User:AlbionJack/sandbox

Maryland sexual abuse ring

The Maryland sexual abuse ring consisted of illegal immigrants in the American state of Maryland sexually trafficking at least 2 American women from around the country for the purposes of selling them for sex. The victims were all held against their will, repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted and one victim was raped by at least 63 different men in "less than 3 days".

In August 2018, the Montgomery County Police Department’s gang unit conducted an undercover sting at an apartment building along Garland Avenue in Silver Spring, near Rolling Terrace Elementary School. The officers witnessed various men come and go from the building. In the following days police entered the first-floor apartment with a search warrant. Inside they found a man, woman, condoms, lubricants, wipes, lingerie, ledgers, $1,000 in cash and a small bag of cocaine.

Altoona child sex abuse scandal

AlbionJack/sandbox

Altoona, Pennsylvania
Date	1960s–2012
Location	Altoona, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40.51°N 78.40°W / 40.51; -78.40
Events	Child sexual abuse of an estimated 10,000-115,000 aged approx 9–16

The Altoona child sex abuse scandal was a scandal discovered in 2016, of 10,000 to 115,000 cases of child sexual abuse covered up by police and authorities. In 2016 a statewide investigating grand jury stated that hundreds of children had been sexually abused by Roman Catholic Priests in the town of Altoona, Pennsylvania for over 50 years. 115,042 secret documents of victims' abuse claims were kept in locked filing cabinets by bishops for decades, detailing how priests had been made to undergo treatment while being transferred to other parishes before abusing more children, they also intervened when police made inquiries in the mid-1960s and continued to do so. Over 50 priests had abused children in horrific cases of rape until they bled, gang rape, choking, groping, and various other abuses. The grand jury established the conduct of the church endangered thousands of children and allowed proven child predators to abuse additional victims.

Attorney general Kathleen Kane described the sex crimes committed against children all across the diocese that spread between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Secret payments were made to victims over the years to avoid them sullying the good name of the church, these concealed documents were kept with the other tens of thousands of victims' abuse claims. The report established that church authorities in Altoona-Johnstown Diocese had known for decades the abuse was going on, as did some civic officials and senior figures in the criminal justice system. There was a desire of high-level officials to “avoid public scandal” by keeping abuse quiet and even allowing known predators to remain in commission as members of the clergy.

No criminal charges were filed against the abusers because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations had expired and, in some cases, victims were too traumatised to testify. This led to victims of abuse leading petitions to change the law regarding the statute of limitations on child abuse.

Details of abuse

Msgr. Francis McCaa was one of the most abusive priests and was described as a “monster” with a “sickening hunger for innocence.” Based on testimony from victims McCaa had abused hundreds of children while serving at Holy Name Catholic Church in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania from 1961 to 1985. One civil case was brought against McCaa in 1986, records were sealed by a County judge at the time and the number of victims was redacted. Daniel Dye an attorney that had played a role in investigating the diocese said “The sheer number of children that McCaa offended was staggering,” The attorney general’s report claims McCaa reached under vestments to squeeze boys’ genitals and fondled children in the confessional, he also told one altar boy while gripping the victims penis “if you ever use this I’m going to rip it off”.

Father Joseph Bender was a serial child predator who abused tens of children, other children referred to those he favoured as "Benderites". The age range of Bender's victims was from 8 to 13 years old. The parents of the children he abused were encouraged to spend more time with him in the hopes they would choose the vocation of priest. The boys were sexually abused almost constantly at any location Bender had access to them. One victim described how Bender ejaculated on the child after fondling the child's genitals and anus. Another victim was molested while in bed on a trip with Bender, victims also often reported that they were made to have contact with Bender's erect penis. Bender would lash out in anger when his victims refused his advances, at one time he strangled a boy and said "don't you love me anymore" when the child insisted on wearing underwear to bed. Bender made the children all wear no underwear to bed when he was with them. One victim now over 50 years old described his life as a "living hell".

In 1971 Father John Boyle groped the genitals of a 15 year old boy in the basement of a church and performed oral sex on him. Between 1973 and 1975 Boyle groomed a young boy and plied him with alcohol. Once the boy was unconscious Boyle anally raped the boy, this happened numerous times between the victims 14th and 16th birthdays.

