Sweep nets 3 teen prostitutes, 2 pimps in metro Denver
Goal is to refocus the lives of young, victimized women
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published February 23, 2009 at 4:46 p.m.
A nationwide sweep of teenage prostitutes last week by FBI agents and local police removed 48 prostitutes, including two from Lakewood and one from Denver.
Titled Operation Cross Country, the sting operation also netted the arrest of 500 men, including 50 pimps - the people who help introduce young girls to the lifestyle and in some cases make it difficult to get out.
"We probably have a couple of thousand" girls and women working as prostitutes in metro Denver, said Carol Lease, executive director of the Empowerment Program, a nonprofit in east Denver that works with women and girls in trouble, including teen prostitutes.
"It's really sad," Lease said. "A lot of these girls are runaways - running away from neglect or abuse or worse. They get approached by these guys about an easy way to make money.
"They believe the guy is going to take care of them or that they're doing a favor for them to get their car out of hock or something. These are naive young women who don't know what they're getting into."
Kathy Wright, special agent for the FBI in Denver, said her agency's Crimes Against Children group worked with Denver and Lakewood police, rescuing three teen prostitutes between Feb. 19 and 21.
It's the third roundup of teen prostitutes conducted by Operation Cross Country.
A rescue is akin to a diversion. Young prostitutes are referred to family members, agencies and social workers who can help them break free of prostitution.
"They'll enter the juvenile justice system; a few will be returned to their families, but more often social services takes responsibility for them," Wright said.
The hope is to get enough prison time for the prostitutes to seriously encourage a change of careers.
"We want to break this cycle of child victimization," Wright said. "Their circumstances vary, but I definitely would not call their lives glamorous."
Women from the Empowerment Program scoff at the notion that prostitution is a victimless crime; they'll tell you the only nonvictims are the clients.
Lease said drug addiction almost always accompanies prostitution.
"It gets to where they are needing to turn tricks to get money to pay for drugs," Lease said.
Young prostitutes rarely have high school diplomas, so they think they're stuck in the life, the only job that would pay more than minimum wage, Lease said.
In the meantime, state aid for what the girls need most - a combination of mental health treatment, addiction recovery and counseling - is in short supply.
The dollars that do come in are from the federal government and nonprofit foundations.
"We need to start teaching little girls ... that they're not the servants of anyone, that their bodies are precious," Lease said.
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February 23, 2009
5:22 p.m.
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WitchyPoo writes:
Not to pick, but the term is "out of HOCK," not out of "hawk" - how a car can wind up in a hawk is unimaginable to me....although I have known a few eagles who had bad encounters with semi-tractor air dams!
And big props to the FBI for their work!
February 23, 2009
5:53 p.m.
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Poor_Paul writes:
witchy poo, I don't know what article you read, but I read the word hock in this article to spell h-o-c-k. Have your mind on a bird or two?
February 23, 2009
5:57 p.m.
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windskull writes:
Don`t you even hear yourselves...the FBI "rescues" 45 teen prostitutes but then YOU the follow through team have the bleeping nerve to say; "Oh no no no PAY to see the deal through" and you got the nerve to act better than the skunks who traffic these kids! Just what the hell do you call what you are doing? There are times when you have to take the friggin dollar out of the loop and this certainly rates at the top of doing right by these young ladies simply because it`s the right thing to do...PERIOD!
February 23, 2009
7:12 p.m.
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SilentRunning writes:
This is a good start, but the unfortunate part of the deal here is that this is hardly a small dent in the world epidemic of human traffiking. There are reports that there are literally hundreds of thousands of human beings being bought and sold worldwide each year.
For more information on what you can do to help end this epidemic....
http://www.humantrafficking.org/
http://www.endhumantrafficking.org/
February 23, 2009
8:29 p.m.
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dirty writes:
Good work to the FBI and local PDs. Interesting that when Lakewood recently passed a law to make this "industry" tougher in their city most people on this board were b!tching about it.
February 23, 2009
9:32 p.m.
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BuzzBomb writes:
Many of these pathetic children are kidnapped foreigners, yet another example of what open borders brings us!
February 23, 2009
11:48 p.m.
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RegLib writes:
SilentRunning,
Thank you for providing those two links, and thank you for caring. I want to do do my part against human slavery, and I will at the very least provide funds to these organizations.I hope to also provide skill and labor.
All of this is eye-opening, and I for one want to do something about it.
February 24, 2009
3:41 a.m.
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44roger writes:
As the article states, few of these girls have any services to turn to. Be interesting to know the amount of money spent rounding up 45 of them, bet it would buy lots of services for them and when they go in, could give the names of their pimps and then round them up, maybe going at the problem from the wrong direction. and as stated, our open borders lets them in, close those borders and it would slow down drugs coming in, illegals taking jobs, and other problems, be cheaper than spending all that money for tackling the problems after they come across. But then you have to look at the lack of foresight by our Government---
February 24, 2009
5:52 a.m.
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SanctuaryCity writes:
Probably working for pesos
February 24, 2009
6:35 a.m.
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bitwranglers writes:
Let's see ... a nationwide police sweep picked up 48 hookers - and holy smokes - we got three of 'em right here in little ol' Denver! WOW - how much tax money did we spend on picking up these three? Talk about misplaced priorities - if we put the same amount of effort and money into deporting them, we would be way ahead of the problem.
February 24, 2009
9:16 a.m.
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JustSayin writes:
"Young prostitutes rarely have high school diplomas" - so we should assume the older gals have G.E.D.s? :^}
February 24, 2009
9:51 a.m.
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DifferentPerspective writes:
The article is a little decieving, it says "teen" but does not say children. My guess is the girls were 18 or 19 which makes them legally adults.
The article also says "Women from the Empowerment Program scoff at the notion that prostitution is a victimless crime; they'll tell you the only nonvictims are the clients."
Aside from children being invovled, which should no way be allowed, I am really sick of the feminists hate rhertoric on prostitution being all men's fault. If a consenting woman markets herself as a prostitute, she is willfully engaged in an illegal activity just like the Johns are. You cannot throw it all on one side.
Why is it all a "woman's body" with her choice to abort a child which I am sure Carol Lease fully adovocates, but its the state's body on her choice of prostitution. Makes no sense.
February 24, 2009
4:47 p.m.
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loudsurfguy writes:
Wow the FBI busts pimps, ho's, and MS-13 gang members all in the same week? Denver, you should be proud! Seriously give these guys some props!