1
- So it's late Friday night,
and we're somewhere up
on queen Anne right now.
We followed a guy
who we've been following
for an hour and a half
on the track.
He's just been
tracing the track,
looking for girls to pick up
to buy them for sex.
He's parked over here
on this block.
So we're gonna go
confront him right now.
And we're gonna tell him,
"hey, it's not right
what you're doing.
You can't do this here
in our city."
I'm not sure
how this is gonna go.
These guys usually
don't react very well
with this type of thing.
[car horn honks]
What are you doing?
- None of your fucking business.
- Oh, it's my business now.
You made a big mistake.
You made
a big mistake.
Let's get in the car.
- He can't get out.
[tires screech]
[crash]
- Get this side.
- Hey! What do you think
you're doing, huh?
Get that.
Get their license plate.
Get their license plate.
He's up on the right.
He's up on the right.
- Is that him?
- Yep.
He saw us.
- Right there?
That's him?
- Hey, what the fuck
is your problem, dude?
- Let me tell you my problem.
- What's your fucking problem?
- LET ME TELL YOU MY PROBLEM.
[horn blares]
[indistinct arguing]
- So often
when I hear people say, glibly,
"prostitution is the oldest
profession"...
Now, look,
agriculture, fishing,
hunting is the oldest
profession,
but prostitution is not
the oldest profession.
It is really the oldest
oppression of women
on the planet.
It has always been that way,
and it will always
be that way.
- Men are the issue
that has to be addressed.
It is the demand side
that is the issue.
- I don't... I don't want
to hurt people,
but there's a part of me
inside that does.
That's the horrible thing.
Like, it's somewhere inside
that just...
Just only wants
to feed itself.
- In this country,
we pride ourselves on the fact
that we're a free country.
And in fact, our constitution
was founded upon that principle.
And yet, the sad reality is,
the irony is that we have slaves
in the United States.
- It comes as a shock to a lot
of Americans
that in their own community,
in their own cities,
that young people as young
as 12, 13, 14 years old,
boys and girls, are being
forced to sell their bodies
for the profit
of someone else.
They're brought from cities
around the United States
and they're brought
from around the world
to satisfy the appetites
of individuals
who have no compassion
or concern for the future
and life of a young person.
- The most common area
of sex trafficking that we see
is prostitution-related
activities.
- Rape and prostitution
are flip sides of the same coin,
and that is the sexual
oppression of women.
- That's slavery.
You may not see the manacles,
you may not see that somehow
that they are being
locked and keyed away,
but they are being held
against their will, intimidated,
and also being used
in a such a way
that they have no freedom
to pursue their own destiny.
- Nobody really likes
to think
that there are children
being sold for sex.
It's a very hard issue
to talk about.
It's a very hard thing
to recognize
that it might be something
that's occurring
in one's own community.
- Kids are captured
and forced into street
and Internet prostitution.
And we need to set
a new norm in our city
and in our country that
that's just a line
we are not gonna allow people
to step over.
- If we're looking at
prostitution
in Seattle, Washington,
what we're looking at
is the average girl
begins turning tricks
when she's 13 years of age.
- And we commissioned a cultural
anthropologist, Debra boyer,
who wrote a paper, a white paper
called "who pays the price?"
And she estimates there's
anywhere from 300 to 500 girls
just in the greater Seattle
metropolitan area
out at any given time involved
in the sex trade.
- We could, in a very short
period of time,
put names to 238 young people
who were involved
in prostitution.
The police tell me that
that is also an underestimate.
- We live in a culture now
where many fourth and fifth
graders talk about sexuality,
know about sexuality.
There's an indication that
by third or fourth grade,
20% have experienced oral sex.
So we live in a vastly
sexualized culture
where Parisian young women
at age 10
ARE ON VOGUE MAGAZINE,
in a display that can only...
I mean, to use the word
coquettish
is a profound misuse
of language.
It is a profoundly
sexualized world.
So we, as a world around us,
have, in some senses
of the phrase,
a certain pedophilic drift.
- What it was like growing up
was my dad was in the military.
My dad was, um, uh...
Let's see.
He was...
He had a good heart,
but when he drank,
he was a monster.
I still have nightmares
about this man
with a good heart that played
with kids and stuff like
that just contorting
into a monster.
He started sexually
doing things to me
when I was four years old.
And he was giving me a bath,
and he inserted his fingers.
And I went out
to tell my mom because,
three or four years old, you
just say everything, you know.
And he backhanded me, and my
teeth went through my lip.
And I remember picking my lip
up off my teeth
and thinking I was gonna die
because your
lip isn't supposed to be
on your teeth, you know.
But it was like a real solid
way of telling me,
"don't talk."
My mom would lock me
in my room, and so long
that I thought she forgot
that I... she had a little girl.
And I would draw pictures
of a mom and a little girl,
you know, just these little
stick figures.
Well, actually, mine
were little round snowman
kind of figures, you know.
And I would slide them
under the door
because she would
have to pass by my bedroom
to go into the bathroom.
And it was like
I couldn't write words,
so I was, like, screaming on
paper, "let me out."
On my ninth birthday,
I was really excited
because it was one of the first
times that I felt like
I was gonna be celebrated
that day.
I wasn't a kid who normally
had a lot of birthday parties,
or really any at all.
I don't think I'd had much of
anything up to that point.
But my mother told me
that she was throwing me
a birthday party.
And it was kind of a neat
experience.
It just seemed
like Disneyland to me.
Eventually, all the kids
were gone,
and my mother and my father
were just talking
to a bunch of guys.
They took me and said
there was someone
in my brother's bedroom that...
My brothers old bedroom...
That they wanted me
to meet
that had something for me.
And so I was thinking,
okay, a birthday present,
like, you know...
They led me into his room,
and just super quick
they shut the door and left.
And he just
smiled really big and...
Said, "hey, Happy Birthday.
I've got something for you."
And just started grabbing on me
and wouldn't let me go.
And...
I was crying and confused
and kept trying to push away.
And...
I just... I couldn't...
I couldn't get away.
Um...
He raped me
and then brought
the other men in,
and they took turns,
and just kept raping me.
I was seven
when my father raped me,
and then two years later,
I was nine,
and that was the first time
that I was sold for sex.
- When we talk about
sexual abuse,
the essence of it is this:
It is the misuse of another
person's helplessness
for the other person's
sexual pleasure.
So it's always,
first and foremost,
about an issue of power.
- 90-plus percent
of young people
who are in
"commercial prostitution"
have been sexually abused.
At what point are you
given a choice?
- Very few women end up,
around the world,
in what we call prostitution
without a history
of prior sexual harm.