Father Harold Burkhardt sexually abused a 9 year old boy, he repeatedly made the boy suck his penis. On other occasions Burkhardt would pull the boys trousers down and insert his finger into the victims anus asking "What do you think God would say?" before finishing it with "God approved".

Father Dennis Coleman "hypnotised" a young boy of 10 and rubbed his genitals on the boy's feet. He did this to numerous other boys, he would sneak in to the room in which they slept to sniff their feet before rubbing his penis on them.

In New Jersey, Father William Crouse raped a boy as he cried, begging Crouse to stop raping him. Crouse raped the boy so severely that he bled from his anus. On another occasion "Father Ben" accompanied Crouse who together plied the boy with alcohol and both raped him while he slept.

Leonard Inman was a priest from 1971 to 1986, during this time Inman raped at least one child and paid for sex from children. On one occasion he paid a child $40 to ejaculate in his mouth while the victim called him "dirty names". One of the boys Inman abused was a vulnerable underprivileged 16 year old.

Father John Palko groomed and raped a 16 year old girl at least 3 times, upon hearing the abuse the diocese never removed Palko from ministry, instead they actively investigated the victim and made efforts to intimidate her through process and "confrontation".

Father William Rosensteel's list of victims was described as "long and tragic" his youngest victim was 9 years old. The boy was abused almost constantly from 9 years old to 15 years old, Rosensteel would hug, kiss, and grope the boy during the assaults. The assaults happened every time the victim served mass and the victim was sexually abused to "such a degree that it became nearly synonymous with actual church ceremonies". One victim acted against Rosensteel's wishes in refusing to enter a sauna with him and 2 other members of the clergy, Rosensteel had the victim's parent's treat him for Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The victim reported the abuse to his parents who "chose not to believe him". In 2007 it was reported to the diocese that Rosensteel had potentially abused 9 other boys while on sleepovers where the boys would shower with him, and engage in "passionate deep throat tongue kisses" and fondle their genitals. Rosensteel committed suicide in June 2007.

Joseph Strittmater molested young girls between 1961 and 1969. Strittmater would fondle and touch a 6 year old girl and force her head into his lap. The abuse continued until their teens. In another incident Strittmater admitted to abusing an 8 year old girl stating he "was trying to learn about sex". Despite admitting molesting children on two occasions law enforcement was not informed. The total number of Strittmater's victims may never be known.

Other individuals were also found to have abused children, there were allegations against a teacher, a choirmaster, a coach and various other members of religious orders.

Cover up

Only one priest was ever criminally prosecuted for the crimes committed against children. Two bishops orchestrated the majority of the cover ups, including other superiors and compliant law-enforcement officials. The report confirmed the diocese “took actions that further endangered children as they placed their desire to avoid public scandal over the well-being of innocent children”. In efforts to either discredit victims or protect the image of the diocese various times the "investigations" into the allegations against priests would be more about investigating the credibility of the victims an example the review board sought gynaecological records of a victim. Another victim who went on to be a priest themselves was threatened with ex-communication if they pursued their abuse claims.

A “pay-out chart” was created to help guide how much victims would receive from the church. Victims fondled over their clothes were to be paid $10,000 to $25,000; fondled under their clothes or subjected to masturbation, $15,000 to $40,000; subjected to forced oral sex, $25,000 to $75,000; subjected to forced sodomy or intercourse, $50,000 to $175,000. These pay outs were to silence victims and any details were hidden in "secret documents" in locked filing cabinets. None of the payments or allegations were ever reported upon, and those that were were subsequently shut down.

Abusers were instead sent for "treatment" before returning to the parish, most after confessing to their crimes, but were relocated to other places. Police would let the diocese decide how prosecutions should be handled, with every single one resulting in no prosecution

The only priest ever charged relating to sex crimes against children was Father Joseph Maurizio who was sentenced to 17 years for assaulting children during missionary trips to Honduras.

