has made child prostitution a priority in a program the FBI calls Operation Cross Country. The program includes highway billboards asking people to call the FBI with tips.

About 1,350 people have been convicted as part of the program and at least 10 of them were sentenced to life in prison, officials said.

The latest sweep was the seventh and largest under Operation Cross Country, they said.

Children who are most vulnerable to being exploited for sex crimes are between 13 and 16 years old without strong ties to family members, officials said.

"We are trying to take this crime out of the shadows and put a spotlight on it," said FBI Assistant Director Ronald Hosko.

The Feebs come through. There's no bag limit on this one, so keep after it boys and girls.

[Hotfoot]

Regardless of the myriad mess of the alphabet agencies and what goes on behind the scenes, this is a good thing.

[Josh]

I just wish they'd expand it to the overseas sex slavery import traffic. But one day at a time and yes, this is a very good thing.

[Hotfoot]

Well it's hard for the FBI to manage things outside the US given that, you know, that's not their job really. That's usually the job of Interpol to pass information between countries to help coordinate their law enforcement efforts.

[LadyTevar]

I want to see all the businesses this was happening at shut down.

[Hotfoot]

Yeah...that's not productive or useful in any way Tev. Angry though you may be, the people INVOLVED should be put in jail, not people who happened to be in the area of effect.

Fuck, if a hotel, motel, or rest stop had to be closed by the government every time something illegal happened in one, they simply wouldn't exist. It's not their business to monitor what happens in the rooms, though everyone who says they should no longer gets to complain about the NSA wiretaps.

[Josh]

Well it's hard for the FBI to manage things outside the US given that, you know, that's not their job really. That's usually the job of Interpol to pass information between countries to help coordinate their law enforcement efforts.

I'm talking import, in-country. I know they can't do much more than roll the dice on cooperation overseas.

Basically, I wish they'd take at least half the manpower they throw at the pill-poppers and the powder-pushers and put it into eliminating the slave trade on our soil.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I just wish they'd expand it to the overseas sex slavery import traffic. But one day at a time and yes, this is a very good thing.

Well it's hard for the FBI to manage things outside the US given that, you know, that's not their job really. That's usually the job of Interpol to pass information between countries to help coordinate their law enforcement efforts.

I'm talking import, in-country. I know they can't do much more than roll the dice on cooperation overseas.

Basically, I wish they'd take at least half the manpower they throw at the pill-poppers and the powder-pushers and put it into eliminating the slave trade on our soil.

That would require burning down half of Houston.

Yeah...that's not productive or useful in any way Tev. Angry though you may be, the people INVOLVED should be put in jail, not people who happened to be in the area of effect.

Fuck, if a hotel, motel, or rest stop had to be closed by the government every time something illegal happened in one, they simply wouldn't exist. It's not their business to monitor what happens in the rooms, though everyone who says they should no longer gets to complain about the NSA wiretaps.

There are... certain business operations that get much of their revenue on the slave trade, however. Many Cantinas in Houston are fronts for brothels dealing in trafficked women and children. San Francisco massage parlors are largely the same, as many of them are "staffed" by women trafficked from Asia.

[SirNitram]

They aren't pimps. They're slavers. Hangings too good for them. 23 hour lockdown in a 6x6 concrete box with no human contact.. A little too much freedom, but it'll do.

[frigidmagi]

When it comes to the front line slave owners, I don't want them killed. I want them talking. I want the names of everyone in the chain. Then we break out the swords and the fire.

[Josh]

That would require burning down half of Houston.

You have magically made the entire proposed operation 100% more appealing, which I did not think would be possible prior to your post. If you could work out a good reason along these lines for burning down the other half you would not believe how onboard I'd be for the whole thing.

[B4UTRUST]

If you could work out a good reason along these lines for burning down the other half you would not believe how onboard I'd be for the whole thing.

Suspected of harboring slavers? To ensure that none escape? Denying the enemy a place of refuge? Providing evidence that the other half was involved in some manner? Providing evidence that the other half was benefiting from the first half economically or otherwise?

[Josh]

If you could work out a good reason along these lines for burning down the other half you would not believe how onboard I'd be for the whole thing.

Suspected of harboring slavers? To ensure that none escape? Denying the enemy a place of refuge? Providing evidence that the other half was involved in some manner? Providing evidence that the other half was benefiting from the first half economically or otherwise?

You had me at 'Sus...'

[Batman]

Technically, 'denying the enemy a place of refuge' would require for us to burn down the entire planet. Depending on how paranoid you are, the entire multiverse.

[rhoenix]

I think beyond suggesting that we should rethink how we punish acts we don't want people to do in our society, here's my suggestion in the meantime:

For anyone convicted of sex trafficking in this country, they would instantly lose their U.S. Citizenship, and other nations of the world would know why. Then the convicted person's entire U.S. assets are siezed and sold at auction to buy them a small rowboat and provisions, where they will be dropped with said boat in the Atlantic Ocean, in the halfway point between the U.S. and Britain.

Coast guards of all allied nations would be notified, and if the person convicted of such crimes found someone to take them in, great. But they'd never be allowed back here, under penalty of having all assets seized and sold again without possibility of recompense.

Their actions have cost them the right to consider America or her allies their homeland, and that should be made very clear.

[Josh]

I'm not a big fan of spiraling up the punishment, to be honest. I just want a goodly quantity of motherfuckers to spend the rest of their lives rotting in prison. It just pisses me off that we've had this massive failing effort for decades now in the War on Drugs, that's resulted in lower street prices on every major drug out there while at the same time getting a lot of innocent people fucked over by an increasing militarization of the police forces in this country. At the same time we have honest-to-god slavery taking place inside our borders, not just sex slavery, but what amounts to chattel slavery coming in from the Pacific rim, and it gets nowhere near the political attention of the drug war. I mean, they're fucking smuggling people, which is a lot easier to track and interdict than chemicals. A fraction of the resources would go a long way. But then drugs can be targeted among the lower classes, while the shitbags profiting off slave labor in shirt factories and the like, or the assholes hitting the high-end brothels, they're folks of class and distinction whose apple carts we don't want to upset.

Despite all that, I don't want to take the shine off what's been done here. However, it should just be regarded as the start of a larger process rather than a mission accomplished.

[rhoenix]

I fully grant the points you made, Josh. I'm just feeling frustrated at things today.

[Josh]

Tyson, you're a bud, you ain't gotta explain yourself to me.

[Hotfoot]

There are... certain business operations that get much of their revenue on the slave trade, however. Many Cantinas in Houston are fronts for brothels dealing in trafficked women and children. San Francisco massage parlors are largely the same, as many of them are "staffed" by women trafficked from Asia.

Then, get this, they can be charged with crimes because they've gone from the people who happen to own the scene of the crime to people who are DIRECTLY INVOLVED in the crime.

See that difference? It's amazing. And nobody who wasn't involved was harmed.

You just can't make the logical leap that any place these things happened were in on the scheme without evidence supporting the fact. You know, the whole innocent until proven guilty clause of our justice system and all?

The one that stops us from just throwing everyone we think might be guilty of something into jail?