[electronic bleep]
[electronic bleep]
- I'm going to crestview west
apartments.
Okay.
[indistinct chatter]
- So face the car?
- Yeah, face the car.
- You got any weapons on you?
- No, I don't.
- Nothing sharp, right?
- Hi, harmony,
can you let me know
of your availability today
and in-call location
in bellevue?
- Okay, are you, uh...
- But you are in a pimp
situation right now, aren't you?
Okay.
Is it violent?
How long you been
in that situation?
Three months?
You like that situation
or kind of want to get away
from it?
Okay.
So do you have a little fear
about turning on your pimp
right now?
Is that what it is?
- Yeah.
- Like he'd come after you?
- When we are talking about
sex trafficking
and sex slavery,
we are talking
about the commercial
sexual exploitation of people,
whether they are minors
or whether they are adults.
- Anyone who's forced into
prostitution is a victim.
And I believe that's most
of the people in the sex trade.
I think there are
very few volunteers.
So whether she's being
coerced into it
at the age of 24 or the age
of 14 is immaterial.
Coercion is coercion.
Rape is rape.
- So right now,
we've left the track,
which was dead, and we're now
on aurora Avenue.
We're on the 8200 block
of aurora heading north
to the city limits,
which is 145th.
We're gonna be
looking around here
for possible street prostitution
occurring.
- Here we go.
- Hello.
- Hello.
Me and my buddy here...
- Hi.
- Hi.
- We're just... what we're
trying to do is...
- Thank you
for telling me that.
- No problem.
- 'Cause I would have freaked.
- Yeah, yeah.
What we're trying to do is...
- Can we drive
and get out of here?
- Absolutely.
- Are you a cop?
- No, no, no.
What we're trying to do
is we're trying to hook up
our buddy on a bachelor party.
- Okay.
- So are you willing to...
I mean, we got a room
at the westin.
- Okay.
- Our buddy's down...
We got a bunch of guys
down there,
and we're looking for a girl.
- Okay, and...
- I... okay.
Go ahead.
- Can I see your dick?
- No, you ain't gonna
see my dick right here.
I'm not gonna show my dick
in front of my buddy here.
- Okay, well, can you show me
yours, since he's your friend?
- I'm not gonna
do that either.
- Well, cops don't show me...
Show you their dicks.
So...
- How did you get involved
in this?
- Pimp.
- Pimp?
- I ran into a pimp
when I was 12 years old.
- From where?
- From Washington.
- Where you from?
- I am from Eugene, Oregon.
I was a ward of the court
in Tacoma.
He was 34.
- He was 34,
and you were 12 years old?
- Yeah, I was 12,
and I literally
ran away from home
with my Teddy bear.
And two months later...
- Let's get out of here.
- And two months later,
I was on the street.
- "Oh, baby, oh, baby,
I love you."
- I thought
I was in love with him,
and, "baby,
you'll do anything for me,
but you just
have to talk to this guy."
I mean, at first it wasn't,
"go suck his dick."
It was, "just go talk
to this guy."
And then, "oh, man,
we can get $100 more.
That'll pay for the room
for a half a week."
And it just...
It gradually happened.
I mean, gradually, well,
it was only over like
a week and a half
before I was full fledged.
- Did he ever beat you?
- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah.
- You don't make enough money,
you get hit.
- How much were you expected
to bring in a night?
- It depended
on where we were
and if it was
a weekday or not.
$600 and up was basically
my minimum.
My body is so to where
I don't even have
any more muscle anymore.
I mean, my hips are so hard
to where it's...
I... it's time.
It's time.
I mean, I'm surprised
I'm still breathing
because my circulation is
so bad that...
I mean, how does the blood
get through when you have,
like, rocks, you know?
My fat cells are like rocks
up against each other.
It's like all cartilage now,
you know?
- And you're 33?
- And I'm 33.
And I guarantee you,
if you put
a 70-something-year-old woman's
body up against mine,
she's gonna be
in better health than I am.
- There's not a good pimp.
These guys are the best
psychologists in the community.
There's not one of them
that doesn't use coercion
to keep these kids in,
not one.
- Whether it's
their friends online
or somebody they meet
on the bus
or somebody who they meet
at the mall,
often times the victims,
the girls will refer to them
as their boyfriends.
- The psychological warfare
that they use to shape the girls
into, you know,
their working girls, is...
It's... I hate to say it, but it's
actually kind of impressive.
It's almost like you wonder if
somebody read a book somewhere.
Because they do all the right
stuff to make the girl
not only do
horrible things for them,
but fall in love with them.
- I think of these pimps,
I just... no other...
The best word to describe
them in my mind
is they're psychopaths.
It's just they have no empathy
for what these girls go through.
These girls are strictly money
for them.
- Stop the car!
Don't turn on the car!
Don't turn on the car.
- Step out, sir.
- Step out of the car.
Sheriff's office.
Pull your pants up.
Get out of the car.
- Go ahead and button up,
and then face the car.
- Okay.
- Get to the voice mail.
I'm wanna look at her pictures.
Is that her?
Yeah, that's her.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
[pop song ringtone]
- Yo!
He hung up.
He probably thought he called
the wrong number.
- [laughs] OH!
HE'LL CALL BACK.
- Hello?
Who is this?
Cat got your tongue?
He hung up.
- He's lighting them up
westbound,
heading towards the laundromat.
Northbound.
- Hey.
- What are we doing?
- He damaged his phone,
so we can't check it out.
Pretty smart, man.
Why did you tear your phone
apart?
No. Why did you tear
your phone apart?
Can you answer me?
- What did I do wrong?
- Why did you
take your phone apart?
- What did I do wrong?
- You pimping.
- No, I'm not.
- That's what you did wrong.
- No, I'm not.
- Your girl's singing
like a bird, dog.
- No, I...
- Your girl is.
So she lying on you?
- You're crazy, dude.
- I'm crazy?
Yo, it's funny how you act all
tough with these broads,
and y'all get a man
in your face,
you act like little girls.
- Yeah, you did.
You're a pimp.
I looked at all
your text messages
to the little blonde-haired
girl.
I looked at them all
from you,
telling her to get out there
and make your money.
- Oh, come on now.
- "Daddy."
I'm gonna let cps know to take
your daughters away from you
'cause I don't trust pimps
around little girls.
Yes, you are.
- I worked down on Denny way
for a couple days
and got surrounded
by all the pimps in Seattle.
And they pretty much made me
choose up.
Told me I wasn't gonna
work down there
WITHOUT PIMPING IN MY LIFE.
