In Part I of this offering, we spoke globally about Human Trafficking and its various iterations. The 3 most common types of human trafficking are sex trafficking, forced labor, and debt bondage.

• Forced labor, also known as involuntary servitude, is the biggest sector of trafficking in the world, according to the U.S. Department of State.
• Debt bondage is another form of human trafficking in which an individual is forced to work in order to pay a debt.
• Sex trafficking disproportionately affects women and children and involves forced participation in commercial sex acts. In the United States, any child under the age of 18 who has been involved in a commercial sex act is considered a trafficking victim. Women and girls make up 80% of the people trafficked transnationally. Yearly, traffickers exploit 1 million children in the commercial sex trade.

Perceptions of human trafficking often involve women forced into prostitution. This is just one aspect of human trafficking. Survivors of trafficking also include men and children, and these survivors are exploited by any number of means. Victims may be forced into any of the following types of labor, among others:

• domestic servitude
• agricultural work
• manufacturing
• janitorial services
• hotel services
• construction
• health and elder care
• hair and nail salons
• prostitution
• strip club dancing

Some survivors are “mail-order” brides who believe they are going to a new country for marriage, but instead, are enslaved.  All nationalities and ethnic groups are vulnerable to human trafficking. Any given country may be a source of forced labor, a place of transit, or a destination. 

It may seem odd to those who live in the U.S., but worldwide the type of human trafficking most widely found is that of Forced Labor. While it happens in the U.S., it is rare. In third-world and poor countries, Forced Labor is far more prevalent. But as we learn the Human Trafficking world, it is important for us all to understand all 3 types.

Far more egregious than labor and debt trafficking is that of sex trafficking — primarily because traffickers disproportionately target children. 

Here at Home

I live in a community of about 300,000 in Northwest Louisiana. It on the most part is a sleepy little community. Few people notice that human trafficking — especially sex trafficking — flourishes in Shreveport/Bossier Louisiana. Why is that?

Simple: “Location.”

Interstate 49 and Interstate 20 run right through the heart of these twin cities. Add to that the proximity to Dallas/Fort Worth and this location is critical to sex traffickers. Shreveport is just 180 miles from Dallas. It’s a natural spot for sex traffickers to set up shop, using Dallas/Fort Worth as the “starting point” for their operations and using Shreveport/Bossier as a crossroads to transporting their victims east, north, and south using the 2 interstates. Of course, they can “market” their commodities right here in town — and they do. Seldom does a month go by without there being a major local bust coordinated by the FBI, DEA, and state and local authorities. It is common for there to be dozens of such arrests made public quite often. It is also not surprising that when the identities of those arrested are made public, many of the traffickers are from North Texas and from south of the Texas border.

Northwest Louisiana and the entire state are really just one example of locations sex traffickers use in the U.S. Here’s part of a recent Shreveport story regarding Louisiana’s issues:

“The public will never know their real names. Take the case of “Julie” — a nine-year-old girl in Caddo Parish (Shreveport) who was sexually abused by her father and then prostituted by her mother out of her own home. Or the case of R.V., a 14-year-old girl who was taken from her home in Florida and trafficked to New Orleans, where she was arrested, at 15 in a 2010 sting operation for prostitution. Or the most recent cases of a minor who was advertised as a prostitute online by a Baton Rouge couple who pleaded guilty in Jan. 2016 to conspiring to commit sex trafficking of a minor, or the 14-year-old girl trafficked in from Dallas to a Shreveport motel.

There’s an underground movement in Louisiana — creeping along interstates, hiding in darkened hotel rooms and operating out of homes and neighborhoods. Child sex-trafficking — selling children for money, drugs, food, rent or greed — is a growing epidemic in the state with more than 100 child victims recovered by the FBI and law enforcement in just one quarter alone.”

No U.S. City is Exempt

(New York City, June of 2019) Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers sought Friday to toss out the sex trafficking claims of an actress the disgraced movie-making mogul maintains is trying to capitalize on the legal success of other women. The lawyers filed papers in Manhattan federal court to try to persuade a judge to reject Wedil David’s trafficking claims. David’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles in 2017 and moved to New York, said Weinstein raped her in late 2015 after using the promise of a role in a television series, “Marco Polo,” to lure her to a Beverly Hills hotel.
According to the lawsuit, David met Weinstein at a 2011 party, and he offered to assist her acting career. It said he invited her to awards show parties for several years afterward.

(Greater Los Angeles, June of 2019) “Given the recent reports in our own backyard, we need to become knowledgeable about the issue and change the way we think about sex trafficking. This problem resulted in a domestic and global large-scale trafficking system that was set up in Irvine. The 2017 and 2018 victim demographic report from the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force reveals 365 sex trafficking cases within our county. These women are minors and minorities, many ridden with poverty that keeps them entrapped with limited opportunities to leave and receive support. Almost 30% of the sex trafficking victims in Orange County were female minors. The majority of these young girls were already in the legal system. These are our community members. Many of these women face poverty and discrimination. When taking a look at racial disparities, about 32% of trafficking victims identified as black and 24% as Hispanic. These numbers demonstrate the corruption that is occurring in the sexual and reproductive health of our own community.