Los Angeles child sex abuse ring

The Los Angeles child sex abuse ring was a group of African Americans who committed serious sexual offences against children and young women in the state of California, it was one of the widest-ranging sex trafficking cases ever prosecuted on the west coast, the case reached from Los Angeles County north through the San Joaquin Valley to the Bay Area and east to Las Vegas. Children as young as 15 were raped and prostituted against their will in rented motels that became brothels. There was a total of 13 victims and minors were "sold in plain sight".

All of the victims were from Central California. According to investigators, the young girls were groomed into the sex trade by using the internet and phone apps. Investigators say while most of the girls rescued from the sex trade are vulnerable and come from broken homes, many do not.

Crimes

The victims were exploited and raped by multiple perpatrators while being sold for sex throughout the Central Valley, Bay Area, and Los Angeles. The investigation began when one victims mother told the Tulare County Sheriff's office that her daughter had ran away and she needed help. The 6 month investigation found missing children who had been groomed and then sold to multiple people to be raped and abused. The perpatrators committed multiple identity thefts, stole luxury vehicles and used them to rent apartments they converted into brothels. The suspects advertised the minors on social media and websites.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Det. Chris Hicks said the case illustrates the complexity of human trafficking operations and the extent of their reach. He said they discovered the ring accidentally after a father in Tulare County filed a police report there last December about his missing juvenile daughter. “It’s one of the biggest cases, and it’s really just the beginning. We believe it is just the tip of the iceberg,” Hicks said.

Sentences

Perpetrator	Conviction	Sentence
Quinton Brown aged 30	Plead guilty to 40 counts of pimping, sex trafficking of a minor, receiving stolen property	Up to 28 years
Gerald Turner aged 32	Plead guilty to 6 counts of pimping, sex trafficking of a minor	11 years

Reaction

The Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux had this strong warning for parents when it comes to your children's internet usage: "Be vigilant. Pay attention to what your children are doing online. Ask those very difficult questions. Who are you speaking with? Who are you talking to? Be that protective parent."

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said the perpatrators "sought to exploit children while defrauding their victims and other unsuspecting people."

“These guilty pleas are a prime example of how we will fight to ensure that justice is served upon those who commit the heinous crime of sex trafficking,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Delivering justice for victims of these crimes is a top priority for me as Attorney General. I want to thank all of the law enforcement agents and officers throughout the State who worked tirelessly on this investigation and who work every day to ensure Californians are safe. My team will continue to work to protect victims from sex trafficking and prosecute those who profit from the exploitation of human beings.”

Pennsylvania child sex abuse ring

The Pennsylvania child sex abuse ring was a former basketball coach who groomed and raped "eight to ten girls", by luring them to an apartment and hotels for "sex parties" where they were violently raped and sexually assaulted by as many as nine other men. The abuse lasted for years. The victims told police they didn’t want to have sex with multiple men, they were told they had to do it and the perpetrators threatened to tell their parents if they did not comply. The offences were rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, corruption of minors and indecent assault.

Crimes

The girls were abused in an apartment in Pittsburgh's Strip District the girls were groomed online before being taken to the apartment to be raped, one victim testified that "sometimes other men would join in the acts" Other times Ruprecht would force himself on her when she didn’t cooperate. Another testified that she would be punched and choked to force compliance during the assaults. Another victim was raped by up to nine other men. Men would pick the victims up from their houses on occasion and drive them to hotels where the "sex parties" would occur. Another victim told police she had suffered bruised and broken ribs as a result of sexual encounters with Ruprecht.

“I feel like my daughter — my only daughter — was stolen away from me,” the mother of one victim said in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. “I feel like I missed several important years of her life. I still currently spend many days (and) nights crying, worrying and knowing now what I could have done different.”

Sentences

Perpetrator	Conviction	Sentence
Ralph Ruprecht aged 51	Plead guilty to rape, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, corruption of minors and obstruction	8 to 16 years
Daniel Teed aged 56	Conspiring to traffic a minor for sex	10 years

Reaction

Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel read through all 21 charges against Ruprecht during the plea hearing. She called the crimes "incomprehensible." “Only one person in this world is responsible for what happened to your daughter,” McDaniel said to one mother. Ruprecht’s family moved to Michigan, leaving their home and life behind. Family members reportedly called the man “evil” and “a true sociopath”.