[chuckles]
From, like, the time I was 14
to about the time I was 17,
I pretty much bounced around
from pimp to pimp
and learned the ins and out
of the streets.
- In many ways, what a pimp
provides is a community.
A dangerous community,
but in some sense,
you create the problem,
you provide the protection.
Frankly, I think there's
a lot of insurance companies
in our world
that provide the same thing.
So the reality
of an economic structure
is we create problems,
and then we solve them.
And in many ways, a pimp
is just economically
a really bright capitalist.
- You know, how do you talk
about these men
who have kind of raised you?
You know what I mean?
In a sick fashion.
I love the man.
I... when he gets
out of prison,
I can't say if I won't
at least try
to get a hold of him
to say hello, you know.
But he was the best
and worst thing
that ever happened to me
in my life.
- For a trafficker or a pimp
in Seattle
to have three young girls
in his stable
that he controls and manages,
and have them go out
every night,
he is making about $400,000
a year in non-tax money.
Imagine if he were then
to extend to four,
to five girls,
to have multiple operations.
But it would only take
a very small operation.
It's not even a crime
right now.
It's a young pimp who says,
"I'm gonna manage
these three young girls."
So if we are going to address
sex trafficking,
we have to understand
that commitment
to that kind of money.
- He has an infinite market
to whom?
To men who are plumbers
and who are physicians
and who are judges and pastors
and the whole retinue
of people
seeking the services
of an abused woman
who has now been caught
in the trial
of being a prostituted women.
Let's just talk about
the real issue.
It's not her problem.
- And here's this cowgirl,
you know,
it's... promising
she's gonna protect me,
promising I can belong
to her family.
My family had always told me
I wasn't good enough
to belong to them,
you know.
And here's this person
telling me
that she's gonna protect me
and teach me.
And I went with her gladly.
Gladly, you know.
Relieved.
I thought I was saved.
I thought I was rescued.
Little did I know I was
gonna be in the worst hell
I'd ever been in before.
And my first sexual encounter
was a rape.
And after that, it was kind of
like anything goes.
There wasn't anything precious
to hold onto anymore.
And I told her,
"I don't want to do this."
And she beat me up real bad.
And I thought
when she beat me up,
"well, this is what people
do to me,"
'cause my dad had done
the same thing.
And I thought it was something
inside of me
that made people...
You know,
just like I was a magnet
for people's fists.
She started having men
come to the house.
The first one was a lawyer.
[clears throat]
AN OLDER MAN.
And he left $20 with her
and came to the back bedroom
to me.
And I did oral sex on him.
And one at a time.
Now it was a lawyer.
It was a policeman,
it was a judge, it was a pastor.
A pastor that she told
I was 14 years old.
She told him I was 14,
and he was like,
"praise the lord for this
14-year-old child,"
you know, while he's
having sex with me,
you know, licking my breasts
and things like that, you know.
And thanking God
that he's having sex
with a girl
he thinks is 14.
My trust was pretty low then,
pretty dim.
I was tired
of being killed inside
by my own family.
Tired of being treated
like I didn't matter.
And there was always more
of me expected
than I knew how to give.
At least with Connie,
I had directions.
I couldn't go back there.
I could not go back there
anymore.
Maybe Connie
did care about me
'cause she kept telling me
she did,
and I'd never
heard that before.
I was 14 years old
when my mom
touched me affectionately
the first time.
She walked behind me,
and I was sitting on the floor,
and I was sick.
And she patted me
on top of the head.
And I froze
because I thought,
"that's my mom's touch."
And I...
And I was afraid
if I walked
that her touch would blow away
from the top of my head.
So I took my hand,
and I wiped that touch off
and swallowed it so it
would be inside of me.
And no one could ever take it
away from me again.
[sobbing]
I was so hungry to be wanted
by somebody.
And Connie told me
she wanted me.
Somebody wanted me.
A terrible person,
but somebody.
- The village voice media
is a national company
that has a number
of subsidiary companies.
AND THOSE INCLUDE PRIN NEWSPAPERS LIKE SEATTLE WEEKLY
that are distributed
in Seattle
and supported primarily
by advertising dollars.
They're in a number
of major markets
around the country
with a print edition.
THEY ALSO HAVE AN ONLINE VERSION
OF THE SEATTLE WEEKLY.
And they also have something
called backpage.com,
which is their online
classified services.
So they have print classifieds
and online classified.
And the online
classified service
includes advertising
for escort services.
- Backpage.com charges
for posting ads online.
And I've had
a number of cases
where the juvenile
is being posted online.
She's selling her body
for sex online.
- Backpage.com is one
of the pages that I go to.
And I'll look.
We'll go down here.
And, actually,
I'll go full ads.
And we'll just go down.
We get on the Internet
all the time
and just surf the web,
and look for what appears
to be underage girls.
Now, what we'll do
is we'll contact the number,
and we'll arrange
for what we call a date.
And we'll either go to her,
or if she wants
to do an outcall,
we'll have to go and get
a room at a hotel.
Once they offer and agree
to the sex acts for money,
that's when we have enough
to arrest them
for the act of prostitution.
We'll sit them down,
we'll identify them,
find out
are they a juvenile?
Are they an adult?
Like here's a girl here.
Doesn't look like she has a lot
of hip or waist development.
She says she's 22.
- Village voice media,
THROUGH ITS SUBSIDIARY,
SEATTLE WEEKLY, SAID,
"it's not really
that big a problem."
It is a big problem.
- And, frankly, I feel
that all of this discussion
is just simply a way
to distract us
from the real problem,
which is customers.
- He's in the backseat.
- Boys will be boys.
Unfortunately, boys will be boys
at the expense of girls.
- What I dislike,
what I despise, what I loath
are these bastards who are out
there who call themselves men.
They're not men.
What?
'Cause you got a penis
and two balls?
Because you've got money
in your pocket?
Because you think that you
can do whatever you want to do
to someone's daughter?
- Sheriff's office.
- Pull your pants up, sir,
and step out.
- All right.
Put that video camera away.
- You know what?
Go ahead and put the cigar down.
You don't need that right now.
- All right.
- You want to take
the condom off
or you already got it off?
- No, no, no.
I ain't got no condom on.
- Okay.
- I ain't got no condom on.
- All right.
- All right, man.
See ya.
[handcuffs snapping]
- Come on.
- Who are the Johns?
You think it's some
little lonely creep
sitting in
a basement apartment
watching porn
and getting an erection
and going out into the night
looking for a prostitute woman.
Johns are everyday people.
I've been to John schools.
50% of the guys
have a wedding ring.
- "Just lust."
- The majority of these guys
think that,
"hey, it's my right.
I'm a guy.
I have money.
And she's a woman."
