How to Help Victims of Human Trafficking

A Community Statement for the City of Tampa

The city of Tampa's proposed anti-trafficking ordinance is coming up to a second reading. As a coalition of advocates, policy analysts, lawyers, trafficking researchers, restorative justice researchers, and concerned citizens, we have sought the most restorative solution. The “bathhouse” ordinance is written from the mindset which tells us we must "rescue" them by arresting them (that may mean consensual workers and trafficking victims.) When in fact, criminalization in the sex trade only pushes the business underground, making victims of trafficking more vulnerable to abuse that they can not report without facing arrest. This gives predators a special kind of impunity, knowing they can prey on already vulnerable people without a chance of arrest.

The bathhouse ordinance threatens to impose strict regulation on workers in the spa business. Despite spa workers’ existing state licensure, the city of Tampa will require an additional permit with an unheard of 10 day appeals process. Workers will now be subject to mandatory inspections by the police, who regularly harass workers in our local spas already with no warrant. The police are not educated on how to oversee professional regulations, the department of health already does this in the spa industry. Beyond that, TPD has consistently profiled and targeted “Asian” spa workers, demonstrating their need for far more cultural sensitivity. The current profiling of spa workers of color shows that the political will for enforcement is racially motivated. Trafficking victims in this business will be put out on the streets for inability to comply, or worse, arrested. This ordinance never actually mentions human traffickers nor penalty for them. The full impact of this ordinance will be felt by workers and trafficking victims alike.

How does this help human trafficking victims? The simple answer is that it doesn't. Our official proposal to the city of Tampa, to truly address human trafficking, is immunity for victims. Less than 50% of women in the US report to the police when they've been raped. On college campuses, 47% of rape victims who didn't report state their reasoning: "that they didn't want anyone to know." According to Amnesty Inter-national, victims are more likely to come forward when their identities are protected. The criminalization of human trafficking victims has unimaginable consequences. 80% report being unable to gain employment due to their convictions and 60% report being unable to find housing. 70% of victims of sex trafficking are unable to get their criminal records expunged even after establishing their victimhood, leaving them with no other options but to remain with their trafficker or starve. Perhaps equally startling, 44% of the victims surveyed cite never seeing their trafficker arrested, and even those who were arrested are seldom arrested for trafficking. The penalties on victims are already so high, our justice system leaves them even more vulnerable to their traffickers who can exploit them 
with relative impunity.

The city's ordinance addresses none of this, in reality it will serve only to enable potential human traffickers in the area by puting vulnerable workers out of business and limiting their employment opportunity.

However, on a city level, we can provide victims a lifeline, a truly victim-centric solution: immunity from arrest when reporting crimes of coercion, sexual assault, violence, etc. This should extend to all vulnerable members of our community. We know to do this in immigration with welcoming city resolutions. While our city could actively detain undocumented people, we all know that by welcoming them we are making our city safer, kinder, and more prosperous. 

Many women know firsthand how difficult reporting crimes of sexual violence can be already. We can turn the current model upside-down by allowing victims to tell us who's victimized them, giving the city an honest opportunity to apprehend dangerous and violent predators. This restorative policy will empower victims of all types to report their atackers, knowing they do not have to put their lives, liberty, and dignity on the line to do so.

Co-signed
Restorative Justice Coalition
The Sex Worker Solidarity Network
Community Protection Coalition
Democratic Socialists of America
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Be Heard tomorrow at 9 AM
Tampa City Hall
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Awake The State In Tampa

Lykes Gaslight Park

Our Men in Black - Kent and The Rev

Jodi, Karen and Susan


Kelly


Gonzalo

Bob

Awake The State

Rally For Dreamers In Tampa

 Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse

This guy told me I wasn't allowed to take 

pics of our courthouse.