There is a juxtaposition of wealth, safety and opportunity with the hidden dangers that our youth encounter. Young girls walk down that area of Beach Boulevard you drive by faster. They wear long sleeves to cover their bruises and other signs of abuse. They aren’t old enough to consent; they didn’t choose this life. If you pay attention you, too, will see them, but we all know them. These victims are our minors; they are our friends; they are a part of our community.”

(Upstate New York from CBS News) “The former spiritual leader of a purported upstate New York self-improvement group that’s been called a cult and a pyramid scheme has been found guilty on seven counts including sex trafficking, racketeering, and conspiracy charges. Jurors began deliberating the case against Keith Raniere Wednesday morning and announced they had reached a verdict about four hours later. They were handed the case following a trial in Brooklyn federal court that has given a disturbing inside look inside the group, NXIVM. Since early May of 2019, jurors have been hearing testimony from what prosecutors say are former “sex slaves” who spoke about the torment of being branded with Raniere’s initials — their “supreme master” who was known as “Vanguard” and revered as “the smartest man in the world” among some followers. The women said they were duped into a joining a secretive NXIVM sub-sect known as DOS under the pretenses that it was a women’s empowerment group. But, they said they were forced by other women who were their “masters” to turn over “collateral,” including nude photographs, and groomed for sex with Raniere. “

(Denton, TX, June of 2019) A six-member panel of experts on sexual exploitation, including members of law enforcement and a trafficking survivor, addressed questions from the moderator and audience in the two-hour discussion aimed at educating the community about sexual exploitation. After an opening prayer, panelists addressed what they said are widespread misconceptions about trafficking being a strictly urban problem.

“I think the biggest challenge that we run into is that lack of public knowledge where people think ‘well, it doesn’t happen here,’” said John Kochan, a special agent in Homeland Security’s sex trafficking unit. Leslie Haight, a 22-year-old Denton resident, said she was surprised to learn that trafficking is a threat to the DFW community. “I didn’t know that it was in Denton [or] that sex trafficking was as common as it is,” Haight said. “I travel a lot so in China, that’s something that’s definitely in that area, but I didn’t think that locally, it was as big of a deal.”

Here’s what the professionals who face the task of destroying sex trafficking every day must do:

What Can We Do?

Under the Trump Administration, aggressive actions have been taken to rip apart groups and jail individuals who traffic all people, but especially our babies. The FBI aggressively leads the pack on finding, taking offenders off the streets, and rescuing those children among us who simply get trapped. Here’s how the FBI does it:

Summary

Last night, 4 of our grandchildren spent the night with us, ages 13 (twin girls and 1 boy) and the youngest is a boy age 10. I had just published Part 1 of this story and certainly was deep into the preparation of this Part II. From the perspective of spending days in research of Human Trafficking and seeing its horrors close up, I could not help but feel dread for these 4 kids that are part of MY family. I cannot fathom the travesty of losing any of them, especially to the world of Human Trafficking.

As I finalized this story, I could not help but think that certainly there are Nonni’s and Poppi’s all over the world that feel the same way as I about their own grandchildren. Probably reading and hearing Parts I and II of this story scares you. If so, you’re not alone. The scariest thing, though, is the knowledge that the criminals that perpetrate these crimes are not necessarily the shady old men who drive really slow through a neighborhood, see a young child on the sidewalk, and stop and say, “Hey, little boy, want a piece of candy?” Of course, that certainly happens. But most of these villans look just like you and me, live in middle-class neighborhoods, drive middle-class cars, and are just everyday people. Because of that, it’s tough to identify them before they strike.

What do we do? Be ever watchful; never take for granted when your children (no matter what their age) run to a public restroom or go inside a store by themselves while you wait in the car. These people are watching, and waiting, and watching…

A local mother told me the story a few weeks ago that right here in my city, she went with her young child to a chain discount store. As she and her little girl pushed a basket around the store, a really conspicuous couple calmly followed them for 20 minutes or so. When she finished shopping and she and her daughter were going to their car, the young man walked up behind her and asked, “Can I help you put your groceries in your car?” It scared her, thankfully. She immediately looked to see where her daughter was. She was horrified to see the young woman that was with the young man talking to her daughter on the other side of the car. The mom sidestepped around the man to hurriedly walk over to where her daughter was listening to the young woman. Without a word, she opened the car door — the passenger side — and slipped into the front seat holding her daughter. As she did, she firmly told the young man and woman to leave them alone. It startled the couple, and without a word, they quickly walked away.

Just think how quickly and how horribly that encounter could have been if that mother had not reacted the way she did. Unfortunately, every day there are hundreds if not thousands of such interactions happening at stores and restaurants and schools and sporting events, etc. which do NOT end so well for little girls and boys.

I challenge you to download this entire story and share it with friends. All American moms and dads and young men and women need to see and read it. We take our safety for granted never thinking something like this could happen to us. But it does. And when it does, it most often is final.

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It is shocking to look into the details of the human trafficking that has been occurring for centuries, is still occurring, grows in number and severity every year, and is occurring in every country on Earth, including the United States.

A good friend of mine is in federal law enforcement. He shocked me several years ago with the details of a federal investigation that was attacking “Sex Tourism.” I had never heard of it. It involved U.S. tourists — primarily men — who make trips overseas that purportedly are for business but are not. In Costa Rica, El Salvador and other Central American countries and in Southeast Asia the Americans fly in to conduct “business.” Instead, they stay in specific hotels that have room service menus. Food is not on the menu, however, boys, girls, women and even men ARE on the menu. The American “orders” off the menu.