And they don't want to ask
the woman.
They don't want to know
that that woman
is there by force because
that would ruin their fun.
- Wanna step out
of your underwear?
Step out of your underwear.
- From time to time,
I might take a break
from my family,
come out here.
Might find a girl I like,
interesting.
Take her to my condo,
influence her with drinks
or money or whatever it takes
to try to get laid.
I get laid.
And then I drop them off.
I go back to my normal life.
- Do you know what you're doing
is illegal, though, do you?
- Yes, sir.
- You do understand that?
- Yes.
- It's not worth it, is it?
- No.
- It's not worth it, is it?
- No, it's not.
- Yeah.
- That's what you mean?
- Mm-hmm.
- You think these girls
want to be out here?
Let me help you
with that one.
Okay, I'll help you.
They don't.
They don't want to be out here.
- Your bad.
Oh, that was, uh...
- All right, man.
- Like I said, you're
under arrest for purposes...
Loitering for the purposes
of prostitution, okay?
You picked this gal up.
We've been watching you.
You drove all around
all these neighborhoods.
Can you tell me what purpose
you were doing that?
We were what?
Okay, why do you think
we were following you?
Where were you
giving her a ride to?
Why does it take stopping
at an atm machine
to get money just
to give her a ride?
- Don't know.
- Why'd you need money?
Oh, that money's for lunch
for tomorrow?
How much you take out?
Yeah. Yeah.
Why you have
to think about it?
I went to the atm
earlier today.
I took out 40 bucks.
How much did you just
take out of the atm?
Okay, it's none
of my business.
Well, you're gonna
go to jail.
- How many kids you got?
Enough?
Sounds kind of negative.
No, you're right,
it's your business.
But you'd think you take care
of your business.
Doesn't look like you're
taking care of business.
Do you know that
she was raped and abused
by her dad
when she was little?
And that... I mean, that just
took her to the streets.
You got a family, yeah?
Little kids?
Hey, listen, she's not
tearing your family apart.
You're tearing
your family apart.
Why don't you stop
shifting blame
and take a little ownership,
huh?
I mean, you smile now,
but just right now
in your mind,
picture your wife's face and
what she's gonna think
when she hears this.
I don't think
you'll be laughing as much.
And I don't think
you'll be blaming anybody.
- He's been called
one of the most prolific
serial killers
in American history.
Gary RIDGWAY SPENT DECADES,
THE '80s AND THE '90s,
preying on prostitutes
in king county.
- The pleasure in killing
is to... it's...
You know, be control...
To have sex with them
if I wanted afterwards.
- In 2003, ridgway admitted
killing 48 women,
and as part of a plea agreement,
helped investigators
recover their bodies
to avoid a death sentence.
- He would pick up girls
and young women
along the pacific highway.
He was a truck painter
over at kenworth.
And he would take them back
either to his house
or kill them in his truck
or take 'em to the woods
and kill them.
- Ridgway choked all of his
victims from behind,
saying, "it was more personal
and rewarding
than shooting them."
He stole their jewelry,
sometimes leaving it
in the women's restroom
where he worked,
thrilled at the idea
someone would wear it.
He often left many bodies
at one place,
so he would remember
where they were.
Sometimes he would return
to have intercourse with them,
occasionally with
his sleeping son in the car.
Ridgway denies ever being
sexually molested
or physically abused,
but he admits
having both sexual and
murderous thoughts
about his own mother.
- "I strangled Cynthia hines
to death."
Is that your statement?
- Yes, it is.
- Is it true?
- Yes.
- "I strangled opal mills
to death.
"Delores l. Williams.
I strangled Debra estes
to death."
- Yes.
- "I killed so many women,
"I have a hard time
keeping them straight.
"I wanted to kill
as many women
I thought were prostitutes
as I possibly could."
Is that true?
- Yes.
- "I picked prostitutes
because
"I thought I could kill
as many of them
as I wanted
without getting caught."
- Almost a majority
of his victims
were under the age of 18,
so as young as 15, 16, 17.
He actually said in one of his
lengthy confessions
that he preferred killing
the young ones
because they fought more
and had more life in them.
- In the fall of 2001, myself,
detective Brian Taylor,
and other members
of the precinct four
street crimes unit
conducted a John sting
here at the motel six
in seatac.
As part of that John sting,
we were able to catch
Gary ridgway,
who later was determined
to be the green river killer.
It was in rooms
like these here
and in hotels like this
along the seatac strip
where Gary ridgway
would meet his victims.
The reality is,
none of these girls know
when they take a John back
to a hotel room like this,
if they're going
to be servicing
the next Gary ridgway.
- He was creepy
from the get-go.
He was sadistic.
He cared way more about pain
than he did about sex.
Like, he obviously got aroused
by seeing people suffer.
He had a shower curtain
around my neck
at one point and
was just laughing.
Like, he was almost
giggling laughing.
And something in me
just clicked, like,
"I am getting the hell
out of here."
And I kicked him,
and I bit him, and I ran.
- Well, Connie told me
to hitchhike to Disneyland,
because I could find tricks
at the bars and stuff there.
Golfers would go there,
you know,
for golfing conventions
and that kind of stuff.
And I would just
sit in a room,
and one golfer after another
would come, you know,
put their money down,
have sex with me.
Oh, my gosh.
There was a Navy base there too.
And the Navy base guys
couldn't even do it
one at a time.
It was like four or five
on one, you know?
I didn't even know who was where
or what was what.
I just know
that I had something
in every hole I had,
you know?
But Connie was happy
'cause I made
a lot of money, you know?
- A lot of what the men want,
it really deals with
degradation, dehumanization.
It deals with disrespect.
If you really respected
this woman,
if you really felt that
she is another human being,
would you do that to her?
Would you do the kinds
of things that you
do to these young women,
to your wife?
Would you want it done
to your sister?
Would you want it done
to your daughter?
If the answers are no,
then why the hell
are you doing it?
- Right now a girl or a boy
who's brought in
off the street
originally for suspicion
of prostitution,
and then is recognized
of being a trafficking victim,
really has nowhere to go.
We're just not
providing services.
So we want to promote
the idea
that shelter
needs to be provided.
- So after contacting
these girls on the streets
over and over and over again
and having no place
to take them, except jail,
hearing some of the really
horrific stories
that they told me, I, you know,
I really wanted
to do something.
It affected me quite a bit.
So, what I want to do
is put a center together,
which will
include safe houses.
And to get these girls
off the street,
out of the life.
And then replace
that structure that's
in their life that's
been stripped from them...
Their school,
their home life, their job,
any kind of job skill
training,
all these structures
that have been...