The State Of Tampa Politics: Michelle J Kenoyer

It’s a hard act to follow the wonderful, energizing, and motivating perspectives of many Tampa-area activists in the State of Tampa Politicssection. When one of the leaders at Ybor City Stogie asked me to share my own perspective on the state of Tampa politics, I was honored and, I have to admit, a bit nervous about whether I’d have anything meaningful to add. At the end of the day, I’m just one person in a bay area full of people.

I’ve lived in the Tampa Bay area for going on 15 years. I’ve seen houses, shopping centers, charter schools, and gas stations mushroom on the landscape along I-75 where cattle once grazed on acres of grassy land and all that stood between US-301 and the interstate was a stop sign or two. I’ve worked, raised two children, gone through neighborhood and workplace drama and trauma, thrown beads at Gasparilla events, danced at Skipper’s Smokehouse concerts, made friends, had fights, lost touch with people with whom I could no longer relate (or who no longer could relate to me), blown out candles on birthday cakes, loved, valued, fought, worked, ached. In short, I’m a lot like many who call Tampa Bay home.

 I wasn’t always active in political causes. I remember reacting with horror at the pictures of the war prisoners we tortured at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and threw myself into the Tampa progressive movement out of thin air. There I stayed until shortly before President Obama’s initial election, when I took a years-long hiatus to adopt our two sons and raise them. The danger of Trumpism and the glaring racism, xenophobia, and cruelty of Americans toward other Americans and immigrants fired me into action yet again—only this time, it felt different. I felt older, tired, stretched, jaundiced, judgmental, self-critical, critical of those around me, and frustrated with what I perceived was inaction, intersquabbling, indecision, and intransigence from more powerful and more moneyed forces than me—just one person. 

Now nearing fifty, I also felt the clock ticking on my own aspirations to live the life I wanted to live conflicted with the greater goal of serving our local, our state, our national, our world community. How much of myself was I really willing to give up? It was then that I realized how privileged and fortunate I am. Were it that millions of others would be so lucky as to have the time and the luxury to contemplate this uniquely First World,
 white dilemma. 

So, I fought through this inner turmoil and am still fighting it, to some degree. The tireless, selfless, and courageous activism of my fellow citizens in Tampa’s progressive community has inspired me—and humbled me. The efforts and visible struggles of the leaders around me who don’t complain about the work they do and don’t expect a pat on the back for their civic duties have forced me to get a grip, to get over my privileged hang-ups and frustrations, to be honest with my own shortcomings as an activist and as a fellow human being, and to get busy. 

To echo a community leader who recently organized a huddle of us progressives and gave us marching orders, we don’t have time to sit this one out, and we don’t have the luxury to be sick of being angry and passionate about what we believe in. We have to back our passions with work. Yes, we take a break when we need to, and we shouldn’t feel guilty for necessary self-care, but when we’re rested, we come back fighting. 

I know how hard it is. I know how exhausting and thankless it can sometimes seem. But I’ll be here for the long haul, and I’m here for you. Let’s be here, and do here, for one another. 

If you’re a progressive in Tampa, you’ll find no lack of people, organizations, candidates, issues, and resources to get involved. Many State of Tampa Politics writers have already mentioned a variety of candidates to support in this November’s election; this very blog mentions issues to work for and work towards: Fight for $15, our transportation crisis, the bathhouse ordinance, and the community of homeless people who need our help. Several Indivisible chapters have sprouted new and returning activists who work within, alongside, and outside the Democratic Party for meaningful and lasting 
progressive solutions. 

More than half a century ago, before the old lady writing this was even born, a prominent civil-rights leader once stated that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends in the direction of justice.” That arc is still long and still tilting, but it needs many of us to do the heavy lifting for the long haul—beyond the next election cycle, after the next legislation has passed or been tabled. No one person can do it all, but together, a lot of us can do quite 
a lot of good.

