Conference aims to raise awareness of human trafficking

WASILLA — In Dr. Jeff Brodsky’s world, there is no such thing as an underage prostitute.

“I don’t believe in prostitutes,” he said. “I believe that girls are prostituted. It’s never their choice. I don’t care what any police officer says to you that the girl says ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I want to be spit on and ejaculated on and pissed on.’ Girls don’t want that.”

“Every one of those girls are victims,” Brodsky added. “They’re being prostituted for the benefit of others.”

Brodsky, a perpetually bare-footed man who by his own admission somewhat resembles Santa Claus, will this weekend try to put a face on an issue known — when it is known at all — primarily through the stories of those who have escaped. Statistics can be hard to come by or verify, many authorities say, because most human trafficking is under-reported. Government and UN statistics estimate between 200,000 and 300,000 children are at risk for trafficking each year in the United States. Brodsky himself cites reports that the industry is the second-largest criminal enterprise, and the fastest growing crime, in America, in part because of its association with organized crime.

“It’s now a $36-billion industry and the gang members are seeing, ‘Wait a minute, we can make a lot more money with girl than a drug,’” he said. “If I’m a drug dealer, I buy the drug from my supplier, find a customer and make a profit off of it one time. A girl, who I can get for less than a drug, I can get a girl for free, I can rent her out 10 or 15 times a day, every day, seven days a week.

“This is a much better commodity than a drug, so that’s why it’s growing so rapidly,” Brodsky added.

Brodsky’s group — Joy International — focuses on bringing instances of human trafficking, particularly in minors, to light to local authorities. The group employs pairs of former U.S. military and law enforcement volunteers to pose as undercover customers to uncover brothels, like the “Pink Room,” a notorious Cambodian brothel where customers paid for sex with virgin children. That sometimes involves exposing the corrupt law enforcement officials protecting the operations to light, Brodsky said.

Despite the potential dangers involved in exposing entrenched criminal enterprises, group members aren’t vigilantes, Brodsky said.

“We always, always work along with local police and prosecutors,” he said. “If a child gets rescued, then someone needs to go to jail. If no one gets arrested, then you’re just perpetuating it.”

Joy International members struggle against a widespread cultural acceptance of pimping, which can appear complimentary to traffickers themselves. Amazon presently lists 11 books — Brodsky puts the number at 25 — related to “pimping” in its self-help section, including “Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game,” and books like it, in which former pimps attempt to apply their principles in the business world, for example. It should be noted that a few of the books a quick Amazon search turned up are actually academic examinations of the sex trade.

That image of the sex trafficker as a successful businessman and target for admiration clashes starkly with Brodsky’s experience and the experience of those who work for him, where traffickers manipulate young children and their parents economically or psychologically into abhorrent abuse.

“When I say children, I have rescued children as young as young as four years old in the brothels,” he said. “Just three months ago my team in Brazil rescued two girls, one seven and one eight, from a brothel.

“Up until about eight or nine years old, they usually use them for oral sex,” Brodsky added.

Brodsky will speak alongside local experts in human trafficking at a series of engagements starting today at 7 p.m., Northgate Alaska, 2991 N. Tait Dr., Wasilla. The event continues tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and concludes with a presentation at Teeland Middle School Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon.

He said the goal is to inspire people to act.

“When I stand up before a group of people, I have one goal in mind, just one,” he said. “My main thought is God, let me motivate one person today to action.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.