[police radio chatter]
RIPPED AWAY FROM THEM.
The genesis project
is basically gonna
provide that structure and
replace it back to them.
And that's what the idea is.
We're pushing
to get that open.
And we're hoping
to get it open 24/7.
And then once
we get that open 24/7,
we want to go
for the safe houses.
We want to provide
a complete a-to-z
comprehensive approach
to completely help
restore these girls and
get them out of the life.
- Did you feel like
you had a choice?
- Why?
- I don't know, man.
[crying]
Thank you.
- You're crying.
You're worried about them
coming back on you
you or sending somebody
after you, right?
We work with this stuff
all the time,
every single day.
- My sister's with her too.
- Okay.
- Okay...
- And how old is your sister?
- She's 15.
- All right.
We're sitting out in front
of the Fairfield here
on the strip in seatac.
We just got a 16-year-old
in custody.
She told us that her sister's
out there too,
but claims she wasn't working,
but we know otherwise.
Brian was able to take
our 16-year-old's phone
and pretend to put in
a distress call,
and make it look like
our 16-year-old
was in some trouble here.
So hopefully,
with any luck,
the pimp
is gonna come out and
check on her welfare
and see how she's doing.
'Cause we made it sound like,
"you need to get here
right now."
And he responded
that he was coming.
So he should be here
any minute.
- Wait till... she's gonna
give us a signal
if that's the right car.
- That's it, we got it.
- Her sister's
in the passenger seat.
He's coming west
through the back part
of the other parking lot
to the left.
- Put your hands up.
- Hands up.
- Get them up!
- Hands up, right now!
- Get out of the car.
- Please step out.
- Turn around.
- Away from the car.
- Anything you say can be
used as evidence
against you in court.
- What's your name?
- You have the right,
at this time,
to an attorney
of your own choosing.
You may have him or her
present
before you say or sign anything.
- How old are you.
- 24?
- Is that your car?
- You need to tell me
what's going on.
If you're being forced
into something,
you know what I'm saying,
you need to start talking.
Yes, we can. Okay?
And we will do that.
Yes. Okay.
Come with me.
- So...
- She has a phone.
And she's been
using my phone.
- She's been using your phone?
- Yes, sir.
- With your permission.
So we can look in your phone,
right?
You wouldn't have anything
in your phone that
would be incriminating
if we take a look?
That's quite a hesitation.
Are you sure?
- I mean, it's...
- So we're on our way right now
to pick up
a 15-year-old juv...
15-year-old juvenile,
the younger sister
of the 16-year-old.
- Wait. They're talking to me
right now.
White coat, blue jeans,
like, a light blue shirt,
a little taller
than the other girl.
Oh, yeah, I got her.
- That her?
- Right here.
- I got her at the bus stop
at 225 and the highway.
Don't get out yet,
till I...
- Till you go first.
- I have your sister
under arrest right now
for prostitution.
I have the pimp and
the other girl under arrest too.
I'm here to help you,
but I can't
have you lie to me anymore,
all right?
I know why you're here.
I'm trying to help you.
We were a little concerned
about you.
Right now I really
just want to help you, okay?
My detectives
that work for me,
all we want to do
is help you,
give you different resources
and get you help, okay?
To get you away
from this situation, all right?
- So are you or have you ever
been involved in prostitution?
- Yes.
- Yes.
Uh, when did you first
start prostituting?
- Um...
Well, like,
when I first started
was when I was a teenager.
- How old?
- Um, like, 14.
When we were in Las Vegas,
I got my ass whupped, like,
really, really bad.
- By this guy
that you were given to?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- He, you know, just yelled
at me, you know.
And then he went around,
you know,
pulled me out by my hair
and said,
"you're gonna do what
the fuck I say," you know?
- Okay.
- "You listen to daddy."
"I'm daddy."
Like, that's his thing.
"I'm daddy."
- Right.
- You know. Ugh. Ugh.
And, uh...
"I'm daddy."
Then he broke down
the daddy rules, you know?
"Did you ask your daddy
questions
when you were growing up?"
And, you know,
I had to say, "no."
And, you know, he's, like,
"well, don't ask me questions.
"You know, you ask
your daddy questions,
"you're gonna get in trouble.
"You're gonna
get consequences.
You're gonna get slapped."
- Mm-hmm.
- You know?
And I'm just, like,
"okay, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, daddy,"
you know, 'cause I kept...
If I don't
call him daddy,
like, he gets mad.
- Okay.
- The only feeling that
we need
to feel is motivated to make,
like, daddy happy.
- Okay.
- That's our goal.
That's... that's what
I'm supposed to do.
- Okay.
- [stammering]
AND I TRIED. I TRIED.
I did.
- And I just want to be clear.
He doesn't have a job, right?
- No.
- Okay.
- His job is bitches.
- Right. Right. Okay.
Where do you work at?
- I don't.
- You don't have a job?
- No, sir.
- And how much money
do you have on you tonight?
- A couple hundred.
- Okay, so...
No, no, it was
more like $400, correct?
'Cause my partner counted it
in front of you.
- Yes, sir.
- Okay.
So we catch a guy
on pac highway
of high prostitution...
And I want you
to follow me here.
- I know exactly how it looks.
- Follow me.
A high prostitution area.
We catch a guy with $440
in his pocket,
and he's with
three prostitutes,
two juvenile prostitutes,
and he's the only one
that has money on him.
If you were me,
what would you be thinking?
- It's three white girls,
and I'm a black guy.
So if this white girl
is saying I'm beating her up,
then it's a high chance
I am, right?
No, I'm not saying that
it's a race thing.
I'm saying that I'm aware
of the perception.
I'm aware of the perception
of me being
the only one with money,
and them being who they are.
I'm not saying it's race.
I mean, it's reality.
And I'm just telling you,
it's not
that black and white
and simple.
[sighs]
- Sir?
- Um...
I know answering
some of these questions
is not gonna help me at all.
- You want to... you refuse
to answer that question,
'cause you know this
is the strip, the track,
the blade,
whatever you call it.
You refuse to answer
that question.
You can't come up
with the most basic,
simple answer to the most basic
simple question.
Anywhere I've ever been,
I could always
tell you why I'm there.
- Sir, so...
- And you refuse
to answer the question.
You absolutely refuse
to answer that question
'cause you don't have a good
answer for why you're up here,
an hour and a half
from oak harbor.
You can't tell me
why you came up to seatac.
But you want to try
to explain it to me,
to reason it with me.
- Sir, you told me
I had a right to...
- Simple question, dude.
- You told me I had a right
to not answer some questions,
right?
- Well, you know what?