Michelle J Kenoyer

The Democratic "ESTABLISHMENT" Party

Yesterday local icon Susan Smith posted something on Facebook that a lot of us were surprise to see, but there it was. Join the conversation here
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Our favorite by Leon Stark

The Democratic Party has placed themselves in the thrall of "THE ESTABLISHMENT", which is a certain loser in the eyes of the "REAL DEMOCRATS". Businesses have been running BOTH Parties for a LONG TIME. We saw someone come up from (near) obscurity, tocome SO CLOSE to becoming the NOMINEE, if it were not for questionable practices by "THE ESTABLISHMENT" to stifle the message, and the primaries. 

There was "THE ANOINTED" by "THE ESTABLISHMENT", but with a long record of questions, issues, problems, tales, and innuendos, enough to fill to three full-length tractor-trailers, towed by its truck of "ESTABLISHMENT" money. But that is NOT 'THE PEOPLE'S CANDIDATE".

was, WITHOUT Main-Stream Media Attention (minutes per month, and little of it positive), was getting his message out, and filling major venues. Mostly people wondering who he was and what was his message. And he turned NO ONE AWAY!!! He put so many positive messages out, but that did not fit "THE ESTABLISHMENT" agenda.

In my recent recollection,"THE ESTABLISHMENT" Democratic operating system had done so much to DELIBERATELY LOSE elections had they put A LITTLE SUPPORT into, and did NOT so blindly support no one, or "THE ANOINTED", they would have won BIG TIME. But anything to turn people away from voting, they embraced. And in Florida, we have had eight years of a criminal masquerading as a Conservative Republican (and now a favorite of the "DICHROMATE DESPOT") as our Governor. 

All of the tricks they pulled to support "THE ANOINTED" here in Florida were used in some way in the 2016 Presidential Election cycle. This was ALL so practiced that it seemed a foregone conclusion. I knew that "THE PEOPLE'S CANDIDATE" would have no help, but the vote-rigging and questionable (maybe not illegal, but definitely somewhat "dirty") tricks did him in. (Note: I have not even mentioned any external collusion, for whether there was or not, the Democratic "ESTABLISHMENT" Party was doing fine to sabotage themselves without outside help.)

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We at this blog have been saying for a long time that Democrats are in denial, or as one of the other bloggers calls it "Head up the ass syndrome."
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I recently had a disagreement with a couple of fellow comrades who I thought were interested in the truth. Apparently they prefer the comfort of fake news. 

More from Mr. Stark
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I think too many people are having a hard time digesting the truth, when they have been so inundated with "ALTERNATIVE FACTS" (to borrow a phrase). They SEE the problem, but they are too weak, too scared, or too gullible to do anything about it. In that, there are a LOT OF US, of every color and shade, shape and fit, gender or doubts thereabout, faith or lack thereof, or other attributes that certain political entities (note the lack of Party designation) that are used to keep us from seeing the COMMONALITIES OF SITUATION, compared to "the 0.0001%" who own the Legislature, and the bulk of the medium of exchange. Were that "repatriated", and distributed, it would gain far more "marginal utility" and "utile value", and make the wealthy even richer. But the wealthy are more into power than even the needs of their own employees.     

Rick Scott The Election Year Environmentalist

More of the same from Rick Scott, a true Election Year Environmentalist. He promised that he’d request $150 million for Florida Forever each year in his second term — and we’re on Year #7 of his Administration and he’s now promising only $50 million. The Governor is most prone to act on issues like this when he’s about to see his name on the ballot, and this is no different. Delivering one-third of a promise is not a promise kept.” here

Free Peltier Rally In Tampa

2.6 - 12 PM

Sam M. Gibbons Federal Courthouse

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Kathy Castor Endorses Mariella Smith

"Mariella Smith is a champion for citizens, our neighborhoods, a healthy environment and a strong local economy. She has a deep understanding of how to move Hillsborough County forward on transportation, smart growth, the environment, and economic prosperity. She is a vigilant advocate for open and honest government and an outspoken partner on issues important to Hillsborough families. I have seen firsthand how she is not afraid to stand up to powerful special interests. I strongly endorse and support Mariella Smith for Hillsborough County Commission.”

