By Julia Delmedico | Intern
3 Generations is excited to announce the big moves that are being made against human trafficking in the United States!
Kamala Harris, California Attorney General, has been pursuing Backpage.com CEO Carl Jerrer and its executive shareholders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin Land since September. On October 6th, Carl Jerrer was arrested and charged with felony pimping for running a site that advertises the sale of sex. Over 2,900 cases of minorities being trafficked on the site have been found.
3 Generations has been documenting this human rights abuse for 6+ years, and this is the biggest breakthrough in American legal action we have witnessed to date.
4 years ago we followed Danielle, an advocate against sex slavery, to a protest against Backpage.com, and documented protesters thoughts' on the site. Danielle, who was once trafficked, announced "It sells human bodies" to the crowd. Check out our video of the protest below.
Kamala Harris' bold move mimics the Nordic system of dealing with prostitution. In our short film Two Cops, Two Cultures, we document a Swedish officer's approach to handling prostitution and pimping cases. The Swedish system treats prostitutes like victims, and works to catch buyers and traffickers. The officer explains how the girls he deals with are afraid they are committing a crime, but report being trafficked into Sweden and sold into sex slavery. The Swedish legal system places the girls in shelters and arrests their pimps. The arrest of Backpage.com's CEO sends a clear message that facilitators of the sale of sex will be persecuted in the United States. Pimps and online services promote human trafficking and profit off of victims' abuse.
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