Because of new international laws, U.S. federal authorities can now track these American sex=fiends into those foreign countries, arrest them on the spot, and without extradition bring them straight back to the U.S. for prosecution.

Selling people has always been a hidden, dark enterprise that is perpetrated in and from every country in the World. It’s not exclusive to any one demographic. Sadly, there are sadistic people who are happy “purchasing” other humans without preferences for those of specific sexes, ages, and ethnicities.

Not all — in fact, less than half — of those caught-up in human trafficking had any idea of what was happening until it was too late. Like Rebecca Bender. Rebecca was from a good middle-class family, was a good student headed for a great university after high school graduation. And then it happened:

The Basics of Human Trafficking

We today and tomorrow will explore the human trafficking that is so rampant in the World but is blowing up in the United States. There is so much information out there for us to digest we cannot do it in one session. It is so deplorable, we cannot even get our minds around the fact that human trafficking even exists.

Worldwide human trafficking statistics for 2018

1. 51% of all victims of human trafficking are women aged 18 or older. The proportion of men being trafficked has significantly increased over the last 10 years – from 13% to 21%.
2. Around 85% of all the victims are trafficked for labor exploitation, nearly 7% for sexual exploitation and just 1% for organ removal. Women and girls are 72% more likely to be trafficked for sexual exploitation than men.
3. 28% of all human trafficking victims are children (around 20% of girls and 8% of boys).
4. 63% of all convicted of human trafficking are male, and 37% are female.
5. Around 43% of all documented cases were domestic, meaning the victim was trafficked with the national borders.
6. India, Libya, and Myanmar are considered the most dangerous countries especially for women in terms of human trafficking.

United States human trafficking statistics

1. More than 10,000 people become victims of human trafficking in the US each year;
2. Women are approximately seven times more likely to experience human trafficking than men;
3. The average age of the victims is around 15-17 years for sexual exploitation and around 20 for labor exploitation;
4. It was estimated that Hispanic and Asian people are more likely to become victims of human trafficking;
5. A marriage proposal is by far the most common type of recruitment tactics for sex slavery, whereas for the labor exploitation, the perpetrators most often just promise a good job;
6. During Super Bowls and some other large events, there is a spike in sex trafficking, which is around 5 to 20 percent;
7. California, Texas, and Florida had the most cases of human trafficking registered in 2018;
8. According to the national human trafficking statistics, Atlanta’s underground sex economy is the biggest with the yearly profit of around $250 million.

Child Trafficking

“When a child has been recruited, transported, harbored, or received and some commercial element is introduced in the production of child pornography, then that individual (by federal law) has also engaged in child trafficking. Whether they work in strip clubs or sweatshops, these boys and girls are victims of human trafficking.”

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) defines “severe forms of trafficking in persons” as: “sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age.”

“The economic reality is that human trafficking is driven by profits. If nobody paid for sex, sex trafficking would not exist.”

Where do trafficked children come from?

Child trafficking victims, whether for labor, sex or organ trafficking, come from all backgrounds, include both boys and girls. They span a wide age range from 1 to 18 years old. Sex trafficking victims up to roughly 25 years old most often started as young as 14. Children are trafficked out of, or into the United States from all regions of the world and represent a variety of different races, ethnic groups, and religions. They may be brought to the U.S. legally or smuggled in.

Trafficked children can be lured to the U.S. through the promise of school or work and promised the opportunity to send money back to their families. Children are also vulnerable to kidnappers, pimps, and professional brokers. Some children are even sold to traffickers by their families, who may or may not have an understanding of what will happen to the child. U.S. born children are also trafficked within the U.S., coming from any racial group, socio-economic background, and come from or trafficked within both city and rural areas.

The Numbers Internationally

The (UNODC) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports the percentage of child victims had risen in a 3-year span from 20 percent to 27 percent. Of every three child victims, two are girls and one is a boy.

Gender and age profile of victims detected globally: 59% Women – 14% Men – 17% Girls and 10% were Boys.

• 600,000 to 800,000 women, children and men are bought and sold across international borders every year and exploited for forced labor or commercial sex (U.S. Government);
• When internal trafficking victims are added to the estimates, the number of victims annually is in the range of 2 to 4 million
• 50% of those victims are estimated to be children;
• It is estimated that 76 % of transactions for sex with underage girls start on the Internet;
• 2 million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade (UNICEF).

The impact

• Human trafficking has surpassed the illegal sale of arms;
• Trafficking will surpass the illegal sale of drugs in the next few years;
• Drugs are used once and they are gone. Victims of child trafficking can be used and abused over and over;
• A $32 billion-a-year industry, human trafficking is on the rise and is in all 50 states (U.S. Government);
• 4.5 Million of trafficked persons are sexually exploited;
• Up to 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the international commercial sex trade every year;
• From 14,500 – 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the United States each year.
• The average life span of a victim is reported to be 7 years (found dead from attack, abuse, HIV and other STD’s, malnutrition, overdose or suicide)

In the United States, the largest group of at-risk children are runaway, thrown away, or homeless American children who use survival sex to acquire food, shelter, clothing, and other things needed to survive on America’s streets. According to the National Runaway Switchboard, 1.3 million runaway and homeless youth live on America’s streets every day. [5,000 die each year] It would not be surprising to learn that the number of children trafficked in the United States is actually much higher than 300,000.

