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SEX
TRAFFICKING, COMALERT REENTRY CONFERENCE, HATE CRIMES TASK FORCE
Sex trafficking is a horrific crime
which we must put an end to. In June, I announced the creation of our
new Sex Trafficking Unit which vigorously investigates and prosecutes
cases where young girls and women are forced into prostitution. The
staff from our Sex Trafficking Unit also goes out into the community and
conducts meetings at schools and community centers to educate everyone
on the dangers of sex trafficking and the warning signs that you can
look out for to determine if someone is a victim. But in order to put
an end to this problem, it requires a greater effort from everyone in
our community. That is why I implemented a community outreach campaign,
enlisting celebrities including actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and
Gabourey Sidibe to help us in this endeavor.
The campaign features public
service announcements recorded by the two successful actresses. The
public service announcements will be playing on local radio stations
throughout the city. Working with advertising firm LPNY, we created the
PSAs as well as leaflets and posters, and we set up a 24-hour telephone
hotline to report sex trafficking. The hotline number is (718)
250-2770. The campaign is aimed at educating the public about sex
trafficking, teaching them how to identify the crime, and offering help
to victims. The widespread problem of sex trafficking involves forcing
women and children into the sex trade through psychological and physical
coercion, beatings, starvation, confinement and forced drug use to
enslave them and force them to do whatever the sex traffickers want.
Flyers will be distributed
throughout the borough at the District Attorney’s 26 neighborhood
offices. Posters that read BKSTU (Brooklyn Sex Trafficking Unit) and
inform people that sex trafficking is a felony, as well as provide
information on how to seek help, will be on display at many locations
throughout the city in various languages.
I also announced the indictment of
a sex trafficker who forced a 22-year-old woman from Germany into
prostitution. David Young was indicted for Sex Trafficking, Promoting
Prostitution and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, among other
charges. The victim and her two children moved in with Young after she
immigrated from Germany. He then forced the woman into prostitution,
placing ads on websites including backpage.com. He would arrange
meetings for the victim to have sex with johns in NYC, Atlantic City,
Miami, Las Vegas and other locations. Young would beat the woman and
threaten to not allow the victim to see her children. He also took away
the passports of the victim and her children, and he forced her to get
tattoos that read “Daddy’s Girl” and “One Dinero”.
A few months earlier, I announced
other indictments for sex trafficking where girls were recruited from
schools and forced into prostitution. If the girls didn’t do what the
sex traffickers told them, they would be beaten or threatened with
violence.
In order to put an end to sex
trafficking, we need to get everyone involved – the press, the community
and victims and their families. The more people are aware of this
problem and recognize the warning signs, the more effectively we can
take these sex predators off of the streets.
COMALERT REENTRY CONFERENCE
One of the tenets throughout my
tenure as Kings County District Attorney has been that criminal
offenders are better able to avoid a life of crime by providing them
with alternative-to-incarceration programs where they receive the
services that they need as opposed to sending them to prison where they
are more likely to get rearrested. The cycle of incarceration is
devastating to the offenders, their families and their neighborhoods.
My ComALERT (“Community and Law Enforcement Resources Together”)
program, created in 1999, has been a tremendous success in reducing
recidivism. ComALERT represents a coalition of service providers who
help released offenders by counseling them on a host of issues ranging
from housing, education, and employment to physical and mental health,
and substance abuse. ComALERT provides the help the ex-offenders need
in order to resist the temptation to return to a life of crime.
From October 25 to October 27, my
ComALERT reentry program hosted a training conference at the Brooklyn
Marriott Hotel, funded by the New York State Division of Criminal
Justice Services and planned by representatives from the NYS Division of
Criminal Justice Services, the NYS Division of Parole and the NYS
Department of Correctional Services. The event was designed to educate
and train participants from these agencies as well as community service
providers on motivational interviewing and other reentry strategies.
One of the highlights of the
conference was a viewing of the presentation, “The Castle”, in which
three men and one woman tell their life stories from childhood, crime,
prison, homelessness, and into “The Castle”, which is symbolic of a life
of change and hope. That presentation took place at the NYC College of
Technology’s Klitgord Auditorium on October 26th.
The conference is an excellent
example of several government agencies working together for the common
good to help provide the best possible services for people in the
community, whether it’s parolees or offenders with addictions. Two
minds are always better than one, so if we can brainstorm and come up
with better solutions, it will be to everyone’s benefit. The common
goal is reducing recidivism and figuring out the best ways to accomplish
this.
HATE
CRIMES TASK FORCE
It is senseless when innocent
victims get attacked or bullied because of their race, culture or sexual
preference. The perpetrators of hate crimes against the LGBT community
act in hate and ignorance and they rely on fear; fear instilled in a
victim or a witness not to come forward. And fear of ridicule and being
judged for their lifestyle. I have been a pioneer in Hate Crimes
prosecution since I was appointed special prosecutor by Gov. Mario
Cuomo, in the racially motivated killing of Michael Griffith, in Howard
Beach, Queens in the 1980s. I also launched the first Civil Rights
Bureau in a New York State District Attorney’s Office more than 19 years
ago.
Due to a high rate of hate crimes
in the community, I decided to create a new Hate Crime Task Force to
protect the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community
against violence and bullying. Part of the initiative is a new 24-hour
Hate Crime Hotline for victims to call. That number is (718) 250-2759.
Another initiative of the Hate Crime Task Force is Project Reach-Out
which will provide resources and advocacy to the LGBT community.
The Project will involve getting
the community to work with us to put an end to the unnecessary
violence. I want members of the LGBT community to come forward about
their personal experiences with hate crimes. I am hosting a Town Hall
Meeting on November 23 at Brooklyn Borough Hall to further discuss the
issue and speak to victims.
The Task Force is also developing
valuable changes to our Crime Prevention programs and creating new
changes. For instance, my Legal Lives program which has members of my
staff go into fifth grade classrooms to teach students about the law and
its role in their lives, will add a new bullying lesson plan.
My office is partnering with the
Brooklyn Community Pride Center to develop a program that will educate
local businesses so they can promote safety for the LGBT community and
report hate crimes when they occur in their neighborhoods.
Recently, I spoke at a dedication
ceremony at which a public park bench in Plum Beach was named in honor
of Michael Sandy, a hate crime victim, who in October 2006, was coaxed
over the Internet into meeting another male. When Sandy got to Plum
Beach, several males were waiting for him as he was set up to be
robbed. As he tried to escape by running onto the highway, Sandy was
struck by a car and killed. Four defendants were arrested and
prosecuted under the New York State hate crime statute.
Another individually recently
committed suicide because, as he wrote on his facebook page, he “could
not bear the burden of living as a gay man of color in a world grown
cold and hateful towards those of us who live and love differently.”
There is
no room for this kind of hatred and senseless violence. If we make
offenders more aware that they will be punished to the full extent of
the law, maybe this will make them think twice before committing hate
crime violence. |