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Mariella Smith for Hillsborough County Commission

The State Of Tampa Politics: Russell Giambrone

Right now, Tampa’s political scene is one dominated by both inefficiently, and a definite lack of direction. We have a County Board Of Supervisors that has put out a for sale sign to big pocket developers without any thought to having a well developed transportation plan. The result is that the highways are always gridlocked during rush hour with no relief in sight.

 Our mass transit system is the worst in the nation and only now during an election season does the need for change become an issue. Economic growth in our area is dependent on creating a mass transit system, that is both ecologically friendly and serves all sections of the county. We have another great example of ineffective governance in the Hillsborough County Board Of Education who are denying the teachers their contractually promised raises, while mismanagement of funds are the only thing that this Board is good at doing. 

The voters of Hillsborough County now have the opportunity to change the direction of our region. Progressive candidates are offering the voters a choice between a candidate who will govern with them in mind or re-electing politicians who represent those who are elitist and can donate to their reelection campaigns. 

Russell Giambrone 

Millionaire Who Supports Republicans Gave $175,000 To Gwen Graham

Should campaign contributions matter? Could a millionaire who supports Republicans be hijacking the Democratic primary for Governor? He has already given $175,000 to Graham.

Tamp Bay for Gillum 2018

The State Of Tampa Politics: Kevin O'Neill

I am not optimistic about 3rd party opportunities. I am thinking we are all living within many forms of capture. Those of us seeking freedom and liberty seem unable to elect like-minded candidates, ND we all experience another lost decade of status queue.

Is main Street living a good enough life? Is it reasonable for people to have to move to find freedom of liberty, or should we expect it at our doorstep, now?

Kevin O'Neill

Tampa Paparazzi

The Firehouse in Temple Terrace

Buckhorn-Carlson Feud Casts Cloud over Tampa’s Future

Greed, power, and retribution are propelling a behind-the-scenes struggle between two high-profile heavyweights that could prevent Tampa from fulfilling its potential as a top tier American city.

 That goal has proven elusive considering the present business and political climate here. With mayoral and city council elections 14 months away, the forward thinking can replace the regressive, the civic minded can replace the self-indulgent.

 If either Mayor Bob Buckhorn or public relations executive Bill Carlson is successful, the citizens of Tampa will lose. Since there’s no chance these sworn enemies will back off from their counter-productive political machinations, voters can only win by rejecting both of them
and their surrogates. 

There are three mayoral candidates who, unlike the Buckhorn and Carlson lackeys, are independent with an agenda of putting Tampa first: former County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, and City Councilmen Harry Cohen and Mike Suarez. 

The Buckhorn-Carlson feud dates back years when Buckhorn pulled public relations contracts from Tucker/Hall, Carlson’s public relations firm, in favor of his close friends Beth Leytham and Ana Cruz. Carlson didn’t take that financial hit lightly and has been 
burning ever since. 

The 2019 mayoral election is make or break for Tampa. Under two-term chief executive Buckhorn, the city regressed in race relations, infrastructure, bolstering connections with Cuba, renewable energy, attracting Millennials, and becoming a high-tech incubator. His reign was notable for self-aggrandizement, the incessant targeting of political enemies, and the awarding of lucrative contracts to close friends and financial supporters. 

Due to Buckhorn, Tampa’s image suffered badly. The mayor denied manmade climate change though he heads a city deemed one of the most vulnerable locales in the world to flooding. He supported the police targeting of people of color, then wouldn’t apologize when the U.S. Justice Department hammered the city and Police Chief Jane Castor for their discriminatory policy. He aired a long-suppressed desire to gun down journalists. His coziness with the national Republican party transformed downtown Tampa into an armed camp that was off limits to residents during the GOP convention here. 