Ruprecht, served as a coach for his daughters' team for the past five years, program director Leah Pyle said. Most recently, he coached the sixth grade girls' team. “It's just a tragedy,” Pyle said. “This isn't a reflection of our organization,”.

Child sexual abuse in the United States

Child sexual abuse in the United States has been recorded since the very founding of the country. It currently has the worst recorded rate of child sexual exploitation and abuse out of all developed nations.

UNICEF estimates that at least 300,000 children are sexually exploited in the United States every single year. With Child sexual exploitation and abuse thought to go vastly under-reported the true number of children that are abused is thought to be far higher than UNICEF's estimates.

Sexual abuse of children occurs across all geographic regions of the United States in a variety of communities, including metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural communities. Usually vulnerable children are preyed upon by pimps and gangs who brutally rape them before selling them to multiple men a night. But it is also upper and middle-class children who are groomed then victimised in the brutal way. Many come from foster homes, or juvenile court, gangs such as MS-13 particularly target those with learning disabilities. Individual perpetrators will target the same victims but are more likely to be prosecuted as opposed to gang members who law enforcement rarely prosecute or even investigate for fear of violence, or racism.

A 2016 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reveals that the number of domestic child trafficking victims and convictions has increased substantially every year since 2010 in the United States. It is clear the problem is in fact getting considerably worse, not better.

Grooming

Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or trafficking. Children and young people can be groomed online or face-to-face, by a stranger or by someone they know - for example a family member, friend or professional. Many children and young people don't understand that they have been groomed or that what has happened is abuse.

Grooming is performed by regular individuals, immigrant individuals or gang members who give gifts, promises of love and affection, and who give attention to vulnerable children and young girls for the purpose of raping them, and then selling them to other men. Groomers will hide their true intentions and may spend a long time gaining a child's trust. Once they have established trust, groomers will exploit the relationship by isolating the child from friends or family and making the child feel dependent on them. They will use any means of power or control to make a child believe they have no choice but to do what they want.

Intimidation is used by gang members with threats of violence and actual gang rape. Individuals and gang members manipulate their victims and police often see them as “consenting” instead of seeing them as victims. A 10 year old girl was arrested for prostitution, and was seen as a consenting child, instead of being treated as a victim.

In Northern Virginia there is over 20,000 child grooming victims every year from immigrant gangs, with an estimated 5,000 gang members in this area authorities have described it as “the tip of the iceberg”. The girls who are as young as 12-14 are sold to countless men a night and turn to drugs to numb their pain.

In Fresno, California there are “thousands upon thousands” of child grooming victims in the city, most of them white, where “every middle school” and some elementary schools have been targeted by grooming gangs for victims.

Immigrant rape gangs in the United States

In January 2012, a SUR-13 gang member was arrested and accused of prostituting juvenile runaway girls in Prince William County, Virginia. Additional reporting indicated the SUR-13 gang member forced a juvenile into prostitution by choking and beating her until she was unconscious.

According to June 2011 FBI reporting, MS-13 gang members in the Washington, DC metropolitan area branded their prostitutes’ bodies with “M” and “S” gang symbols using knives and razors to show ownership.

Gangs have come to view raping children and child prostitution as a low-risk, high-profit enterprise, and, indeed, income from prostitution is now second only to drug sales for some gangs. Immigrant gangs have quickly adapted strategies to recruit and trap young American girls into sexual exploitation, often targeting run-aways, foster children, and other at-risk youth. On average, a juvenile lives only seven years once she has entered prostitution after being abused by a grooming gang.

According to the National Gang Intelligence Center there are approximately 30,313 gangs within the United States with about 1,140,344 members. To date it has been officially reported that the Latin Kings, Mara Salvatrucha, and Sur-13 are the most active in juvenile prostitution throughout the United States. It is well documented that most gangs espouse a sexist, machismo view towards females, viewing them as “objects to be used and abused in satisfying their sexual needs.”