Children are often targeted by traffickers as they are deemed easier to manipulate than adults. More money can be earned by younger girls and boys exploited in sexual exploitation, especially virgins. Pre-pubescent girls are reported to be injected with hormones to bring on puberty. Younger girls are expected to have a greater earning potential, and as such are in greater demand.

Physical and Mental Consequences of Trafficking for victims

• Child victims of human trafficking face significant problems. Often physically and sexually abused, they have distinctive medical and psychological needs that must be addressed before advancing in the formative years of adulthood.
• Child victims of exploitation can face a number of long-term health problems:
• Sleeping and eating disorders;
• Sexually transmitted diseases;
• HIV/AIDS, pelvic pain, rectal trauma and urinary difficulties from working in the sex industry;
• Drug addiction;
• Chronic back, hearing, cardiovascular or respiratory problems from endless days toiling in dangerous agriculture, sweatshop or construction conditions;
• Fear and anxiety;
• Depression, mood changes;
• Guilt and shame;
• The cultural shock from finding themselves in a strange country;
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder;
• Traumatic bonding with the trafficker.

Summary

We have barely scratched the surface in this story of just how big, far-reaching, and all-encompassing Human Trafficking is. Many saw the movie “Taken” starring Liam Neeson as a former CIA undercover agent whose daughter was kidnapped while on a trip to France with a friend. She was able to reach her father by phone just moments before the human traffickers abducted her. He made a trip to Paris, tracked down the traffickers, and was able to use his considerable CIA skills to get his daughter back just moments before she was to be spirited away into a Middle Eastern life as a slave that would have certainly ended in her death.

Real life seldom finds an ex-CIA dad able to save these children from human trafficking. And it doesn’t matter if these are young children, young adults, boys or girls, men or women, humans are being sold into slavery every day right under our noses. As you saw and heard in the story of Rebecca Bender above, there’s no “cookie-cutter” victim for traffickers. Just about anyone and everyone — especially young children, teens and young adults — are candidates.

Traffickers are professionals. They know their trade inside and out, know how to act swiftly, and know how to sway the minds of young people who most often see their worlds as only their world that exists right around them. Traffickers have learned how to influence their victims with anything at their disposal necessary to sway those trafficked into a life situation that changes them forever and that they never thought could happen to them.

Let me say this: the Trump Administration has taken demonstrative actions in President Trump’s first term — as he promised in campaigning — to take on human traffickers here in the U.S. and abroad working with foreign intelligence entities. Tens of thousands have been arrested and thousands of young people have been rescued. We’ll have more specifics including eye witness accounts in the next chapter of this drama that will play out tomorrow.

As horrifying and devastating as are these experiences, do you know what is more horrifying? The fact that you and I rarely if ever see or hear any national coverage about human trafficking. Ask yourself this question: Why is that? Is it because the victims are too young, too poor, or too unknown for the Media to spend the time and effort to give us their stories? Or is it because that same Media may have powerful people to protect by NOT telling these stories? In either case, our not seeing and hearing these heartbreaking testimonies sufficient to kick these rescues into high gear is in my opinion as big a tragedy as are those young people in the stories themselves.

Be back tomorrow and we drill deeper, uncover more facts and tell more stories, and challenge all to take a role in assisting all those in power in the U.S. and elsewhere who are taking up this cause to save our young people.

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The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. At the end of 2015, around 6.7 million individuals were under the supervision of U.S. adult correctional systems. While this number is lower than past years, prisoners in the United States still make up around 22 percent of the world’s prisoners, despite the country making up only 5 percent of the world’s population.

Why the big difference? One reason is that private prisons are big business in the United States. Although the Department of Justice has recently been in favor of reducing or eliminating dependence on prison contractors, private prisons continue to win new contracts due to the increased emphasis on incarceration that comes from initiatives like the war on drugs or the recent crackdown on undocumented immigration.

This increased emphasis on incarceration in the criminal justice system targets poor and non-white populations, creating a kind of social class structure where certain population groups are much more likely to be incarcerated. Let’s call this process “Social Stratification.”

What Is Social Stratification?

Social stratification exists in every society to some degree or another. Simply put, social stratification is the arrangement of different population groups into social tiers that create dominant and sub-dominant groups within a society. “Its basis consists of an unequal distribution of rights and privileges, duties and responsibilities, social values, social power and influences among the members of society,” according to Sociology Guide.

Within a stratified society, dominant social groups share increased advantages and privileges that sub-dominant social groups do not. This often means that sub-dominant groups experience hardship and inequality that more dominant groups do not because of their higher status on the social ladder.

Income Insecurity and Social Mobility

According to the Stanford Center on Poverty & Inequality, income inequality both contributes to and results from social inequality in many different ways.

• CEOs were paid 185 times more money than the average production worker in 2009, a disparity that has grown more pronounced over time.
• More than 750,000 Americans are homeless. African-Americans, people with disabilities and veterans make up a disproportionately high percentage of this number.
• Women earn about 80 percent of what men earn for the same job, and many of the highest-paying jobs in the United States go primarily to men.
• As of 2007, 73.1 percent of the wealth in the United States was concentrated among the top 10 percent of the population, and the bottom 60 percent held only 4.2 percent of the nation’s wealth.

