Anti-human trafficking campaign sparks community response

Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a new campaign Thursday that placed silhouetted figures at bus stops throughout New York City.  His efforts are stirring a response in the community.

These dark silhouettes on posters represent the tens of thousands of individuals illegally trafficked within the United States every year.  The signage, with emotive text and images, directly propagates the message of the community-awareness campaign, "Let's End Human Trafficking,"--something nonprofits and activists have been working toward for years.

After several years of increasing public awareness, city government has decided to create its own buzz around the issue.

"This new public education campaign will play a critical role in raising awareness of the impact of this horrible crime, encouraging New Yorkers to report it and, most importantly, letting victims know that help is available," Bloomberg said in a press release. "Working together, let's call an end to human trafficking."

Let's End Human Trafficking created a city website with information and resources as well as posters throughout the city.  The movement follows a state human-trafficking law, passed in 2007.

This new law backs a federal law already in place against trafficking and is slowly making a difference in confronting the issue in New York, said Andra Ackerman, director of human trafficking prevention and policy for the N.Y. Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).

"I think the new law has helped. It gives the law enforcement something to work with on a local level," she said. "I'm getting more inquiries.  I'm having law enforcement reach out to me with questions about whether or not a certain case is human trafficking and they're requesting the training in their jurisdiction."

John Caher with the N.Y. DCJS said the organization educates regional law enforcement authorities on how to identify and prosecute human trafficking. As public awareness and law enforcement rise, the organization forces traffickers to back down.

 "You can run but you can't hid," Caher and Ackerman said.

Now, with the help of Bloomberg's campaign, the state is putting more emphasis on community involvement and response.  The mayor hopes the campaign will equip citizens to notice signs and symptoms of trafficking and alert authorities.

"Something could look like prostitution but actually be sex trafficking," Ackerman said.  "When people start recognizing the signs early on, it's easier to start sooner and investigate those areas to make sure there is not trafficking going on."

The state pushes to alert the community with the end goal of prosecuting perpetrators, but activists and nonprofit organizations say public awareness demands public activism and service.

"If all we do is advertise, then we have a problem," said Jonathan Walton, director of New York City Urban Project (NYCUP).

The poet and activist said awareness is a step and the public must go beyond awareness by engaging the deeper social issues that lead to abuse and exploitation.  Most people do not follow through with the latter steps.

NYCUP serves campus communities through Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, providing youth and students with short-term service opportunities living in intentional communities. The group's efforts include organizing and operating community feedings for the homeless, tutoring youth, providing aid in the rehabilitation of sex-trafficked women and raising funds for former child soldiers.

"If you reduce homelessness, you reduce isolation and you connect people with resources," 24-year-old Walton said.

Walton and NYCUP encourage community development and involvement in many neighborhoods throughout the city, a concept the young author said he understands well, coming from Brodnax, Va., a town of about 300 people.

Before attending Columbia University, Walton wrote and self-published his first book at the age of 17, which has sold more than 3 million copies.  He now travels regularly to speak against human trafficking and educate the public on the complexities and social implications surrounding the issue.

"The two biggest things that influence exploitation are poverty and isolation," Walton said. "The average entry age into trafficking is 12 to 14-years-old in the United States.  So if you tutor and mentor kids you're giving them a place to go and they're not isolated."

The healing and recovery process for human trafficking victims is also very sensitive and complex, he said.

"When you're advocating for someone, you have to make sure not to exploit them again or reshame them," Walton said.

Sex trafficking typically results in a deep shame and degradation for the victim, more so than  any other social or cultural issue, according to Walton.  This makes it more difficult to create a platform for activism and abolition.

"A lot of women, a lot of men and a lot of boys don't want to tell their story," he said. "You have these broken people and say as an activist, 'I need your story.'  How do you not re-exploit them, but empower them?"

The Washington Heights resident said you cannot separate the issue of abuse and trafficking from the objectification of women and the commercialization of sex.

"The reality is, we should not be able to pay for these things, but we've turned it around and made it so you can.  You can buy sex right now, but you're not just buying sex when you purchase a prostituted women," Walton said.

In Walton's poem, "I'm Sorry Anna Nicole," he offers an apology to every woman he has objectified through pornography and issues a call of accountability to men.