As noted above, gangs have become increasingly sophisticated in their criminal operations and have adopted a number of methods for obtaining girls and children for prostitution. One of the most strategic of these methods is the gang’s decision regarding which girls to recruit or force into the prostitution business. The girls typically forced or recruited into prostitution by gangs tend to fall into three main categories: (1) female gang members, (2) those within the “prostitution stable” (often runaways or drug-addicted young women), and (3) gang groupies, girlfriends, and other associates. Gangs tailor their approach to each group of females differently. In this study we examine the most targeted category, those within the “prostitution stable”.

Girls may have no knowledge of or desire to be part of the gang lifestyle and are kidnapped, drugged, or otherwise violently coerced into prostitution by a gang. These girls are said to be part of the “stable,” or group of prostitutes controlled by the gang, and are often confined to a hotel or bedroom where they are forced to perform sexual acts for gang members and paying clients. Grooming gangs often target runaways or other at-risk females by recruiting or kidnapping them near homeless shelters, foster homes, detention centers, and public housing developments. In addition to use of violence, as part of the grooming process, gangs may entice girls by providing shelter, food, and, at first, camaraderie. Gangs will also ply the children and girls with drugs, luring them into addiction and perceived debt, thereby securing continued control over these girls. The females within this group are those most likely to be subject to severe violence at the hands of the grooming gangs.

Gang members approach girls in a variety of strategically chosen places, including schools, subway stations, malls, and gang-thrown house parties, commonly known as sex parties. Where children are plied with drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, given alcohol, and then raped by multiple men. By analyzing a young girl’s insecurities and showering her with complements, a gang member is able to induce the vulnerable girl into trusting him and eventually into believing that they are in a loving relationship. Slowly the gang member boyfriend may ask the girl to engage in more and more sexual activity for the gang, starting with having sex with another gang member or “just this once” to make money.

These gang-prostituted children continue to live at home and attend school, engaging in prostitution only part-time and hiding the activity from family. Often being picked up on the way home and being raped by the gang before being dropped off at their homes. The young girls who are groomed believe that prostitution is “proof of love for the pimp,” in these cases her grooming gang boyfriend. Eventually violence and other coercive tactics are introduced to intimidate the girl into continuing her sexual activity for the gang and public.

In addition to physically recruiting young females at schools, malls and other public places, gangs reach out to groom girls online, via social networking websites such as Facebook. Many children raped and prostituted by gangs are drug addicts, often as a result of strategic coercion by the gang, such as plying them with drugs at aforementioned sex parties, and are unable and unwilling to stop participating in the sexual activity in exchange for drugs.

Perhaps the most difficult hurdle that victims of gang-controlled prostitution face in escaping that lifestyle is the very real threat of violent reaction by the gang. Young females who have been groomed into gang prostitution are often physically beaten, raped, intimidated, and threatened. They are also forced to witness the violent gang rape of other children and young girls to intimidate them. They witness the extreme violence that the gang members engage in on a frequent basis and are constantly reminded of their own vulnerability to such violence if they do not obey the gang’s orders. One victim of gang controlled prostitution stated, “[o]nce you’ve worked for them, it’s as if you belong to them for life. Wherever you go, whatever you do, even if you try to get out, they will come after you and threaten you, rape you and demand money. You never feel safe.”

These details are horrific, and when you examine the numbers they only become more harrowing. One out of every six runaways reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) in 2014 was a victim of sex trafficking. This is not unexpected as previously mentioned runaways are a common target for these grooming gangs, but when taking into account the amount of runaway children and youth that go unreported to authorities, the real number of victims of these gangs is staggering. 1.6 million children run away every year in the United States according to the National Runaway Safeline. This means that the number of children that have not been coerced from school, or malls, or other public spaces, but have been forced in to sexual slavery just from being runaways and having to sell themselves to the gangs is in the tens of thousands to 200,000 every year in the United States.

The 2014 report, Estimating the Size and Structure of the Underground Commercial Sexual Economy in Eight Major US Cities, found that in at least two of the eight cities studied the number of child victims of sexual exploitation had increased significantly in the last decade.