That’s how Tampa made national headlines. Some legacy. 

Such regression would continue under Buckhorn’s stooge, Castor, who is gearing up for a mayoral run. Of the five names prominently discussed for mayor, Castor would rank a distant fourth as being an effective, progressive leader. In addition to being a divisive figure, Castor is a one-trick law enforcement pony with no hands-on experience with other governmental initiatives and programs. 

Her election would assuredly cement public relations and lobbying contracts to her longtime partner, Cruz, and continue to shut out Tucker/Hall. Buckhorn is expected to join the firm of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick as a “lobbyist” and would benefit from Castor’s ascension to mayor. 

Incredibly, if the second combatant Carlson prevails, Tampa’s fate would be far worse. Carlson’s stooge is billionaire David Straz, a Trump supporter who shows absolutely no understanding of the issues facing the city. 

Straz abhors Millennials, and has no sensitivity or knowledge about critical environmental issues. His David A. Sraz Jr. Foundation is the second largest stockholder in an offshore bank that is a haven for tax evaders, drug traffickers, and terrorist sympathizers. 

But word is that Straz is willing to spend $2 million for an image overhaul and the flooding of airwaves and mailboxes prosletyzing the fiction that he actually knows the issues. That amount of money is catnip to political operatives including Carlson and Tucker/Hall. 

Tucker/Hall promotes itself as skiled in crisis counseling. It would be more accurate to say it’s expertise rests in creating crises. Incredibly, Carlson told Tampa Bay Beat he has nothing to do with the Straz campaign. His deceit is off the charts.

 —-Tucker/Hall offices have hosted focus groups on behalf of the Straz campaign. 

—-Tucker/Hall employees flooded Straz’ meet and greet at the Italian Club five weeks sgo. They didn’t attend as individuls or families; they introduced themseleves as so-and-so “Tucker/Hall.” I stood there. 

—-It’s rumored that Straz contracted with Tucker/Hall for $100,000 with more to come if his “exploratory” committee makes his candidacy a go. Carlson told Tampa Bay Beat he “hasn’t received a penny.” The required financial report from Straz’ PAC should be enlightening as to whether Tucker/Hall’s services are fee based or in-kind. 

—-Carlson made the clumsy move of placing a Tucker/Hall shill in his Café con Tampa audience when exploratory committee chairman Yolie Capin was on the program. Although the topic was St. Petersburg-Tampa cooperation, the plant asked Capin about David Straz. Dumb. 

—-Carlson told Tampa Bay Beat that Albert A. Fox Jr., founder of the Tampa-based Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation, instigated the Straz candidacy. Carlson gave us an email address for Fox, not a telephone number. That may be because Fox has an office at Tucker/Hall. We called Tucker/Hall’s main number and Fox was listed on the voicemail directory.

 —-Carlson told us that Straz should not have admitted to supporting Trump. When does the deception stop? A proficient crisis counselor would end it immediately. 

The irony about Buckhorn and Carlson is that when they see each other, they are looking in the mirror.

By Jim Bleyer - Tampa Bay Beat

NO To The "Bathhouse Ordinance" Rally At Tampa City Hall

Tampa City Hall

Syd

Julie

Sky

Angelo

Scott and Joe

City Council check your messages.

Hear us roar?

Restorative Justice Coalition

The State Of Tampa Politics: Marcus Klebe

Reading the thoughts of so many progressive community leaders is thought provoking, humbling and inspiring. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute. Others have commented on local trends, candidates and opportunities for strategic and electoral victories in 2018 better than I could, so I will address “the State of Tampa Politics” from a few personal, hopefully useful, perspectives. 

The first is offering a practical point of comparison. My wife is from San Diego (and I lived there for several years before we moved to Tampa a few years ago). My wife has remarked on more than one occasion that Tampa *today* feels extraordinarily like San Diego did *20 years ago* growing up as a teenager. The comment caused me to look into the history of San Diego and its development, successes and failures – and there are an incredible number of parallels and takeaways.

