By Lee
Romney
January 9, 2014, 3:52 p.m.
OAKLAND
-- This city is a national hub for the commercial sexual exploitation of
children.
But the plague of underage girls -- and to a
lesser extent, boys -- who are prostituted by often violent pimps has now
received a big boost in visibility.
And Alameda County prosecutors, along with
leaders of a nonprofit that helps exploited youth rebuild their lives, hope
that bringing the problem into the light will increase arrests while sending a
signal to the victimized that there is a way out.
On Thursday, Alameda County Dist. Atty. Nancy E.
O'Malley and MISSSEY Executive Director Nola Brantley announced that they have
teamed with Clear Channel Outdoor
to launch an educational campaign at ProtectOaklandKids.org, and to plaster the
city with billboards, posters and bus shelters underscoring the problem.
The campaign -- the creative work and outdoor ad
space is all being donated -- aims to educate the public that underage girls
who are selling sex are not prostitutes, but victims of sexual exploitation who
are being sold by others.
"Buying a teen for sex is child abuse.
Turning a blind eye is neglect," reads one billboard that shows two teddy
bears askew on a made bed.
Viewing teen girls who sell sex as criminals
rather than victims "allows communities to ignore them as invisible,"
said O'Malley, whose Human Exploitation & Trafficking Unit has since 2006
prosecuted nearly half of the state's child-sex trafficking cases.
(Of 325 cases filed, 278 have been resolved,
with an 82% conviction rate, she said.)
"My message is clear: If you see something,
community, say something. And to those who are trafficking -- buying and
selling -- my office will prosecute you to the full extent of the law."
The posters, bus bench messages and massive
billboards are being strategically placed to also send a message to those still
embroiled in what some consider modern slavery.
"I depended on my pimp for everything and
had nothing," states another billboard, quoting a survivor named Darlene
who left "the life" four years ago. "Now I have my own
apartment, car and money. ... I got out. U can 2."
The FBI has
designated the San Francisco Bay Area as a "high-intensity child
prostitution area," and by many accounts, Oakland is the epicenter.
To blame, Brantley said, are the phenomena of
multi-generational abuse, particularly sexual abuse; ingrained poverty; and an
absence of caring stable adults in the lives of youth recruited into the
trade.
MISSSEY, which stands for Motivating, Inspiring,
Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth, currently serves about 250
clients a year and has filled each new program it has launched since 2007 to
capacity, Brantley said.
High-crime cities that direct the bulk of
enforcement to homicides are more likely to have vibrant markets for child
prostitution, Brantley said. Both she and O'Malley, however, credited the
Oakland Police Department for joining in the push to treat the youth as
victims, while cracking down on pimps and johns.
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