As well as runaways, multiple studies have found that many child victims of trafficking had previous involvement in the child welfare or foster care system. Sixty percent of child sex-trafficking victims recovered during an FBI Innocence Lost operation, spanning 72 U.S. cities in 2013, had previously been in foster care or group homes. Reviews of child sex-trafficking cases by law enforcement in other jurisdictions reveal similar numbers: Between 55 percent and 98 percent of child sex-trafficking cases involved children who had prior involvement in the child welfare system.

“One recovered youth told me that, ‘being in foster care was the perfect training for commercial sexual exploitation. I was used to being moved without warning, without any say, not knowing where I was going or whether I was allowed to pack my clothes. After years in foster care, I didn’t think anyone would want to take care of me unless they were paid. So, when my pimp expected me to make money to support ‘the family,’ it made sense to me.’”

Not only are hundreds of thousands of vulnerable American children who are runaways abused and sexually exploited every year, but so are foster children, regular school girls, and even upper class children in gated communities, no matter the background, any American child can be a victim of immigrant grooming gangs. This issue is widespread and occurs in every single city and town in the United States, police treat victims as delinquents, often arresting the children who have been gang raped repeatedly instead of going after the gangs for fears of violence. The gangs themselves know this and act with impunity, able to victimize and abuse thousands upon thousands of children every year, without fear of prosecution or repercussion. Violence is also feared by the victims themselves, who are beaten, threatened with guns, knives, and even murdered if they go against the grooming gangs who have enslaved them. They are helpless, and the epidemic of child sexual exploitation in the United States is very real.

“Violence is inherent in the sex industry. . . No other industry is dependent upon a regular supply of victims of trauma and abuse.”

Fears of racism and violence, Sanctuary Cities and censorship

Police forces on several occasions have been reluctant or outright refused to investigate certain demographics for fears of being seen as racist. Namely Mexican immigrants and those of middle eastern or Arab descent. Police forces have also been reluctant to investigate mainly Mexican grooming gangs because of the violent reputation that they have. Forces were intimidated and did not want to upset “community cohesion” and on multiple occasions actively avoided confrontation with named offenders that they had been made aware of. In the “Minnesota Pipeline”, so termed by officials because of the volume of children sexually exploited and trafficked there, the typical age of a child victim of a grooming gang is between 11 and 14. The state received the reputation due the fact that officers were so reluctant to confront immigrant grooming gangs that American children could be trafficked through the state at will.

Police in areas such as Washington, D.C. “live in fear” of the MS-13 gang and actively avoid them, their grooming operations are rarely challenged and when brothels ran by them where they have been pimping out children are raided it is the usual story of it being “unclear whether they were charged”. The fear of these gangs has spread to the media in America also and has led to wide bouts of censorship, one such case had the Washington Post not revealing a gang members name due to requests from the FBI and police themselves – “The Washington Post is withholding his nickname at the request of the FBI and police”.

MS-13 has gained significant power across the United States in recent years, leading to even less challenge by authorities. Gang members, often unaccompanied youth, are rarely tracked and confronted, either down to lack of money for local forces, or fear of retaliation. With incredibly violent murders including beheadings and countless children prostituted it is a wonder of who or what will be able to stop the invasion that has already been completed in various areas of the country. Social workers also were reluctant to identify and report perpetrators who they knew were abusing children as they either did not believe the victims, or did not want to report individuals who were in the country illegally. Many did not understand the children in their care at all, and believe they do not have any relationship with police. In Fresno, California, social workers were asked to what degree does the agency have a relationship with local police and youth shelters that can be beneficial while working with commercially sexually exploited victims, 20% agreed and 48% were not sure/neutral. Only three respondents strongly agreed that the agency had a relationship with police and youth shelters while the remaining 22% disagreed/strongly disagreed.

A Washington State report identified that there were many areas that needed improvement, many were due to police ineffectiveness, social worker communication, and even lack of education in schools where most victims are targeted by the grooming gangs. The report explained how grooming gang members will instil fear in their victims and tell them that they will be arrested should they go to the police, which they often are.