If it's all right
with you, partner,
I think we done.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- What kind of situation
you come from at home?
What I mean, is what kind
of parents do you have?
Treat you bad?
What's going on?
- So there's nothing
to stay at home for?
- Mm-mm.
- If you could get out of it
and your sister
could get out of it tonight,
would you want to?
- I don't know if you've
been told this before,
but you don't deserve
that type of treatment.
You know that.
- No, you're right,
but it can change.
And I think...
I know you've lived
15 years on this earth,
and it doesn't
seem like
anything's gonna change.
But if you want it to change,
there are people
here in this building tonight
with you
that want to help you.
I mean, you're precious.
My heart hurts because
you didn't grow up hearing that.
You didn't grow up being told
that you're a princess
and that you've got value
and worth.
- I HAD...
[sighs]
Three children
in my stomach.
I was told it was just
a mass of tissue.
Connie told me the only good
pregnant hooker
is a dead pregnant hooker,
and that I was no good
to her pregnant.
No one would buy me
if I was pregnant.
So she took me
to the abortion clinic,
not too far
from my 20th birthday.
[clears throat]
That was my first abortion.
I had been singing
to that baby.
I was full of wonder.
I thought I wasn't alone.
It was a human being
growing inside of me.
[crying]
And they took that...
Took me in that room,
and just vacuumed it out.
And I almost bled to death
a couple of times.
I'd be out on the street,
and I'd just
start gushing blood.
They finally took me
to the hospital.
And they did a d&c.
And they wanted me
to stay overnight.
Connie wouldn't
let me stay overnight
'cause she said
they didn't have
any food at home,
and I had to go to work.
And I said,
"I can't work, you know?
The doctor doesn't even
want me out of the hospital."
And there was
so much pain down here.
And there was so much pain
in my heart.
And I wished that I had died
with that baby.
[crying]
But I had to leave the hospital
that night
and make enough money
for them to have dinner.
[electronic beep]
- West on 95th.
How far did you guys go down?
- About a half mile.
[door opens]
[engine starts]
- Police.
- Step out
and talk to me, sir.
There's not very many
of these girls out here
'cause they
want to be out here.
And the ones that
tell you that
has had horrific home lives...
Molested, abused,
and bad situations.
And you're
taking advantage of that
by engaging
in this activity.
- I'm very sorry, sir.
- You don't apologize to me.
- Yeah, I know.
- You need to apologize to her,
okay?
You need to apologize to her
'cause at what point
in her life did she say,
"I want to grow up and
be a prostitute and
suck dick in an alley
in his truck?"
- No. Never...
- You think she ever
had those dreams,
that ever been a part
of her dream?
- No, sir.
- You got an I.D.?
- It's not enough with porn.
But obviously, it's just
feeling the touch
of someone else.
- When you look
at this whole thing,
prostitution is the main act.
And porn, for these men,
is the dress rehearsal.
They see it,
and then they go,
and they act it out.
- AND MY MOM ALWAYS SAID,
"NEVER LOOK AT PLAYBOY."
SO I WAS LIKE, "OKAY,"
SO I TYPED IN "PLAYBOY".
And after that,
I got into a lot of...
Just so self-indulgent
that you just
go from one thing
to another
and just go all the way,
you know.
Like when it's Thanksgiving,
you just
eat as much as you can
until it hurts.
- At first,
maybe they get turned on,
or maybe even
they get disgusted first.
But then they look again,
and then they look again,
and they go, "hmm.
I'd like to maybe try that."
And that's what
sets them into
going down the path
of a John.
- You can only look at porn
for so long, you know.
It gets boring.
And you need to have
something else.
You need to experience
what they're experiencing.
- Porn drives demand
for trafficking.
It's a form of advertising
for prostitution.
And we have more porn,
you got more people
who are consuming it,
you're gonna
be demanding more women
being trafficked and
prostituted in a society.
- Well, my name
is Donny pauling.
And I went by the name
Donovan Phillips
when I was in the porn world.
And I was in that world
as a producer for nine years.
And in that amount of time,
I went from
being a producer
for one amateur site
to the place where
I owned my network of sites
that had 12,000,000 visitors
a month coming to it.
And there was more
than 500 first-timers
that I recruited
in my career.
- These guys
are pretty slick now.
They actually
go to the malls,
they actually
go to the movie theaters,
underage dance clubs,
and they hand out
business cards, saying
they're a modeling agency.
- You know, what do you do?
You walk up and say,
"you want
to model for porn?"
No, I was...
I came up with a story
almost instantly in my head.
I was really good
at manipulating people
and deceiving them,
including my wife
who didn't know what
I was doing for three years.
But for this girl,
I walked up to her and...
"Is your name..."
You know, I'll say Carrie.
"Is your name Carrie?"
"No, I'm not Carrie."
"All right. I'm looking
for a girl named Carrie."
And then I walked away,
and I'm, like,
looking around like
I'm looking for someone.
And, you know,
let a few minutes pass.
And then go back and sit down
by her and say,
"man, that sucks.
I was gonna pay her $500 today."
"Really?"
"Yeah, yeah. I was gonna
do this photo..."
You know, I acted
all nonchalant.
And, you know,
30 minutes later,
she was in front
of my cameras.
- It's akin
to the grooming process
that you see
in prostitution.
To lure in, to groom,
and then there's
a breaking process
that occurs
where their will
is just broken.
And, you know, the same thing
happens in the porn industry.
- The pornography worked
in a couple different ways.
Part of it was
they were filming me alone,
or they would film me
with guys or groups
or whoever,
and just hold that
as one of the reasons
why I couldn't run,
or one of the reasons
why nobody would believe me.
'Cause they were saying,
"you know, you can't leave.
"You're a whore
who has herself on film.
You know, no one's gonna believe
that you're a victim here."
So that was a piece
that I've been scared of,
and I know will follow
me the rest of my life.
You know, I've had people
walk up to me
in public places and say,
"hey, I saw your film."
- Trafficking victims
are used in the production
of porn.
Across the globe,
women who are being forced
into the sex industry,
they're being filmed.
I mean, it's just natural.
Porn and prostitution
go together.
You go to any
red light district,
you go to Vegas, you got porn
all over the place,
you get prostitution
all over the place.
- When did you buy
the first girl, first woman?
- I probably was 18, 19
when I went down
to the bunny ranch.
- Oh, you went down
to the Vegas... in Vegas?
- Yeah. So it was legal. So...
But yeah, obviously,
it's illegal here.
So I wish I was there now
'cause obviously,
I wouldn't
be in trouble now,
and I wouldn't be talking
with you guys.
- Yeah, but if you hear
what you just said,
you wished you'd be there.
