What happened in Vegas did not stay in Vegas... View this email in your browser How NCG Defied Powerful Interests to Protect Young People from Sex-Trafficking

By Frank Pierson

Commonweal

September 9, 2015

[excerpt]



Andrea Swanson was raised in a Catholic military family in Virginia and married a military man. Her husband, Rod, served as an officer in the U.S. Army, became an FBI agent, then rose to supervision of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Las Vegas. Thatâ€™s where the couple raised their four children, two girls and two boys. Andrea worked as a school nurse. Her husband was sent to Iraq and other foreign countries. Two of their four children would end up entering the armed servicesâ€”one as a Marine lieutenant and the other as a sergeant in the Eighty-Second Airborne Division. Both deployed abroad.



And then there was Hannah, their youngest child. Hannah Swanson was attending one of Las Vegasâ€™s better public high schools when she met a man named Kobe. He was considerably older, said he loved her, made all the right moves, and had plenty of cash. In fact, Kobe was a pimp. He soon had Hannah, still a juvenile, performing acts of prostitution. When she was busted by the vice section of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Hannah called Kobe, not her mother. But he refused to bail her out. Andrea Swanson discovered what had happened to her daughter only when she was notified by Vice Detective Chris Baughman. After posting Hannahâ€™s bail, Andrea got a crash course in how the Las Vegas sex industry works. She discovered that the calluses on her daughterâ€™s feet were from walking the streets of Boulder Highway, the Strip, and Tropicana off the Strip. The bruises were from encounters with johns or her pimp.



When stories of minors being lured into the sex industry began surfacing in churches and schools around the Las Vegas Valley in 2010, Nevadans for the Common Good (NCG) -- a partnership between religious institutions and organizers with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)â€”decided to investigate. NCG discovered that minors had become an increasingly important but mostly hidden part of Nevadaâ€™s thriving sex industry. Religious leaders could not ignore the situation once they understood it; they had to do something, but what? They werenâ€™t sure at first, but they knew that any serious effort to take on the problem would involve risks. There was a lot of money at stake in the pimping of underage girls, and those who profited most from it were not above using violence to protect their turf. And, of course, there would be no guarantee of success. The sex industry had a lot of friends in high places....



Read the rest below:

What Happened in Vegas, Commonweal [pdf] Invest in the Future of Organizing





It will take a new generation to ensure that the IAF spreads across the nation.



Invest TODAY. How VIP Spread NCG's Success into Arizona



Phoenix, AZ - Not long after NCG celebrated their success, Valley Interfaith Project (VIP) and the Arizona Interfaith Network began hearing similar stories about minors targeted for human trafficking and how Arizona had become a major hub for the human trafficking industry. This became even more important with Phoenix hosting the upcoming 2015 Super Bowl, an event notorious for attracting the sex trade.



VIP organized a series of Civic Academies at local congregations where guest legislators spoke publicly for the first time to large audiences who were incredulous to learn that needed legislation to assist law enforcement had been bottled up repeatedly in the house judiciary committee. These sessions galvanized a renewed effort throughout Metro Phoenix to protect vulnerable children and victims of human trafficking.



VIP became an early supporter for legislation increasing minimum penalties for sex trafficking of minors and worked with a number of key allies in law enforcement, business, and the non-profit sector to push for HB 2454, which would more than double the penalty for a child-prostitution conviction from 10 years to 24 years in prison, and make pimping a racketeering offense. Governor Jan Brewer signed the legislation last year.



In photo, Rabbi John Linder, Rev. Jayne Baker, Rev. Martha Seaman, Carolyn Jean Jones, Canon Ray Dugan and VIP Vice-President Dave Ryan stand with Governor Jan Brewer and Cindy McCain at the bill signing.

Stateâ€™s Anti-Trafficking Law Called a Model, Jewish News