In the aftermath of the story of Robert Kraft having been charged in Florida with first-degree solicitation of what amount to sex slaves, a very illustrative story showed up in a local publication from Massachusetts (Patch Woburn).
This story struck me not only because it revealed a lot of things that are hiding in plain sight, but also because it was a well-done piece by a small-town journalist.
I hadn't really thought much about all those “massage” storefronts you see. I mean, people get massages, right? Kind of like people get their nails done. There are lots of nail shops around, too, but to me, those things just take up space, and I mostly ignore them. But many, if not most, of the “massage” joints appear to be likely human trafficking outposts:
Day spas, like the one in Jupiter, FL, where police say New England Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft purchased sexual services, are prevalent throughout Massachusetts. From a strip mall storefront three doors down from a popular breakfast restaurant in Wilmington to a converted house across the street from a middle and elementary school in North Andover, the victim advocacy group Partners LLC estimates there are 230 such places in Massachusetts.
And it’s evidently not hard to figure this out if you visit certain websites, which the article names in great detail but I won’t:
The businesses have set up shop in storefronts in the business districts of several Boston suburbs. They advertise and are reviewed on websites catering to men looking to purchase sex. Anonymous posters on those sites leave blunt descriptions of the sex acts available, as well as fees charged.
The reason it’s so important to have lots of these storefronts and operate a network is that the owners don’t want to keep their “human capital” in one place for too long. They get shipped around from storefront to storefront every couple weeks, so that the clientelle can have “new faces”, and so that the women don’t get too well-oriented in their surroundings and maybe end up talking to someone.
Generally the women aren’t allowed to leave the day spa without an escort, and they sleep and eat there. Often they can’t speak English, and rarely ever speak to anyone anyway, even when approached. Likely they have been warned not to, or something may happen to them or their families back home.
Despite laws to this effect, the brothels rarely get investigated, and so it’s too profitable for the proprietors to shy away from. The Robert Krafts of the world might leave nice $100 tips, but the women don’t get to see those. They don’t get any of it. They’re lucky if they get enough to eat.
But building such cases is difficult. In Florida, investigators lined up Mandarin interpreters, but only one woman agreed to testify. The cases against the men, as well as women accused of trafficking Florida, is built largely on film of the men paying for and receiving sex acts from the women.
The tone I am hearing from my New England friends is one of “Oh, leave the old guy alone. It’s no big deal.” There’s even a lot of joking about it, sort of whistling past the graveyard.
Indeed, as another national report over at ABC News points out:
"I think people try to sanitize and minimalize what really happens there," he said, adding that people make light of those situations by joking about them. Myles said that what happens inside the massage parlors can range from manual masturbation to full, unprotected intercourse.
Myles said that many of the women who work at such massage parlors are tricked into working there, often coming from abroad after being lured with the promise of lucrative jobs as maids or in restaurants. Upon arrival, they find themselves in a "very untenable financial structure" which includes steep fees -- including for transportation but also food, room and board, and, in some cases, even toilet paper.
"These are subtle artful cunning traffickers, so much so that sometimes they convince people that women are there as consensual people in the sex trade," Myles said.
But how does someone as knowledgable about world affairs as billionaire Robert Kraft go into one of these places and not know darn well what is going on? Think about that. Does he think they’re just nice working ladies with families who like to do this? And he didn’t just do it once. He was actually caught twice, and one must assume that's merely the tip of the iceberg. Bad news for Mr. Kraft today also: the video is expected to be released. The NFL historically goes easy on perpetrators of abuse — until video surfaces. Right now the NFL is seeking a “full understanding of the facts”, and this video will go a long way to providing just that.
My other question is: What is so hard about busting these places? The web seems to do the work for you. It’s all right out there. Don’t we think it’s time for laws that make these investigations easier? Do we just let this continue?
This is slavery, operating in the United States, in 2019.
"It's about time the country has a real conversation about human trafficking which is modern-day slavery in our midst," [Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave] Aronberg said. "This is not about lonely old men or victimless crimes. This is about enabling a network of criminals to traffic women into our country for forced labor and sex."