The girls there abused,
exploited
from a young age too.
I don't care
if it's legal or not.
It doesn't make it right
'cause it's legal.
- I understand that,
but I wouldn't be
in this predicament
right now if I was there.
- No, but listen,
you are in this predicament now
because you were there.
You know what I'm saying?
- Yeah.
- Get your fix
at 18 years old
and think,
"okay, I'm a young guy.
"I put enough money down,
I can do whatever I want
to a woman."
You see how that's
a little bit twisted?
- This isn't even about sex.
I mean, porn is not about sex.
It's about a very specific type
of sex, commercial sex,
which is inherently
exploitative.
Porn production itself
is a form
of sex trafficking.
Under U.S. federal law,
the trafficking
victims protection act,
sex trafficking
is defined
as the recruitment,
the provision,
the solicitation,
the transportation of a person
for a commercial sex act.
That's a day-in and day-out life
of a porn producer.
- We don't think about that
when we're looking at porn.
We just see this fantasy.
Those faces and those
expressions and those noises
that the girls are making
are 100% fake.
- It's an act.
It's totally an act.
Like, you learn when
to moan
and when to sigh
and 'cause if I could make
a guy's experience
almost more pleasurable,
I'd be out of there faster,
and it probably wouldn't be
as violent.
- When a society demands
more porn,
it's demanding
more prostituted women.
It's demanding
more exploited women.
It's demanding more women
being turned into objects
and commodities.
- I would not want to live
frickin' 50 years in this,
you know,
wasteland of used people
and degrading yourself
and degrading others.
And the only point being...
And the only high point
is finding
a really good blowjob.
Like that's your life?
That's like...
It's so meaningless.
- I sold my family out
for $1/2 million a year.
How cheap
are you selling yours out?
A couple images,
some video clips?
It's not worth it.
- You're under arrest
for commercial sex abuse
of a minor.
[handcuffs click]
Let's go back here.
- If a daughter isn't feeling
loved by her father,
she's very vulnerable to find
that love in other places,
either through a boyfriend,
a pimp, older men.
And that may not be the love
that she wants or needs,
but it is attention,
and it is validation of sorts.
It's the kind of attention
and validation and love
that she's not getting
at home.
And it leaves her vulnerable
to the prey of a pimp.
- Most teenage girls
are asking two questions...
"Do I matter?"
And "do I have value?"
And they're getting answers
to those questions
from a lot of places.
From their friends,
from school, from the media.
And most of the time,
those answers
that they're getting
are not true.
They don't speak of the value
of a person
and of the purpose
of a person.
And so these girls need
to hear
from their parents
that they do matter,
that they do have value,
that their life is significant.
- Unfortunately, there is still
a tremendously strong link
between a woman's value
in our society
and her sense of sexuality.
Young girls are seeing thousands
of messages every day
from a variety of sources
that directly tell her
her value and worth
in the world
is connected to her body.
- When we focus too much
on the outside,
on the physical appearance,
"are you pretty?
Are you beautiful?"
Then they miss out
on hearing
about their significance,
on their value.
They miss out on
the message that says,
"you can be part of
something bigger than yourself."
- Should a father,
should a mother delight
in a child's precocious beauty
and her playfulness
and innocence?
Absolutely yes.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
But if beauty
is the only thing
you're drawing attention to,
you're really doing
gender violence.
Do you tell your beautiful
two-year-old son
that he's beautiful?
I hope so.
I hope, in many ways,
as often.
But why do you
then talk about,
"oh, you are so strong."
Say that to your daughter?
"You are so bright.
You know, you are so funny."
In other words, our task
is not to create,
but one window of honoring
the glory
of being made
in the image of God.
The facets of
a child's ongoing growth
of goodness and beauty
now needs to be heard
as not merely physical,
but a kind of beauty
that has to do with,
"I love the way
you fight with me.
"You are really articulate
seven-year-old.
"In fact, I got a point
a moment or two ago
"when I wasn't quite sure
what to do with you.
"You are really bright.
"Now, you're also gonna
go to your room.
"So you're not gonna get
more ice cream.
But I love the way
you argued for that."
- A girl who was raised
by a loving father
and an attentive mother
who are modeling
a healthy relationship
is much less likely
to be at risk
for a pimp's manipulations
and caught in
the trap of prostitution.
- You can't help but look
at a girl that's that age
when you have a girl
that age
and think
of a stark difference.
It's like, "oh, let's see.
I know where my daughter
is right now," you know.
And you think about the things
your daughter does,
a typical 15-year-old.
Oh, she's involved
in softball
and glee club and whatever,
drama after school.
And then you come out here
and go to work
and see a girl whose life
is the street, and that's it.
- I think it was just
like last year or something
I saw "sleeping beauty"
for the first time.
It was like I don't...
You know,
I felt like I lived
under a rock.
But at the same time,
I had to be
so much more mature than
the age I really was.
And so it was almost as if
I went from
8 years old
and I skipped all the way to 25.
And I missed my childhood.
Yeah, I feel robbed.
- Do you think
she wants some dude,
some gross dude
slobbering on her,
shoving his little thing
in her mouth?
You think she enjoys that?
- That's pretty much...
You know what?
- Let me answer
the question for you.
Okay?
Girls like this that are
on the streets
have been raped at the age
of 9, 10, 11, 12 years old,
put on the streets.
No girl grows up saying,
"hey, I want some guy
to slobber on me
and shove his crap
into my mouth."
No little girl grows up
wanting to do that.
I don't know if you have
a sister, a mom...
A daughter, whatever.
You imagine if that...
No, no, no.
Look at me
when I'm talking to you.
You imagine your mom
or your sister
going on the streets,
having a bunch
of slobbering dudes like you
shoving stuff in their mouth,
you'd be cool with that?
I'll be straight up with you,
man to man, okay?
If that was my sister
and my mom, my wife,
I'd kill you.
- That ain't just
some piece of meat.
It's a human being.
- I get angry sometimes
'cause I feel so robbed.
I can see inside my heart.
There's a good person
in there.
I have so much
I want to give.
- Like, no girl wants
to have sex with some guy
that they hate or can't stand
or is grossed out by
or has to vomit later
because it's so disgusting.
Or has the stench of a man
stuck on her fingers and
her body for hours afterwards
to where you can check out
mentally,
but you have to continue
to smell it,
and so you're stuck.
There's nothing about that
that I enjoyed.
- I'll lose, like,
20, 30 pounds,
and I'm literally terrified
something will happen.
Like, a guy will smile at me,
just probably being nice.
But to me,
it's like a trigger,
going back to, um...