These stark contrasts have increased over time, making it much more difficult for disadvantaged groups to gain ground. In 1980, the top-earning 1 percent of the U.S. population earned, on average, $428,000 per year; in 2016, that number was closer to $1.3 million. The poorest 50 percent of the population earned, on average, $16,000 per year in 1980; this hasn’t changed since then.

When combined with the cost of living, the growing economic inequality reinforces social stratification and makes increasing social and economic status extremely difficult for disadvantaged people. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, the average working family needs an annual income of $48,778 to meet its budget, which primarily consists of basic living expenses like housing, food, child care, transportation, healthcare and so on. Around 30 percent of families do not earn enough money to be above the average budget line. Of these families, the majority are made up of “young families, larger families, urban families, families headed by a non-college-educated person, and minority families,” the study found. More than 50 percent of African-American and Hispanic families fall below the budget line.

The Criminal Justice System and Social Stratification

This is where the American Criminal Justice System gets dicey. Because certain populations are forced into positions of social inequality, crime becomes more common within those populations. “Most inmates are minority men under age 40 ‘whose economic opportunities have suffered the most over the last 30 or 40 years. Incarceration in the United States is socially concentrated among very disadvantaged people,’” says U.S. News & World Report. In the United States, the people most likely to commit crimes are “people without education, jobs, housing, or hope,” U.S. News explains. This is further complicated by the fact that people from disadvantaged populations are frequently given harsher sentences than those from dominant populations for the same crimes.

Think about this: Retainers for felony crime cases start around $5,000-$10,000 but can be $25,000 or more for serious cases. Private criminal legal representation is literally out of reach and unattainable for most who fall into an average working family category or below. Because of the high cost of securing “better” or “best” legal representation in such cases, public defense is most often the only option.

Public defense is not in itself necessarily bad or of poor quality. But many who serve in this capacity are just beginning a criminal defense career or are assigned a certain percentage of indigent cases they are required to work. The volume of cases and low public defense budgets obviously water down capabilities of providing “better” or “best” defense for those charged who lack sufficient financial resources to obtain private representation.

Current examples are what occurred in Washington in the Mueller investigation of Russian collusion during the 2016 election. Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was literally forced to plead guilty to one federal charge against him because he could not afford continually mounting legal bills to continue his defense. His legal costs? Estimated $500,000.

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe although not charged in the case used a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for his almost-certain criminal defense if/when he is charged. By no means is McCabe poor are indigent. But estimates for his defense are from $500,000 to $750,000.

These are unusual examples of political and very public criminal cases either underway or pending and are not typical of what everyday Americans face in the criminal justice system. But it is not uncommon for a criminal case in which a defendant who has a criminal record and who is subsequently charged with one or more felonies to face a $100,000 defense bill if able to retain a private criminal attorney. There is very little hope for a person of average or below income to find defense other than through public defender representation.

Multiple offenders — no matter the seriousness of previous crimes — suffer disproportionately in the criminal justice system, simply because of their past brushes with the Law. Inmates and ex-convicts are themselves, a disadvantaged population. Once a person has a criminal record, it’s easy for potential employers to access that information on the internet and deny jobs because of it. This makes it difficult for those who have criminal records to find jobs that pay enough.

What Can We Do?

Correcting this social stratification effect in the criminal justice system is no easy task. Those without enough money to meet their basic needs are often likely to have inadequate healthcare, little access to quality education and limited access to jobs that pay well. Simply put, disadvantaged populations frequently don’t have access to the tools necessary to reduce or eliminate that disadvantage, and many of them become involved in the criminal justice system as a result.

Prior to President Lyndon Johnson’s term in the White House, “many federal programs had emphasized crime prevention,” according to U.S. News. Urban recreational centers, social workers and probation officers were all emphasized as ways to reduce crime. As these programs were gradually defunded, policy turned more toward incarceration, and profit-driven private prisons capitalized on that decision.

Many solutions have been proposed, and it’s possible that, with a concerted effort to correct the societal problems that contribute to social stratification, the United States can reduce its reliance on incarceration in the criminal justice system.

The “New” Crime Bill: A Good Start

Donald Trump in December of 2018 signed into law the First Step Act prison and sentencing reform bill with strong bipartisan support.

“The First Step Act will make communities SAFER and SAVE tremendous taxpayers dollars,” the president said in a statement. “It brings much-needed hope to many families during the holiday season.”

The result of coalition-building in a partisan political climate, First Step earned support from politicians as diverse as senators Kamala Harris and Ted Cruz, and from advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Fraternal Order of Police.

Trump’s strong support was largely seen as a result of the involvement of his son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner. At the signing ceremony, he thanked Kushner personally.

The act expands rehab opportunities, increases “good time”-served credits for most federal prisoners, reduces mandatory minimum sentences for a number of drug-related crimes and formally bans some correctional practices including the shackling of pregnant women.

“This bill could have died a dozen different deaths,” said Van Jones, co-founder of advocacy group #cut50, which was integral in the bill’s design. “But the broad coalition that came together to pass it refused to give up.”

Jones, a frequent outspoken critic of Trump on his CNN show, added: “Many have seen their loved ones sent to prison or were incarcerated themselves. For all of us, this fight was deeply personal.”

