Murdered Pimp Calvin Sneed
The crosshairs of Proposition 35 are correctly focused on human traffickers, otherwise known as pimps. Until we acknowledge that domestic sex traffic is America’s new dirty little secret, countless American children will continue to be exploited by the cruel manipulations of pimps. To date, these sex traffickers have been given a free pass, if not outright encouragement, to engage in the most exploitive of criminal behavior.
In the United States we have it backward. The girls involved in underage prostitution are often portrayed as criminals, drug addled crack whores who are incarcerated rather than assisted once law enforcement brings them in off of the street. On the other hand the pimp culture is glamorized through the music and video industry. We create pimp celebrities and legitimize them in mainstream media. We celebrate their exploits as media covers Players Balls that glorify the pimp lifestyle. Pimps are human traffickers and human traffickers are heinous criminals.
Pimping involves a complex relationship between a male pimp and one or more women and/or girls. The pimp wields complete control and induces commercial sex acts in order to make money. The pimp attains total control and obedience through intense manipulation that begins during the grooming process. Manipulations include feigned affection, brutal violence, and verbal, psychological, and/or emotional abuse. This breaking-down phase takes a girl from healthy adolescent sexual boundaries to commercial sex with strangers. This process has been widely-documented and replicated by pimps nationwide. In the trafficking paradigm, this process involves force, fraud, and coercion. Seasoning often involves:
- Beating/Slapping/Whipping; with hands, fists, and kicking, as well as with objects such as bats, tools, chains, and cords;
- Burning; of personal items to foster hopelessness and demoralization or directly burning women and girls using cigarette/cigar butts;
- Sexual assault; rape or gang rape;
- Confinement; lock women and girls in closets, trunks of cars, or rooms for indeterminate amounts of time;
- Other torture techniques; such as food or water deprivation, or various forms of bondage such as chaining individuals to items or tying them up;
- Emotional abuse; direct verbal insults, name-calling, threats, mind control, brainwashing, cognitive re-programming;
- Re-naming; offering “nicknames” both for endearment and to erase former identity;
- Creating dependencies; by instructing how to walk, how to talk, what to wear, when to eat, when to sleep, and where to sleep;
- Removal from familiarity and support structures; by transporting a woman or minor to a new location where she knows no one;
- Document confiscation; of identification documents (ID, birth certificate, SS number);
- Forced sexual education; inducement of viewing pornography to learn to have sex.
Advertising the Players Ball
It is well-documented that pimps establish mandatory monetary quotas that typically range from $500 – $1,000. The women and girls under their control must fulfill their quota in order to end each night of commercial sex. Quotas are strictly enforced, and the punishment for failing to meet a quota is severe physical retaliation from the pimp. In pimp-controlled situations, the women and girls keep zero of this money and turn 100-percent of the profits over to the pimp. Pimp-controlled commercial sexual exploitation of children is linked to escort and massage services, private dancing, drink and photographic clubs, major sporting and recreational events, major cultural events, conventions and tourist destination.
Right now “It’s Not So Hard Out There For A Pimp”, but it will be as soon as we pass Proposition 35.