"Oh, my God,
he finds me attractive."
You know.
And then I find myself
just eating chocolate
and all that kind of stuff,
so I can get
that weight back.
And I don't want
to be unhealthy.
And I don't want to be ugly.
But ugly is safe.
Ugly is so safe.
I'm not afraid
of being raped anymore
because I'm ugly.
I'm just safe.
I am so safe.
I guess I have to say it
over and over again
because deep down inside
I don't even believe that.
They're talking about
their kids in school,
they're talking
about their fun college years.
They're talking about
dates they had.
What am I gonna talk about?
My children are dead.
I never went on a date.
Never got married.
I'm so strange.
I'm so strange to everybody.
- This is kind of
a historic...
I think it's a historic night.
IT'S THE OPENING.
[cheers and applause]
Awesome.
We have our staff,
and our volunteer staff
is gonna be here tonight.
And what we're hoping to do
is find a girl
that is a good candidate.
A good candidate meaning
they're ready
to get out of the life,
they're willing to take
that first step.
And we're gonna bring them
back here.
And hopefully,
we'll bring in
the first girl tonight.
- You're precious.
My heart hurts because
you didn't grow up hearing that.
- Tonight was
the grand opening
of the genesis project
drop-in center.
And so they finally, after
eight years of doing this
and two years of...
In the making,
had a place to go,
other than
back on the streets.
So right now,
we're at the genesis project.
They just got checked in.
And they're gonna be here,
taken care of
by the volunteers
and the staff here.
They're gonna
have food, clothing.
They can have a bed
if they want to sleep.
They're gonna
get some counseling.
They're gonna get resources
given to them.
The pimp's in jail.
We got them out of the life.
- They're so vulnerable.
And you know,
I look at their age.
At 15, I think,
wow, they should be thinking
about the prom
or you know, thinking
about their driver's license
or their first job.
And that's not even close
to what they're thinking.
They're just... there's no hope.
- Finding out that girls
have been going missing,
I'm just really glad that
it wasn't me, you know.
- As much as this night
has sucked,
can you kind of see that
it's a blessing in disguise
- that you kind of got...
- Mm-hmm.
- Found, captured,
whatever, arrested?
- Mm-hmm.
- Now you're
in the genesis project.
- Yeah.
I'm... thank you.
I'm thankful
for everybody here.
- You're gonna raise
some little girl some day
the way that
she should be raised
because you didn't have it
growing up.
Know what I mean?
- Mm-hmm.
- And tonight, you can be
a support for your sister,
and she can be
a support for you.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause you're a princess.
Remember we talked about that?
- Hmm. Yeah.
Where's my crown?
- I'm gonna get... you need
a crown.
- I need a crown.
- Next time I see you,
I'm bringing you a crown.
You need to know that,
that you're a princess.
Because you have a lot of
purpose and a lot of value.
- I WANT TO SEE GPS
ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES.
We need safe places here
for these girls.
And we need to look at them
as victims.
- And it's just amazing to be
able to see you at this place
when we've seen
so many other women
WHO WERE IN THEIR MID 40s
WHO HAVE BEEN IN THIS
since they were 15.
You're gonna live a much
different life than them.
- And I know it's not as
comfortable as your other home,
but there's
some amazing women here
that have stayed up
all night
waiting for the first girls
to come in,
just to be here.
So there's amazing women
in this place
that want to befriend
you guys
and have a relationship
with you guys.
So give them a chance, okay?
All right.
- Thanks.
- Well, we love you.
- Thank you.
- Have a good night.
- I love you too.
- Good luck.
- So you'd be interested
in some resources.
It's called genesis project.
We take all this time with you
because we do care
about what happened
to you out here.
I'd like to introduce you
to some really nice ladies,
and then they can help get
things going for you.
- Sentencing range as
to promoting
commercial sexual abuse
of a minor,
the court will impose
240 months.
Count two,
promoting prostitution
in the second degree,
the court will impose
51 months.
Arrest count five,
promoting prostitution
in the first degree,
the court will impose
108 months.
Count seven, crime of rape
in the first degree,
the court will impose
a term of 93 months.
- The way I got out was...
I mean,
I tried several times,
but I guess the way
I finally got out was
I finally prayed.
I prayed,
"if my dog is outside,
I'll know it's safe
to leave."
And I drove by the house,
she was outside.
I'm like,
"was that you, God?
'Cause you don't
just drive away
from these people, you know."
And my dog had been hit
by a car earlier
and was terrified
to get in cars.
So I said another prayer.
"If she'll get in the car,
then I'll leave."
So I drove by,
I opened up the car,
she jumped in without me
calling for her or anything.
And I left.
And I left with
only my dog.
I had made Connie over
$1,000,000.
And I left with my dog,
a torn pair of jeans,
and a blue and white striped
t-shirt.
I came all the way out
to Washington from Florida,
the farthest away I could go,
the farthest away
I could drive
my old red mustang
with my dog in it.
- So that
I'm out of the life
and now that I'm in kind
of a journey of healing
and in a good community,
I've gotten the incredible
honor to be involved
in a couple anti-trafficking
organizations.
I've gotten a chance
to volunteer,
even with anti-trafficking
in foreign countries.
I get to participate
in events
and speak for other
organizations
and bring awareness
to what actually goes on.
I just finished
my master's degree.
I'm really excited to continue
to work in this movement.
I'm in this
for the rest of my life.
I survived.
I'm here.
I don't want any other girl
to go through
what I had to go through.
- Decent men,
decent men who do not buy
people,
who do not buy sex
have to come forward.
Decent men can
no longer be silent.
They can no longer
be bystanders.
- Men are the largest drivers
of demand
of sex trafficking
around the world today.
And we need men who will stand
up and say that,
"I don't stand for that."
- Men have to challenge each
other and say,
"enough with this porn.
Enough with this prostitution."
And start talking about
what it is to be a real man.
- There is a girl out there
somewhere who is begging
that you will see and read
between the lines
of what she's saying
or not saying.
And her survival depends
on you
asking her
the right question.
- When you see a girl out there,
don't judge her.
Don't judge her...
'Cause probably
nine times out of ten,
she doesn't want
to be there.
I didn't want to be there.
I didn't have any strings
holding me
that you could see,
but I was pinned down more
than you can imagine.
Standing out there alone
on the street...
Yeah, I was pinned down.
I was trapped.
I was a prisoner.
I looked like I was free
to come and go,
but I was not free.
When you see those girls,
don't you judge them.
You do everything
you can to help them.
- A light inside
I finally find
I've become
I've become
like you
make
your shadow
dark as the height
of noon
wake
and see
the morning
makes all things new