Another Bogus ‘Sex Trafficking Sting’ Led by Homeland Security Agents
The Department of Homeland Security is playing vice cop, again, while pretending that the agency is striking a blow against “sex trafficking.” Texas media (and a few national outlets, like The Daily Caller) are abuzz with headlines about the 46 men arrested in a “Texas sex trafficking sting” spearheaded by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Forty-six arrests? This must have been some sort of major sex trafficking ring … right?
Not at all. As is almost always the case when you see big “sex trafficking” arrest numbers, those arrested here simply agreed to pay someone they thought was an independent adult sex worker for sexual activity.
This is, of course, prostitution—a crime, yes, but one that many consider victimless and think should be decriminalized. It is not sex trafficking—which, legally, must involve force, fraud, coercion, or minors, and in the popular imagination involves kidnapping, confinement, shadowy cabals, and organized crime.
Police, federal officials, activists, and a lot of media frequently conflate prostitution and sex trafficking. The former is a pretty hum-drum story, while the latter conveys novelty, danger, and law enforcement heroism. Many people object to police wasting resources trying to trick men into committing petty crimes. But “fighting sex trafficking” has a more noble ring to it.
In this case, tricking men into committing petty crimes is exactly what happened. Undercover cops posted ads online pretending to be adult sex workers and then arrested the people who agreed to pay the undercover officers for sex.
Making this all the more galling is the fact that it’s not just some bored local cops orchestrating the ruse, but a federal agency ostensibly dedicated to protecting Americans from transnational criminal organizations. “John Perez with Homeland Security Investigations oversaw [the] operation,” notes CBS News Dallas-Forth Worth (one of a few media outlets that were at least honest about this being a prostitution sting).
“We had a high school teacher, who is also a football coach, we had a youth pastor,” Perez, a supervisory special agent for HSI Dallas, told CBS, describing clients they arrested. “We had a volunteer firefighter, a director of operations of one of the large medical systems here in the metroplex, we also had a semi pro hockey player who plays on the Allen team as well.”
I guess Perez expects people to be shocked that people with ordinary or respectable jobs might try to pay for sex. But all I see here is a federal agency that claims to be about fighting organized transnational crime spending its time plotting the arrest of high school teachers, firefighters, and youth pastors for trying to engage in private and consensual activity. That’s the actually shocking element here.
HSI then has the gall to pretend they’re solving serious crimes: “Thwarting sex trafficking is one of our agency’s top priorities,” special agent Lester R. Hayes said in a news release.
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Article from Reason.com