Early critics of the bill, such as New Jersey senator Corey Booker and the ACLU, who felt that the legislation did not go far enough, came around in large part due to major additions to the House version of the bill by the Senate, which added language on sentencing reform. The first House version only contained reforms on the way inmates are treated in prison.

In exchange, progressive reformers had to accept a number of changes to which prisoners will be eligible for benefits under the act, based on the crime for which they were convicted. The sentencing reforms were also mostly not made retroactive, meaning they do not apply to inmates already sentenced.

“The First Step Act is by no means perfect,” said Jesselyn McCurdy, deputy director of the Washington legislative office at the ACLU. “But we are in the midst of a mass incarceration crisis, and the time to act is now. We applaud the bipartisan group of senators who were willing to listen to advocates.”

Summary

On a personal note: My son was incarcerated twice in his late teens — not as one would suspect for drug offenses, but for making some crazy financial decisions. His second time, we refrained from retaining private representation for him, forcing him to use a public defender. The experience was horrifying. It almost goes without saying that his public defender had a case log that was far too large to allow effective and thorough representation for most of his clients. And most of those clients were charged with far more serious things than simple forgery as was our son.

I will never forget the day in court when my wife and I walked in for his sentencing. The judge was an old family friend and knew us and our son. We anxiously sat as several other convicted individuals stood for their sentencing. The case immediately before our son’s was that of a 3-time drug offender who had been caught with 2 pounds of heroin in his car. In Louisiana, there is a “3 strikes and your out” law that meant this convicted offender would receive a life sentence. To our surprise, the judge sentenced him to a $3000 fine and time served. (he had been in jail for 90 days) Our son who had to plead guilty to two counts of forgery (he had stolen my mother’s personal checks and cashed them with forged information on them) was sentenced to 3 years in prison! Why did the drug trafficker receive such a light sentence and our son the most severe? The drug offender was offered a deal: he would NOT serve time, this his 3rd felony would be expunged from his record if he would give investigators the names of all those who he worked for, who were REAL drug traffickers!

We feel that — certainly in Louisiana — the criminal justice system is broken.

The First Step Act is a good start on repairing a long-broken system: criminal justice. For far too long, social stratification explained above has devastated American families who are most prone to be targeted in the criminal justice system. This bill signed into law must be just the beginning. Those caught up in the “System” have for decades watched as they become victims of a process that is supposed to guarantee “equal justice under the law.” But it has been anything but that.

Where do we go next? Is there enough support to take on the fight to see The First Step Act as just the “first step” towards righting the ship of Equal Justice in America? Only time will answer those questions. But one thing is already clear: Donald Trump really is able to find consensus among opposing party members and achieve realistic objectives that really do make sense and are bi-partisan. Being able to do that in this highly charged partisan atmosphere in Washington is a miracle. But it needs to be nothing more than the “first step.” We’ll declare victory in the war on crime in the U.S. when we find ourselves researching The Tenth or Fifteenth Step Act.

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It’s on. Clearly, in the aftermath of the Friday release of Mueller’s reports of at least his partial finding against Paul Manafort and the President’s former attorney Michael Cohen, it is now clear: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has one and only one person in his sights: President Donald Trump.

Today instead of getting down in the dirt with nitty-gritty details contained in those reports and what they mean, we’ll “bullet point” details of those documents and will — in the Summary — give you our observations. Let’s get right to it:

Robert Mueller

• Mueller has now made it clear to all, his target is the President himself. Many wondered why he so viciously attacked Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort in the investigation and with the serious charges made against both that could put Manafort in jail for the rest of his life and Cohen for quite a few years. Mueller in Friday’s releases did, however, through a heavily redacted portion of the Cohen report, make it clear that he is looking for more from Cohen. The redactions of specific information could be for one thing and one thing only: Mueller did NOT want Cohen to see what the Mueller team has on him that they have not yet used. That means they still have those at their disposal to get more from Cohen to allow them to hit the bullseye: the President.
• Russian Collusion? It looks like there is “no there-there.” Although Mueller is still pressuring Manafort and Cohen for facts about Trump team members to tie the President and/or his campaign to the Russians, the fact that nothing about that was included in the reports leads me to believe he has not put anything together implicating the Trump Organization in Russian collusion. However, he left that door open.
• I would be remiss if I did not point out the obvious conflicts of interest held by Mueller in this entire case. The day before accepting appointment by President Trump to be the Special Counsel, Mueller along with Rod Rosenstein sat in the Oval Office purportedly to interview with the President for fired FBI Director James Comey’s job. But the most obvious Mueller conflicts that (according to the Special Counsel statute) disqualify him from service in any government investigative capacity are the multiple personal relationships with those either acting as witnesses or active participants in the investigation — like James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, and many others.

