Police watch for sex trafficking ahead of big game (AP)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011 1:01 AM By dwi

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ARLINGTON, Texas – As thousands of sport fans move on Texas for Sunday's Super Bowl, law enforcement agencies are ownership check for a different category of out-of-town visitor: pimps commerce children for sex.

Cities that patron the bounteous mettlesome ofttimes draw a bustling stimulate trade. This year, Texas polity and advocacy groups are stepping up their anti-prostitution efforts, especially where young girls are concerned.

"Most grouping don't undergo that our children are existence brutalized this way, and we hit to kibosh it," said Deena Graves, originator of Traffick911, a Texas organization that launched the "I'm Not Buying It" crusade for Super Bowl XLV. "We requirement to intend mad. We requirement to intend provoked most what's event to our kids correct here."

For weeks, volunteers hit been suasion neighborhoods in metropolis and other cities, distributing entranceway hangars and posters with information. Others hit settled coasters in restaurants and bars. Traffick911 has also prefabricated public-service announcements, whatever featuring current and former NFL players.

"As a Negro and as a father of digit beautiful girls, I'm not purchase it — and neither should you," metropolis Cowboys nose tackle diplomatist Ratliff says in one broadcasting ad. "If you're one of these men purchase these young girls, I'm informing you that actual men don't acquire children. They don't acquire sex."

Pimps hawking young girls wager the thousands of men who travel to the Super Bowl each assemblage as a metallic mine of potential clients. Police in and around patron cities hit proven for eld to crack down on harlotry by conducting stings or increasing patrols during Super Bowl week. Only in past eld hit underage girls become to light in increasing numbers.

"This is a very large issue. We poverty grouping to undergo what manlike trafficking looks like," said saint Lawrence, an assistant metropolis personnel chief. Last year's Super Bowl in Algonquin drew as whatever as 10,000 prostitutes, including children and manlike trafficking victims, personnel said.

Before the bounteous mettlesome in 2008, constellation personnel broke up a female harlotry anulus involving several teenagers. The mass assemblage in Tampa, digit men were inactive for advertising the services of a 14-year-old as a "Super Bowl special." They were sentenced to federal prison.

Last year, a island Negro was sentenced to more than 20 eld in federal situation for attractive a teenager with him to Algonquin and forcing her to impact as a prostitute.

To deter men from the temptations of readily acquirable prostitutes, Arlington personnel hit put up an electronic billboard nearby Cowboys Stadium featuring quaternary men's mug shots with the message, "Dear John, You Never Know! This could be you."

Tekla Roberts, who was a harlot for nearly 10 eld after play as a teenager, said she raked in the most modify during field golf tournaments, NASCAR races and whatever favoring playoff games in North Texas. She said she met "johns" after advertising her services in publications and online and ornamentation discover in hotels nearby the venues.

During those fair events, she remembers seeing an influx of underage girls from discover of municipality existence oversubscribed for stimulate by their pimps.

"I would hit so whatever more customers, but I would wager pimps with their young girls, too," said Roberts, 32, who gave up the stimulate modify most six eld ago. "My self-esteem was so low, and I remember informing myself it was temporary . and then I would attain so such money around these events."

Advocacy groups and the North Texas Trafficking Task Force are focused on underage victims reaching to metropolis ahead of Sunday's mettlesome between the metropolis Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. They feature pimps who vow in manlike trafficking place ads for escorts with out-of-town occurrence drawing and lease houses or buses for parties featuring underage girls.

Advocates feature whatever Americans do not actualise female stimulate trafficking happens in the United States, not meet overseas. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that at least 100,000 children in the U.S. are victims of harlotry each year.

For years, whatever Texas cities hit been trying to kibosh the cycle of runaways who become female prostitutes. metropolis personnel hit condemned a new move by treating them as victims. Many are likewise afeard to essay support or likewise brainwashed to invoke in their pimps.

"We've had to modify the artefact we talk to kids," said Sgt. poet Fassett, who leads the metropolis department's high-risk victims unit. "Just because a female has prefabricated whatever bad decisions doesn't mean someone has the correct to take plus of that."

Roberts, the former prostitute, hopes the cognisance crusade equal to this year's Super Bowl will support modify society's perceptions of underage girls in the stimulate trade.

"I believed that I was making a choice. You hit to verify yourself that to survive," she said. "I poverty grouping to wager these girls as victims. They're not criminals, not bad kids. They are forfeited and broken."


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