The report recommended “broad-based training for DSHS, school personnel, service providers, hotel managers and staff, and public health providers; taking into consideration regional and cultural specificity” these individuals were advised to be aware of regional and cultural differences in regards to grooming gang perpetrators and their victims. Police forces are also complicit in actively protecting immigrant grooming gangs, more focused on arresting the child victims themselves than actively pursing the trafficker. In 2012, New York State arrested 2,962 individuals for prostitution or loitering for prostitution. In contrast, only 34 individuals were prosecuted state-wide for human trafficking offenses.

Social workers and police officers in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia (DC) have detected at least nine child prostitution rings since 2009 operated by MS-13. One ring had more than 260 victims. Police yet again were more focused on cracking down on “petty crime” such as arresting the victims, than going after the perpetrators. Due to police aiding the grooming gangs the figures paint a bleak picture of the current situation. The figures show a sustained increase in the number of sex trafficking cases reported in Maryland during this decade. The number of reported cases doubled between 2012 and 2013, and that figure remained stable in 2014. Last year, according to statistics compiled by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), authorities in Maryland responded to a sex trafficking case every four days; during the first three months of 2015, it became every 2.5 days.

MS-13 operates with impunity in many places of the United States. The inability to combat these grooming gangs is reiterated by Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims when she brought up the gang and her department’s inability to combat them: “There could be an MS-13 member that I know about” and yet they can’t report them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Police cannot report the gang members, and officials and journalists actively defend them; CNBC’s John Harwood said, “However repugnant their actions, MS-13 gang members are human beings IMHO.”

The fear of racism and creation of Sanctuary Cities has done nothing but to compound the issue and has led to tens if not hundreds of thousands of young, mainly white girls being sacrificed to appease those in positions of power. The epidemic of systematic rape and abuse of children is going uncontested.

Sanctuary cities

Sanctuary cities have long been a controversial subject since their insemination into the United States, either by right-wing organisations or by local authorities and residents. The inability to prosecute against illegal immigrants who often have committed horrific crimes has led to protests, violence, and many confrontations. Illegal immigrants have been released from sanctuary cities who have sexually exploited children, raped women and children, who are suspected of murder and violent assault, and are left to roam free to abuse other victims.

An illegal immigrant from Mexico was released by a sanctuary city back into the local community when he had a history of sexually offending minors and other women. He had been previously deported 20 times from the United States, only to be convicted finally of kidnapping, sexual assault, sodomy and several other counts against minors. He saw American girls as “easy meat” and treated young white girls with contempt.

Examples like the aforementioned are not rare in modern America, in fact they are a recurring theme that happens all too often as the next examples will show.

One illegal immigrant who had entered the United States from Honduras in 2009 had been released by the city of Philadelphia in 2014 when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers tried to apprehend him, later that year he went on to be convicted of rape of a child and unlawful sexual contact with a minor. U.S. Attorney William McSwain called the policy dangerous and said law enforcement should be doing everything in its power to protect children from predators instead of giving these child rapitsts a “free pass from the City of Philadelphia and its Department of Prisons”.

According to a Washington Post investigation, states such as Virginia have seen recent resurgence of MS-13 gang crime, and one of the ways they finance their organisation is through selling women, however these are often not “women” and in fact are groomed local vulnerable children.

Whenever there is a surge of gang related violence either in a small town or in a large city it is almost always down to the new funds generated by selling these children, and the rape and abuse that comes with it. The motto of course being “Kill, Rape, Control”.

It is worrying when looking at the Department of Homeland Security’s statistics when it examines how many MS-13 members specifically have been released back into local communities by sanctuary cities in 8 months alone.

Arizona: 1 California: 89 Illinois: 3 Louisiana: 2 Maryland: 13 Minnesota: 1 New Jersey: 2 New Mexico: 2 New York: 4 Oregon: 2 Rhode Island: 1 Texas: 11 Washington: 11

These numbers make for shocking reading, each one of these members at some point will have raped a local girl either by the very act of joining the organisation in the first place, or by part of their motto and control of the local populace. Each one released will be another potential groomer and another potential rapist against the children in the local area.