Rod Rosenstein

• Rosenstein drafted and sent a letter to the President and to Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommending the firing of James Comey for a multitude of infractions committed while FBI Director. There are numerous questions that Rosenstein’s actions bring to this discussion: Why would Rosenstein join Mueller to petition the President to hire Mueller? Mueller had already termed-out as FBI Director and was ineligible. And then why would he a day later appoint Mueller to serve as Special Counsel? Why hasn’t Rosenstein recused himself for conflicts he certainly holds?
• Talk about conflict of interest: Conflicts? Rosenstein — because of conflicts — should not have even appointed Mueller. Why? Rosenstein is Mueller’s boss in this entire thing. And Rosenstein previously worked for Mueller AND Comey! Rosenstein certainly should have immediately recused himself from the Deputy Attorney General post and should not have even considered the Mueller appointment because of conflict. Think of all the witnesses that the Mueller team has used in this proge. Almost all worked with or for Rosenstein at some point. And he’s the one who wrote the letter advising the President to fire Comey in which he in detail listed the reasons for Comey’s termination.
• Remember Rosenstein’s letter sent to Mueller with the terms of his role and what he should and was allowed to do as Special Counsel? It was specifically to investigate alleged collusion between the Russians and the Trump Campaign for the specific purpose to impact the results of the 2016 election for Trump’s benefit. But — with no fanfare, press release, or public notice and after Mueller launched his probe into Trump obstruction of justice — that letter from Rosenstein to Mueller was amended. The “new” version includes the phrase to include authorization for Mueller to investigate any possible illegal actions which were discovered in the collusion investigation. If court tested, much of the Mueller investigation will probably be thrown out because it was initiated BEFORE authorization from the DOJ was given. (We’ll watch that closely)

Paul Manaforte

• Manafort cut several deals with the Mueller team to get a better deal. But consistently Mueller has piled on charge after charge, stiffening Manafort’s recommended sentences for lack of cooperation and even taking action for Manafort to be held in jail without bail during this entire mess. Why is that?

  

• Mueller — even though cutting deals with Manafort — is apparently angry that Manafort has not given Mueller what he wants. There is something else Mueller is looking for, and he’s certain Manafort has it but is holding it back. That’s why Mueller has added more and more in the way of charges, trying to ratchet up pressure on the former campaign manager.
• Mueller feels strongly whatever the missing piece or pieces in the puzzle to unmask Trump wrongdoing is in the possession of Paul Manafort. Mueller still has the door open for Manafort, which means there’s something else he wants or needs and will continue to work on Manafort until he gets it from him. Stay tuned for that.
• Mueller also knows that Manafort is at the front of the line for a presidential pardon. Recently, President Trump when asked by reporters said a Manafort pardon is “still on the table.” That may have been stated by the President as a message to Manafort being dangled like an apple: a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Michael Cohen

• Ever wonder why Mueller turned over his case for prosecution of Michael Cohen to the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York? His reasoning is now crystal clear. Mueller messed up with Manafort. All of the actions the Mueller team has taken and will take against Paul Manafort have and will be made at the federal level. Cohen’s are too, but the criminal actions allegedly committed by Cohen happened in New York state and broke identical or similar New York state laws. Though state charges have not been filed, it is clear that should President Trump pardon Cohen, such a pardon would apply only to the federal crimes to which Cohen has pleaded. After such a pardon, it is likely that New York state’s attorney general would then file state charges for the infractions already admitted to by Cohen. No presidential pardon would be available regarding any state charges.
• It seems that the Mueller case against Cohen is incomplete. Yet Mueller keeps cranking on Cohen, apparently trying to obtain more evidence of Trump wrongdoing. If that was not true, why would the court categorically deny Cohen’s plea for his sentencing to include no jail time? What could that “evidence” be Mueller is looking for? In the report released on Friday, Mueller accused Cohen of being a “non-cooperative” witness, even though Cohen has provided a multitude of information to the Mueller team. What’s left that Cohen could provide? The Mueller team needs Cohen to validate their belief that President Trump aggressively pursued obstruction of justice. Think about it: the Friday report stated Cohen alleged the President not only knew about the payoff Cohen made to the two porn stars who claimed they had affairs with Donald Trump, Cohen claimed the President asked him to hide the fact that he knew. If that Cohen claim is valid, it could possibly implicate the President for obstruction of justice.
• Cohen is a liar. Mueller and his team have caught Cohen in numerous lies retracted later when confronted with facts. How will that factor into this entire case? (See details in the Summary below)

Summary

Where is this investigation going? What will be the end result? Who is “in the weeds” driving this attack on President Trump? Why hasn’t Congress stepped in to impact this charade underway at the expense of the American people?

If it is true that the Department of Justice and everyone in that department who work in the Executive Branch — one of the three branches of U.S. government authorized in the Constitution — doesn’t the Deputy Attorney General (Rod Rosenstein) and the Special Counsel (Robert Mueller) work for the DOJ and therefore work at the behest of the head of the Executive Branch? Who is the head of the Executive Branch? President Donald Trump.

If it is true that all departments in the government created by the Constitution are required to divulge details of all of their operations to the U.S. Congress, why has Congress not stepped in to control this runaway Special Counsel investigation that is full of conflicts of interest, illegal activities by employees, and multiple examples of obstruction of justice?

There is much to still be learned about what Mueller is doing and why. But it is becoming crystal clear: Mueller’s target is President Trump. But who would want to take down this President with the amazing accomplishments the nation has witnessed during just the first year plus of his administration? Economically the country is zooming forward, employment, new corporate investment, the greatest tax revenue in U.S. history even AFTER the middle class tax cuts, foreign leaders standing in line to meet with and negotiate international trade deals with our president, and the first legitimate presidential push to secure our nation’s borders to keep terrorists out and also those who want to enter the country illegally strictly for government assistance for life. How is any of that worthy to open a door for kicking Mr. Trump out of the White House?