 San Diego did revitalize its urban core, but it also failed to create anything resembling a real public transportation system; it has struggled with its relationships to professional sports teams; it features a subtropical climate tied to beaches that benefit from conventions and tourism; it touches a major military installation; it has strong links to nearby agricultural production; it struggles with overdevelopment (especially single family suburban homes) and gentrification; and it has only a handful of Fortune 100 companies. (Any of this sound familiar?) I would urge activists and experts to study this amazing “glimpse into the future” in order to produce a blueprint for Tampa that draws upon the ample lessons learned in San Diego. 

Second, we have the chance to do things differently in 2018 than we have done in the past. In politics, messaging is the game-changer. Winning requires people to buy into your position not only intellectually, but also emotionally; voters have to intuitively understand what makes your value system and choices different. In order to affect change, finding the answers is often of secondary importance to asking the right questions. Archimedes famously said: "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." What is true in physics holds true in politics… so perhaps we should be asking: What is our lever? What is the fulcrum?

 I believe the fulcrum is the progressive movement itself. If pressed for a definition of ‘progressive’ – especially a simple, workable one that can be presented as 30 second ‘elevator pitch’ – I would explain it as three basic principles: 

PROGRESSIVISM (1) While scarcity is an illusion, self-sufficiency is a myth. (2) Embrace change of societal morals as new research disconfirms the original morals. (3) Everything consenting adults agree to do is permitted. 

These principles address progressive positions on both an individual and societal level… everything from being for gun control and for gay marriage to being against rape culture and against corporate personhood/Citizens United, from environmentalism, the Fight for 15, as well as securing universal healthcare, adequate public education and vital social services. A core tenet of Progressivism is that society does not lack the means to ensure social justice, but rather the will. You shouldn’t have to pay (literally and figuratively) for the privilege of being a healthy, happy, well-adjusted person – that is our birthright. 

The simpler and starker terms by which we are able to characterize differences, the more effective our messaging becomes: Liberals believe in scarcity (there is not enough to go around); Libertarians believe in Self-sufficiency (we can go it alone); and Republicans believe in both scarcity and self-sufficiency, as well as the need to control consent and dictate social norms.

 The progressive candidate is one who empowers individuals to exchange and share resources of all kinds in a community where individuals are free to pursue their own best version of themselves.

 Not coincidentally, the current Republican war on science is a way to disrupt the very change we seek (basically, by destroying various means of public discourse/research and critical, fact-based thinking in general). We must continue to focus on doing the very research that deepens our understanding of ourselves and shapes our environment. Our progressive principles will illuminate the 

 Our progressive principles will illuminate the various goals of our political movement in 2018. However, the actual force that will move the earth, our leverage, is us. People power. The idea – no, the emotional realization – I want to leave you with, dear reader, is this: the only currency that activists have in abundance is relationships. We spend our days and weeks out there fighting for each other and for the common good, however we end up defining it personally. Our word is our bond. If we show up and stand with our friends in *their* hours of need, then we create a reservoir of goodwill that nourishes a desert. Give Freely of your Self, invest, believe, care. Listen and learn. Love.

 I cannot promise any of you victory, but I can promise you this: one day, you will find yourself in a battle that threatens to overwhelm you, and you will call for help… and the larger the reservoir we have built together, the more sisters and brothers will suddenly be beside you, behind you and in front of you. We are not alone in this fight. We have each other, and the harder we fight for our principles, the more of our fellow citizens will wake up and maybe decide to join the fight. It’s up to us to ensure that when the tsunami comes, it lifts all boats. 

Keep fighting. Marcus Klebe

Party With Mariella Smith In Ybor

January 23, 5:30 p.m.

The Italian Club

1731 E. 7th Ave. in Ybor City

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With speacial guests

 Commissioner Pat Kemp

 and  Jim Shirk

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