LE harassment on F1 weekend

[GneissGuy]

Does anyone have any opinions on whether local LE steps up harassment of the hobby around big events like F1?

In some places, they seem to step up streetwalker patrols to make the place look clean, in some places, they seem to let it go, either to draw in more visitor dollars, or simply because they're busy with legitimate law enforcement.

In some places, they may go after SW, but leave the less visible hobby alone.

In other places, they go and harass the strip clubs.

I haven't noticed any particular variation in LE activities vs. big events myself, but was wondering what others think.

[Can I Play Too???]

Posted: 3:59 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012
Increased enforcement against human trafficking planned during F1
By Jazmine Ulloa

American-Statesman Staff

Austin police say they are partnering up with other law enforcement agencies and nonprofit groups across Central Texas to boost efforts against a possible increase in human trafficking during the upcoming Formula One Grand Prix.

All big sports and entertainment events draw crowds that fuel prostitution, authorities said. But little is known on whether those same crowds also feed what is described as the modern-day slave trade, where victims are forced, threatened or deceived into sex work or other types of labor. The research that does exist on the so-called “demand effect” is vague and often disputed.

With an estimated 120,000 visitors expected on race day and thousands more throughout the week, Austin police officials said they are uncertain whether trafficking cases will rise but want to use their efforts during Formula One to study the reach of the shadowy enterprise within major functions. Investigators plan to collaborate with the School of Social Work at the University of Texas to track incidents and analyze law enforcement strategies.

“We want to measure the extent of the problem but also learn what methods are best to use in an approach against it,” police Cmdr. Donald Baker said. “We are hoping this will be a model for cities our size and larger to combat human trafficking when they have large events.”

At a regular meeting of the Austin Public Safety Commission this week, Baker said the human trafficking unit will focus its operations on preventing forced prostitution and on identifying and assisting minors exploited through the commercial sex trade. The department also will implement an advertisement campaign on Capitol Metro buses to educate residents on how to detect and report possible sex trafficking cases.

The crime is little talked about in Central Texas, despite its prevalence in the area, authorities said. Human trafficking investigators in Austin work about 15 trafficking cases a year where children have been sexually exploited through the commercial sex trade, but officials say criminal rings move fast from city to city and many victims are never found.

Around the world, the Olympics and FIFA World Cup have brought attention to potential increases in the illicit business. But the competition with the most infamous dark side nationwide has been the Super Bowl, which Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last year called “the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.”

In preparation for the 2011 game in Arlington, 17 local, state and federal agencies in North Texas participated in a joint effort to tackle security concerns, including an expected surge in sex trafficking and prostitution of children. The North Texas Trafficking Task Force initiative resulted in 133 arrests; eight were human trafficking cases, four involved minors, and the majority of the rest were related to prostitution.

That collaboration was applauded by top federal law enforcement officials, but authorities don’t have statistics that show whether a spike in human trafficking incidents did in fact occur.

Critics call the lack of concrete evidence the “Super Bowl hoax,” and some anti-trafficking groups say police operations during major events distract attention and resources from the strategies that truly work.

“The real crime is happening when no one’s looking and no one cares, not when every media outlet, advocate and cop has its sights set on it,” wrote Rachel Lloyd in a Huffington Post column. Lloyd, founder and executive director of the New York-based anti-trafficking group Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, said nonprofit groups and authorities should pay closer attention to releasing accurate information on human trafficking.

But Austin police officials said their Formula One initiative is part of a larger effort by the human trafficking unit and the Central Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking to build a strong network of collaborating agencies that will continue to work together and help victims after the race is over.

“The U.S. Department of Justice has estimated that human trafficking is the second-largest criminal enterprise behind narcotics,” Baker said. “And that is something that our group is trying to get a proactive effort against, to make sure we have all the resources together as a community to be able to provide services.”

http://m.statesman.com/news/news/cri...king-pl/nS6d8/

[ck1942]

No one has (as yet to my knowledge) done any real correlated studies on local convention data with LE crackdowns on the P, strip clubs, etc.

But some local data does exist in several cities (think Houston, for example) that appears to indicate that crackdowns do have a local effect. And some news articles indicate the effect by citing true data, such as sales taxes, liquor taxes, etc. Not to mention the cost of enforcement!

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...ar-1832992.php

Truth is [personal knowledge] none of the cities is easily able to track other "losses" such as conventions which organizers determine a city isn't very "friendly" and thus opt to go elsewhere to have meetings. Lots of losses never tracked by these cities in occupancy taxes, other travel related taxes, direct travel-related income spent at hotels, restaurants, car rentals, airports, etc., however, as I noted [personal knowledge] since I have served on several organizational convention committees over the years.

Thing is, LE has lot more to do on a normal basis than staff up or step up for conventioneering enforcement... and how embarassing! should any of the conventioneers be the object of such enforcement, or worse, the direct subject of same.

Very unlikely, imho, that much trafficking occurs directly in connection with an event... more likely such activity is on a sustaining level in any given community as a more or less "normal" activity.

But LE will always announce that it is stepping up in connection with events such as Super Bowl, World Series, other nationally promoted events, etc., since LE feels their announcement will have some sort of psychological effect or suppression.

Media may or may not do followup coverage of exactly what effect and results such announcements really resulted.

[GneissGuy]

This does bring up two further thoughts.

1) The quite laudable desire to crack down on the actual human trafficking.

2) The desire to label all hobbying as "human trafficking," pimping, or whatever. The bad guys and phony feminists want to say, "no woman would do this of her own will, she must be being forced into it."