Let’s be clear: none of this has anything to do with Donald Trump! He just happens to, unfortunately, be the guy who beat “THEIR” candidate for president — Hillary Rodham Clinton. The fact is that there really is a Deep State comprised of foreigners, American politicians, political contributors, lobbyists, and others who have created and perpetrated their operations for decades to control every aspect of American life. And President Trump is a “fly in their ointment.” He spoiled their party. They are committed to doing ANYTHING to regain the control they lost with the Trump presidency.

You see, he is independent of the special interests that have run the government for decades. He is politically obligated to no one. They are in a frenzy.

How to get rid of him? Find or create dirt sufficient to run him out of office.

They are wailing and gnashing their teeth in the realization that THERE’S NO LEGITIMATE DIRT ON PRESIDENT TRUMP! So what do they do? Create something — anything — to use to justify sending him packing.

Enter Robert Mueller.

I will not waste your time listing the people formerly in government, currently, in government, those fired or forced to retire, titans in industry and corporate giants who are implicated as part of this now front-and-center task to rid themselves of this president who refuses to become a pawn of the Deep State.

So here’s how this will all play out in coming days:

1. Mueller will probably sometime in January 2019 issue his “official” report to the Attorney General and to Congress, detailing the first part of his findings in this probe. In spite of what many have said, I believe strongly the Mueller probe will continue for some time after that. Mueller will exhaust every resource given to him by the American people in this probe — unlimited dollars — to find or create sufficient “evidence” to destroy President Trump.
2. Mueller and his team will continue to increase their pressure on Cohen and Manafort to push them to provide either actual facts against Trump or even create some. It is so ridiculous how rabid Mueller is at this point, it is believable that he can and will force Cohen and Manafort to actually create fake evidence sufficient to implicate the President, members of his campaign, but especially his family members. Mueller has already shown it matters not whose life is destroyed in his quest. He has already ruined the life of a 30-year military servant and General — Michael Flynn — who had to sell his home just to pay his legal bills. That purportedly occurred after Mueller offered Flynn an “either-or” deal, threatening action against Flynn’s son if Flynn did not plead guilty.
3. When the new House of Representatives takes control in January, Democrats then in the majority have already promised to launch a massive offensive against the White House and the President. Their goal? Impeach President Trump. They will NOT relent on that path and will settle for nothing less than driving the President out of office. They will bury the White House legal office with subpoenas for documents, other evidence, and testimony before various committees and the full House regarding matters in the Mueller probe.
4. On Friday, James Comey showed just how powerful the Deep State is by (in a classified session not open to the public) refuse to answer questions regarding his previous actions and testimony at the instructions of attorneys from the Department of Justice! Think about that: the DOJ and its attorneys work for the President yet still advised Comey to obstruct. Don’t forget: Comey has been proven to lie under oath, to commit felonies by mishandling classified information, by illegally giving classified documents to the media, and NOTHING has happened to him. That all comes because of the power of the Deep State.
5. Rod Rosenstein, James Comey, former AG’s Eric Holder, and Loretta Lynch, Mueller himself, and many others have all been implicated in the same ways. It is likely NONE will pay any price for their illegal activities. Why? Again, the Deep State.
6. What about the Clintons? Americans will be happy to know that the Jim Huber investigation (using 470 DOJ investigators that answer only to him) has started letting the subpoenas fly in the investigation of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. Thursday a bank that had been accused of laundering money for the Foundation was subpoenaed. And that is just a start. 2019 will certainly be a bad year for the Clintons as their wrongdoing will be finally front and center.

What about impeachment? Here’s how that process works: the House can file articles of impeachment. With a Democrat majority in the House, they can probably garner enough votes to take that action. The Senate would then take the evidence from the House, investigate and literally conduct a trial based on the purported wrongdoing of the President that rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” — what the Constitution requires for impeachment. The GOP actually in the 2018 election created a larger majority in the Senate. Unless something really shocking is found by Mueller, it is doubtful a two-thirds majority in the Senate would vote that the President is guilty. At that point, Democrats hope President Trump will have tired of the fight and simply resigned, or we will be approaching the 2020 election and they will be able to run Trump out of Washington.

My prediction: the House will probably impeach President Trump. The Senate will not convict him.

Then what?

Americans need to go to their knees. It’s anyone’s guess as what path Americans will choose to allow the country to go down. here’s the problem: there is a generation of 30-year-olds who came through this socialist-driven education system that have been convinced Socialism is viable, is attractive, and is necessary. My fear is that those of this generation who have been raised on the internet, who get their news via the net in soundbites and rely only on the news sources to which their educators referred them, will continue to NOT think for themselves. Instead, they rely on that news — almost 100% Leftist inspired — to make their political decisions. God help the U.S. if that happens. The only path for us is the one toward full-blown Socialism with a hint of Totalitarianism added.

The problem with that that this generation does not see: in that political scenario, Capitalism dies, entrepreneurship dies, and all those who are wealthy who are tagged to pay for all of this walk away from doing so and the nation collapses.

“That can’t happen to the United State,” you say. Well, it happened in Venezuela. It happened in Cuba. It is happening in Brazil. And it surely is happening in France.

TruthNewsNet is watching closely. Stay close: we’ll have almost daily if NOT daily updates on this. And this is the most important political process in your lifetime. Make certain you stay tuned in to hear and read the Truth.

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