What’s more harrowing is that officials have said these numbers are “conservative” and are far lower than the real numbers that were released due to ICE not having full access to all suspects.

It is not only inaction that is causing local children to be groomed and raped by hundreds of men but active collusion. Gangs are operating with impunity and an arrogance that has seen them target children in schools, on the walks home, in local parks, on social media, and even at sports venues. It is not just gang members that are being released however, illegal immigrants are also regularly released no matter what their crime whether they are in a gang or not. Roughly 279 cities and counties refused to cooperate on at least some deportations in 2016, officials in Cook Co., Illinois (Chicago) refused to communicate with ICE at all. Riverside Regional Jail in Hopewell City, Virginia released a convicted rapist, while three men – two in Texas and one in Oregon – were released despite being convicted of indecent exposure.

Sanctuary cities are aiding and abetting child rape gangs every single day and it is just the tip of the iceberg for the overall epidemic plaguing the United States.

Censorship

As with many sensitive subjects child exploitation is no stranger to censorship and cover-ups and rarely appears in the public knowledge or news spaces. It is due to this that the true scale of the epidemic is largely unknown to the American public and partly why it continues so uncontested.

Censorship can be for several reasons, either the victim is particularly vulnerable, the perpetrators are of a certain race and community tensions will rise due to the news, or political motives. While some police forces have refused to even investigate certain reports for fear of being seen as “racist” some judges have tried to hide reports from the public too.

Censorship famously began as far back as 2005 when the FBI would censor images of the MS-13 gang on the internet, the argument was to hide the tattoos of the gangs to stop others either trying to replicate or join themselves.

An example of censorship due to not wanting to antagonise the local community due to the race of the perpetrators was when a 5 year old mentally disabled girl in Idaho’s Twin Falls was sexually assaulted by refugee boys, who not only recorded the incident on a mobile to later show one of the parents who allegedly “celebrated” the sexual assault. Three boys, ages 14, 10, and 7, were charged in the case. The older boys, brothers, were from Eritrea, an African country, while the younger boy was from Iraq. The boys were from refugee families. The details of the assault are still unclear and unknown though due to reporting restrictions being placed upon the case by 5th District Magistrate Thomas Borresen who sealed the case with a gag order and ordered the attorneys involved “to not discuss anything that was said or done.” It is alleged the boys gang raped the victim anally, orally and urinated upon her after luring her into a laundry room. What is known however is that neither of the 3 boys who plead guilty received jail time.

This particular case brought national outrage and the parents of the victim who were shown the video of the assault on their mentally disabled daughter said they were “especially disappointed with the public conduct of (The Prosecution), who over the past year advocated in the media on behalf of these three sex offenders repeatedly, rather than focus on zealous representation of the victim as was his obligation.”

It is not just judges that censor cases of refugee or illegal immigrant crimes against children, the mainstream media actively avoids the subject also. The “big three” networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC actively choose to distance themselves from cases that are of a particular nature and that may attract the “wrong crowd” and may cause their viewers to react in ways they do not want, one of these cases that caused a complete media blackout on these networks was the gang rape of a 14 year old girl in a Maryland high school bathroom allegedly by two men, one of those in the United States illegally.

The media outlets chose instead to air 11 minutes of coverage in two days to the fake 2014 claim that a University of Virginia fraternity gang raped a female student. This case combined sanctuary cities as well as censorship as it was noted that “the Maryland State House of Delegates has approved a bill to make Maryland a sanctuary state...just days after Maryland authorities charged two immigrants, one of them confirmed to be here illegally, in the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in a Rockville High School bathroom.”

Correspondent Doug McKelway advised the school district banned TV cameras from the packed PTA meeting as “[t]he red-hot controversy...lit up social media.”

McKelway also noted how the school district had shifted their focus from the rape to blaming average citizens for being outraged about how such a thing could have happened. It is this same attitude displayed by the school district that is employed by police departments all over the country that blame the victims themselves or the surrounding community instead of the immigrant grooming gangs or individual perpetrators for the gang rapes they commit against American children. This active and deliberate censorship is helping those perpetrators to continue to commit the abuses they do.